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0 pointseli15y ago0 comments

So is the implication that the state has grown much more wasteful in its spending over the last few decades?

If you've got a plan for providing the level of services from the 60s without raising taxes, I'd love to see the details. (Consider pension and healthcare costs now versus then, even accounting for inflation)

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8 comments · 2 top-level

elai15y ago· 4 in thread

Repair the bugs in the american health care system? Americans spend more per capita yet get worse services.

uxp15y ago

I'm pretty sure that's working as intended. Might be better off loosening restrictions on how health care providers operate so they can work it out themselves.

On a more serious note, there isn't one solution. There are hundreds of thousands of ways to spend less and bring more money in. It took this country, and that state, a few decades to get into that mess. It will probably take just as long to get back to the prosperity the 40's and 50's were known for.

yummyfajitas15y ago

Do you have evidence for worse services?

(E.g., something like higher post-diagnosis death rates for statistically comparable people?)

elai15y ago

They often just get refused service, even after paying way more.

protomyth15y ago

Sadly, the US Gov is going to make it worse. Go look at the budget for Indian Health Service versus the number of people served, then expand that to cover all Americans. For a bonus, check the level of service compared to the private sector.

It probably would have been cheaper to allow people to have real personal health savings accounts and provide a "last-resort" insurance that pays everything over some amount ($100K perhaps). That last bit probably would bring down premiums because of a max risk.

ataggart15y ago· 2 in thread

Pension and health care outlays are not exogenous givens. The economy is not some external entity which government passively receives prices. Likewise the recession is not some external thing that can be waited-out like a hurricane. Our actions, and particularly those of that blunt club called government, entirely affects what emerges from the market making up the economy.

eliOP15y ago

That's easy to say, but what specifically do you suggest they do about it? Given where we are right now (and setting aside CA's ridiculous laws regarding how they can reallocate their budget), what would you change to free up hundreds of billions of dollars without raising taxes?

Take over healthcare and beat back prices? Hey, I'm all for it, but I think that's gonna cost more in the short term.

ataggart15y ago

>Take over healthcare and beat back prices?

I guess you didn't really grok my point about prices not being exogenous entities.

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