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NL, there are short term and long term changes needed. Short term we need to get though this.
A long term challenge is to alter people's lifestyle choices and acheive widespread ACCESS to primary care medicine. (In the US we could use more pediatricians and general internists and fewer cosmetic plastic surgeons and dermatologists, for example, but relative incomes of various medical specialties in the US show how broken our system is). Many countries spend much less and have far better health outcomes by every metric (life expectancy, chronic disease incidence, childbirth mortality, obesity, etc. etc.). Thay would include EVERY other developed country. There is no arguing this, the statistics are clear. Diet habits are part of it and clearly conventional diet advice for the last 50 years failed (low fat, high carb). Slowly it is changing. But getting that to permeate places that need it the most is challenging. But it is not just diet.
Making health care access dependent on the good will of an employer, and allowing large insurance companies to skim a substantial portion of the $ off the top is madness. Bear in mind those companies ARE rationing healthcare right now even though US spends far greater % of GDP on health than anyone else. (They will not pay for every drug or procedure that a doctor might want to do it it contradicts their own nameless and faceless guidelines). And big as they are, they are not big enough to negotiate good drug prices with Pharma, in contrast to, say, France.
I wonder when a vast number of rural Americans will wake up to the fact that they live an hour drive from ANY hospital, and that one probably sucks. Rural hospitals are disappearing one by one. That his just one of many things I could point out.
With that said, a new virus like this is going to hit everyplace hard.
The devil is always in the details. I do agree on the whole with what you have written. That said, I don't see a way with a virus like this in the population to avoid massive casualties.
When I was annoyed with leadership, I was really speaking about Trump. I watch his press conferences with disgust everyday. He just can't find the right attitude to the whole crisis.