🚀 go-pugleaf

On Sun, 11 Feb 2018 21:49:25 -0000 (UTC), John Levine
<jo...@taugh.com> wrote:

>In article <1851622005.540076981.291...@news.eternal-september.org>,
>Peter Flass  <peter...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>From what I understand they do a lot more bicycling than Mericans do. A lot
>>of people bike to work or shopping. I think Germans are more into outdoor
>>stuff like hiking than we are. In the US,  guns are a significant cause of
>>injuries and death.
>
>They may cycle more, but French and Germans drink about 12 litres of
>alcohol per year, Americans drink 9.

12 liters per year works out to a little over an ounce a day, a
quantity that the doctors believe may have a variety of health
benefits.

>>In my opinion economies of scale don't really apply to health care, since
>>it's a "craft" business, like education.
>
>They sure do when you're negotiating drug prices.  Everywhere but the
>US there are drug price caps, yet despite all the moaning and groaning
>the drug companies continue to sell in those countries and to be very
>profitable.

Economies of scale come on the production side, not on the sales side.

>> If the government really wants to improve medical care it would
>>subsidize medical and nursing schools to graduate more trained people.
>
>That would also affect prices.  US doctors are paid about twice what
>doctors are other places for similar work.  One excuse for that is
>that US doctors, at least in their early years, have education debt to
>pay down.

It would affect prices because more workers for a given number of
openings means lower wages, unless there are artificialy wage controls
in place.