The Core

>paperwork

I have the original bill from the hospital for my birth in 1959.  I've had restaurant checks longer.  It's on a piece of paper the size of a half sheet of paper.  About maybe 7 lines: room and board x days (no line items for $50 box of Kleenex), birthing room, etc. They kept new mothers and spawn in the hospital longer back in those days. Total around $3,000ish which was quite a sum back in those days.  Dad was self employed professional so we had no health insurance, cash pay. Doctor billed separately, he was our local GP, no specialists back then.  No Fathers in the delivery room, they were pacing the floors in the waiting room, smoking.

Today, that bill would be the size of a book.

But paperwork does not come just from the government, insurance companies demand paperwork and audit trails too.  Computers and photocopiers spawn paper and line items and tracking.  Hospitals track inventory.  If you had to type up everything by typewriter with carbon copies you would learn how to summarize darn quick.  National wealth also generates paperwork and jobs for shufflers because in times of plenty we can afford it, when times get lean we start complaining.

Methinks that someone is dishing out phony numbers.

How is Canada able to provide pretty good universal coverage for so much less than those projections?

Our family has always had competent care when we needed it. Our needs over the years have ranged from travel vaccinations to, among other things, childbirths, kidney stones, fractures and miscellaneous infections to a grandchild nearly having part of her finger amputated in an accident. She got expert care, the finger was saved and now she sometimes wins piano classes in the local music festival. I had to pay for my own travel vaccinations but the other care mentioned did not result in bills for our family.

Our system isn't perfect, but we're clearly doing something right compared to the US. Tthe average life expectancy of Canadians is three years longer than their American counterparts. Specifically, women in Canada live an average of 83 years, compared to 80 in the US; men live more than 78 years on average compared to 75 in the US. Source: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/why-canadians-outlive-americans-and-why-we-shouldnt-be-so-satisfied/article16147153/

This is so even though our medical costs constitute roughly a one-third smaller percentage of our GDP. Source: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.TOTL.ZS As mentioned earlier, one reason for the difference is that a better percentage of what we pay goes to actual care.

The average Canadian doesn't need to fear being bankrupted by medical bills. A Canadian who leaves or loses his/her job doesn't lose medical coverage along with it. The fact that our coverage doesn't depend on our job gives us more freedom to, among other things, look for a different position, go for more schooling, start their own business or bow out of the paid workforce to care for small children, than an American whose medical coverage is tied to their employment status. On the other side of the coin, businesses have fewer administrative costs, and in some cases will feel more flexibility to lay off employees if business requires it. (They know that Joe the pipefitter's daughter's disease will still get care regardless of Joe's job status.) The fact there's no incentive to delay getting help for problems can sometimes mean that big expenses are headed off. Those factors all have positive effects for our economy at large, and even more important, for the general well-being of our people.

What better investment could a country make than the health of its people?

As California liberals go, the Democratic Party often follows. So it’s instructive, if not surprising, that Golden State Democrats are responding to the failure of ObamaCare by embracing single-payer health care. This proves the truism that the liberal solution to every government failure is always more government.

Many on the left championed single-payer in lieu of ObamaCare’s regulations and subsidies, but in 2010 it lacked enough support among Democrats in Congress. But with premiums soaring and insurers fleeing the Affordable Care Act exchanges, progressives are now trying to pivot to achieve their longtime dream.
California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, the frontrunner to succeed Jerry Brown as Governor next year, is running on single-payer, which shows the idea is going mainstream. At the state Democratic convention last weekend, protesters shouted down speakers who dared to ask about paying for it. The state Senate Appropriations Committee passed a single-payer bill this week, and it has a fair chance of getting to Mr. Brown’s desk.
The bill reflects the left’s Platonic ideal, with the promise of free care for everyone for everything. Patients would be entitled to an essentially unlimited list of benefits including acupuncture and chiropractic care as well as “all medical care determined to be medically appropriate by the member’s health care provider.” They could see any specialist without a referral. Co-pays and deductibles and charging premiums would be prohibited.
There would thus be no restraint on health-care utilization and costs. Patients could get treated for virtually any malady by any physician at no cost. This is probably what kids educated at California’s pre-eminent universities envision when politicians and professors promote single-payer: an efficient, free, munificent socialist paradise.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

“How do we possibly pay for this thing?” asked Sen. Tom Berryhill, R-Oakdale.

(with 19 percent unsure)

I'm planning to wait & see what happens in Calif.

I had a similar conversation, but it went like this:

Friend (ex Marine): Government-funded healthcare would be a terrible thing for the country.
Me: Well, didn't you get govt. healthcare and the VA?
Friend: That's how I know.