Highlights From The Comments On Health Care Systems
Read the original on Astral Codex Ten →
Follows up on
↳ Book Review: Which Country Has The World's Best Health Care? — Book review · Jan 2022
Summary
Companion to Which Country Has The World's Best Health Care? (ACX-223, 72). A rich, well-structured companion in four sections. (I) US care — the striking Emanuel JAMA-IM finding that even rich Americans have worse outcomes than average residents of peer countries (rich US children worse than average in 11/12), the premiums-as-regressive-tax analysis, the ACA 80/20 cost-inflation incentive. (II) Drug pricing / does-the-US-subsidize-the-world — the FDA-single-regulator vs EU-Commission leverage argument, the large US medical-R&D disparity, the marketing-exceeds-R&D point, and Benjamin Jolley's detailed Purchaser→Insurer→PBM→Pharmacy→Wholesaler→Manufacturer dollar-chain showing every middleman profits from higher prices. (III) Why health economics is unlike other economics (Bram Cohen on efficient markets needing comparison-shopping you can't do in a coma; the NHS-satisfies-the-iron-law-of-capitalism argument). (IV) A large, valuable pile of country reports (Germany's two-tier, Netherlands' no-profit basic insurance, UK, Australia, Switzerland, Israel, Singapore, Brazil).
Why this score
Quality 72 · Strong. Strong (72, top companion band). High information value, well-organized, with several genuinely illuminating threads (the Emanuel finding, the PBM dollar-chain, the drug-subsidy analysis); the substance is largely the commenters' expertise/experience curated by Scott.
Claude’s paradigm shift 52 · Moderate. Moderate (52). Assembles and lightly synthesizes strong material without an original thesis.
Real-world impact 1 · Negligible. 1 — a companion commentary; negligible independent real-world effect.