送交者: skipper3 于 2006-6-15, 23:29:34:
回答: 好像一个国家再惨也能持续打仗，难道就不能持续给大家提供医药? 由 HunHunSheng 于 2006-6-15, 19:41:06:
你在美国住了这多年还会问出这样的问题来？
War is goverment behavior. Providing adequat medication to every citizen is not. The better question could be: Why the government can afford a war but can't afford a universal healthcare? I can think of several reasons:
1. Universal healthcare program sponsored by the federal government lacks support from American culture. American don't trust the government therefore are less inclined to let the government administer a huge budget. Americans are also more willing to take risk, even the risk of their own health.
2. The issue is less of how to deliver universal healthcare. The real challenge is change, the reform. Too often people focus much on the result of a change but overlook the process of it. What would be the economic and social cost of initiating and carrying out a massive change? What are the critical conditions under which a change can take place? You need a truly visionary leader to begin with. Not to mention interests of the current private healthcare industry would be devastated. Such a massive change would turn winners into losers and losers into winners in massive scale, a nightmare worse than a military defeat for an elected government which happens to be pulled by private interest groups.
3. US is not comparable to other welfare countries. It is a much bigger, more complex and more diversified country in every aspect. It is unrealistic to expect the federal government to take sole responsibility for delivering this service. Governments at state level have to play a primary role under some principle or law at federal level. This would generate a lot of political problems taht will require some major changes to the constitution, leading to even bigger long-term political implications.