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eftychia: Me in kilt and poofy shirt, facing away, playing acoustic guitar behind head (Default)
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QotD

posted by [personal profile] eftychia at 05:26am on 2008-08-25

"Any system that has people spending more and getting less is, by definition, not efficient. And these efficiency leaks are, almost entirely, due to private greed. There is no logical way that a private system can pay eight-figure CEO compensation packages, turn a handsome a profit for shareholders, and still be 'efficient.' In fact, in order to deliver those profits and salaries, the American system has built up a vast, Kafkaesque administrative machinery of approval, denial, and fraud management, which inflates the US system's administrative costs to well over double that seen in other countries -- or even in our own public systems, including Medicare and the VA system." -- Sara Robinson, "Mythbusting Canadian Healthcare, Part II: Debunking the Free Marketeers", 2008-02-11

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posted by [identity profile] smallship1.livejournal.com at 10:14am on 2008-08-25
Well, efficiency is such a subjective term, isn't it? I mean, it depends what you want the system to be efficient at. Most systems these days are run or owned by people or corporate demons who only want them to be efficient at funnelling money into their maws and/or offshore accounts. On that basis, they work very well.
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posted by [identity profile] dglenn.livejournal.com at 08:34pm on 2008-08-25
I wouldn't call it a 'subjective term', because efficiency can be quantified and objectively measured. But I am quibbling with your language, not with your real point, because I agree that the choice of which efficiency to prioritize is subjective (in the sense of 'subjective' that you're using -- choice of goal).

Still, I would say that in the context of a "how can we fix our health care problems?" conversation, or the closely related, "which solution costs the consumer population more?" one, this is a more useful measure of efficiency than the one the health-profiteers' accountants might choose. After all, the profiteers probably don't see the system as broken, unless they've spotted some way they could be making even more money off of the rest of us.
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