On Mon, Feb 16, 2009 at 9:15 PM, Gruss Gott <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Judah wrote: >> You know that the US is a much bigger country than either the UK or >> Canada, right? > > Fine, let's go per capita
Ok, lets go per capita. What are your numbers? >> Ane in an academic setting and isn't effected >> by health insurance. > > What do you think pays for those PhDs? My friend is getting a stipend > and free tuition at Northwestern for a PhD in physics. His project is > to custom build calcium carbonate for bone replacement. Northwestern > has their full patent, legal, and business team on the case. They > make billions. Odd you should mention that but I do in fact have a number of friends at Oregon Health Sciences University who do research. And yes, if they come up with a new drug, the university stands to make a fair bit of money. Not billions though. I know that Northwestern has an unusually large endowment. A quick search puts it at 7 billion with $700 million having recently come from the sale of patent rights to the drug Lyrica, the largest royalty sale in history. The bulk of most basic research funding still comes from the government however. And regardless, even in the case of money made from drug development, the relationship between national health insurance and that drug development funding is going to be miniscule at best. There will still be a market for drug research and new drugs will still be sold all over the world. >> a thousand.Lets try getting a system where the leading cause of >> bankruptcy isn't medical care. Lets try for a system where sick people >> can go see a doctor. > > If you don't focus on those questions then all you'll have is > bankruptcy. By everyone. Looked at the entitlement numbers? Robert > can tell ya. You don't think that those questions are going to come into play? Look, I know the entitlement numbers. I understand the basic market forces. Hell, I have a degree in applied mathematics and can even calculate actuarial tables. All of that comes to naught though if we don't first address the basic question: are we going to do this? That's it. Are we going to do this? Lets get to the point where we say "yes, we're going to do this. It is time for the wealthiest nation in the world to agree that everyone deserves healthcare". Then we can talk about the details of managing risk pools, providing efficient payment systems, preventative versus catastrophic care and all the other nitty gritty details. Other countries have done this. They've had successes and failures. None of them, as far as I'm aware, has been bankrupted by it. That's great. That means we have data to work with. We're smart and we can work this out. But first we have to have the will to do so. That is the question. Judah ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:288772 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
