Dear Ger,
It is surprisingly hard for me to punch (significant) holes in the author's argument that two "simple" changes can reduce U.S. healthcare costs by 75%.
U.S. Can Slash Healthcare Costs 75% With 2 Fundamental Changes And Without "Medicare For All"
Clearly, there are many well-established medical constituencies to contend with if the author's two proposals were enacted.
It is also true that nearly all humans prefer to avoid fundamental upheaval, especially folks who are already on "the gravy train," including 1,100,000 American physicians.
I can hear the moaning already... and I am not sympathetic.
As a lifelong educator, I have been accustomed to getting a very modest fraction of the recompense physicians get. And so, I am at least tone-deaf to the groans I already hear. (For the record, I -- a life-long educator -- taught in public schools, full-time, from 1989 through 1996 and, even with a masters degree in biological science, my final year's salary was a paltry $26,500.00.)
Anyhow, knowing that you study medical economics all over the world, I look forward to your thoughts.
If nothing else, I find it quite remarkable that political will alone can reduce America's healthcare costs so precipitously.
It must also be said that physicians' salaries are a drop in the bucket compared to "Sackler-style" profiteering by the Cowboy Capitalists who have always ruled the roost, and now, as the sun sets on American hegemony, they have finally chucked their plutocratic disguises to put "one of their own" -- ah, such a fine specimen! -- at the top of the political pyramid.
Strong work ________! (Insert expletive of choice.)
Pax et amore
Alan
"Paul's Epistle to The Republicconians"
"What Should Donald Trump Really Be Impeached For?" Amitai Etzioni In "The National Interest"
"This Is No Ordinary Impeachment" By Andrew Sullivan, New York Magazine
https://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2019/11/this-is-no-ordinary-impeachment-by.html
"Are Democrats Building A Collapsible Impeachment?" Is It Deliberately Designed To Collapse?!?
https://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2019/11/are-democrats-building-collapsible.html
Republicans Generally - And Trump Specifically - Are Eager To Lie And Cheat If It Expands Their Power
https://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2019/10/republicans-generally-and-trump.html
Trump Tells The Truth: "I Lie."
https://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2019/07/lies-lies-lies-lies-trump-mendacity.html
"Trumpistas Don't Just Lie. They Are Hostile To Truth"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2018/10/lies-lies-lies-lies-compendium-of-pax.html
The Hard, Central Truth Of Contemporary Conservatism
The hard, central "fact" of contemporary "conservatism" is its insistence on a socio-economic threshold above which people deserve government assistance, and below which people deserve to die.
The sooner the better.
Unless conservatives are showing n'er-do-wells The Door of Doom, they just don't "feel right."
To allay this chthonic anxiety, they resort to Human Sacrifice, hoping that spilled blood will placate "the angry gods," including the one they've made of themselves. http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/09/harvard-study-45000-americans-die.html
Having poked their own eyes out, they fail to see that self-generated wrath creates "the gods" who hold them thrall.
The Evangelical Persecution Complex(Projection's Finest Hour)
Almost "to a man," contemporary "conservatives" have apotheosized themselves and now -- sitting on God's usurped throne -- are rabid to pass Final Judgment.
Self-proclaimed Christians, eager to thrust "the undeserving" through The Gates of Hell, are the very people most likely to cross its threshold.
Remarkably, although they are prone to believe all manner of Trumpeted nonsense, none of them are tempted to believe in their own spiritual peril.
The Pharisees Are Always With Us.
Here's What They "Look Like" Today
Brutalism: The Real Face Of The NRA
But never mind.
If you can rationalize Trump, you can rationalize anything.