Quora and Health Care

There is a phenomenon on Quora: The health care debate. Most posters laud the European--and especially the British--system with an enthusiasm that is almost evangelical-- usually with a distinct and pointed dismissal of the American system. The general approach is to declare the British system free of any financial bias, accommodating to everyone with illness--all with the implication that the American system is rife with bigotry, bias and financial advantage.

 

There are certainly many elements to health care and how it is paid for; personally the complexity is overwhelming and it is gratifying to see so many people with deep and heartfelt certainty about America's problems and solutions. For those less insightful and certain there are reasonable questions that, when asked, might clarify differences: Given that illness and death are inevitable aspects of every citizen's life, and given the demands for health care are not tempered by those making the demands, how are the inevitable shortages of health care --which must exist in such a system--managed? And how are advances in those health care systems pursued and financed?