Why the U.S. pays more for health care than the rest of the world

[Zkuq]

Snoopy said:

Zkuq said:

Yes, taxes are perfectly appropriate for things such as healtcare. Someone has to go to school for eight years to treat common problems to be able to properly identify and treat them. You've got to somehow be able to validate that the person treating those common problems is qualified for it, and you pretty much need some kind of a school for that. It's not that important in some fields, but when we're talking about people's health, no risks can be taken. There must be restrictions for the sake of the patients.

Yeah, because paying higher taxes completely helped us out. Whose to say they need eight years of schooling to do certain tasks? Why should I need a doctor to fix a broken bone or do basic procedures when you can train someone in that area for a couple years?  It's not like hospitals are going to hire unqualified workers because the hospital can be looking at a lawsuit.

I'm not sure what you're referring to with your remark about higher taxes, but it seems to work pretty well over here. Obviously it's not perfect, but it's working quite well. You don't necessarily need eight years to be able to do certain tasks, but being able to properly assess the situation might take more. Also, it might be worthwhile to train people to be more versatile instead of being suited for certain tasks only. But perhaps you do have a point. I'm just saying there could be real reasons for the amount of education that's required. As to your last point, you seem to have a lot of trust in things sorting themselves out. I don't.