eab said:
Well I know grants will still be there, heck the NIH even funds some European labs. The problem is with the insurance companies. Research into building a better MRI for example goes like this right now: - Private company wants to make it in the world, gathers young minds and works on a new project - Prototype is made, sells it to a hospital for a huge sum of money since the R&D cost them billions. - To make a profit off the new system, hospital charges a lot for this new, fantastic treatment. Obviously the insurance companies won't pay the price but millionaires and politicians will, which is a good thing since they will drive down prices.. - Soon the hospital will turns a profit on the new machine, other hospitals will buy more of these machines, machine prices will fall, and soon the cost to use one falls to levels that insurance companies will cover. And with socialized medicine? A government grant to an unmotivated agency such as the FDA. Maybe in several years they develop the system but it is so expensive that no hospital will use it. Everyone is treated equally in socialized medicine. So in the end everyone is treated with a level of care about equal to medicare right now. You will walk into a hospital and the doctor would say "An advanced MRI would help you a bit more, but its a $10,000 process and we can't spend that much on everyone, especially since a $1,000 older MRI is about 70% as good." And it doesn't matter if you're Bill Gates, you can't pay for a single better option. Everyone from Tom Hanks to a street hobo will be given the same quality of treatment. Anyone who earns more than $40,000 a year will see substantial decline in healthcare, and people going into the Biotechnology field (such as myself) will find themselves developing new treatments only to find out that it's too expensive to be put into practice. |
Why can't you? You can buy better service and treatments in Canada just like that.
Having a large socialized Healthcare plan means you have to get rid of private healthcare. You could privatize healtcare and yet allow people to pay for treatments that aren't covered by their insurance.
People are free to chip in for that $9,000 dollar MRI, or even get insurance that will pay for that $9,000 for the new MRI. (In most provinces, some i believe do have laws against it.)
The healtcare system would work exactly the same... except everyone would be insured.
As for researchers not being motivated... you're kidding right? Researchers are ALWAYS motivated because they know if they don't get results they are out of a grant... and a job. Even in the government.