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Originally Posted by jamesqf
Why doesn't it? Unless you're absolutely certain that the Ebola virus is going to politely stay in Africa.
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Ebola is a mixed bag to say the least and is definately overblown, many people are plain immune to it and the focus on prevention is being lost over trying to treat.
Africa is a hotbed for Ebola due to diet and lack of standard practice treatment, likewise the US could become a hotbed for the same reason, diabetics for example are 10x more likely to contract and die than someone who is otherwise healthy without other medical issues.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jamesqf
As to the rest, that's a question of economic philosophy, not quality of medical care. But I could note that there are really two distinct kinds of medicine. There's what you probably think of as medicine, treating individual patients who are sick or injured. Then there's the whole spectrum of public health, the goal of which is to keep people from needing medical care in the first place. Developing vaccines, whether for Ebola, polio, or measles, reducing smoking, figuring out what actually causes illnesses, etc. Cost-effective, available to the public either free or at little cost, if they choose to use it.
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The US exceeds at fixing broken bones or doing a heart surgery but we fail and are almost dead last in prevention and treatment of symptoms. Our medical system seems to be paralised and incapable of treating the most simplistic of lifelong conditions that lead to death, such as heart disease, diabetes and immune conditions (from allergies) such as crohns.
They push drugs at conditions that are at best degenerative with treatment as opposed to telling the hard truth and focusing on lifestyle changes, but we as a country want to do things that kill us and our medical system seems to be behind the curve at least 20 years on diet (save a couple pockets). Causing improper information to get passed out as gospal.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jamesqf
Hard to say exactly about entirely, since many projects receive a mix of public & private funding. But per Google, something like 60% is private.
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Be carefull how you read that data, many private loans are publicly guaranteed but technically lended "privately"
With default rates as high as 40% on these loans and most hospitals being tax exempt in most areas one can only guess on the true public burden.