> Your response to scientific studies that demonstrate the VA actually provides better care than private counter parts is to dismiss them all as dishonest cherry picking. You offer up no studies or data of your own.
To be entirely honest, you alluded to research around the VA (but did not offer up any studies or data of your own). I responded by alluding to research around the VA which provides a different conclusion (but did not offer up studies or data either, although I did at least state the actual metrics used to draw said conclusion).
> Until people like you are willing to even look at the evidence -- and the evidence for universal healthcare is overwhelming at this point -- real discussion is pointless.
We're not discussing scientific evidence here. At best we're discussing your interpretation of (possibly-scientific) research that you've seen in the past but haven't actually named.
There is one point on which we do agree, though: that it's pointless to continue. It's pointless for me to continue a discussion with someone who starts a thread with bold claims and no supporting data, and then criticizes someone who responds in kind for the exact same thing. To be honest, it's also pointless to continue discussions of healthcare policy on Hacker News beyond a certain point too, because of the inherent political makeup of the site. Even the most well-researched comments which reference primary sources alongside research published in peer-reviewed journals are routinely downvoted because they express skepticism of monopsonic healthcare models. Instead, the top comments are usually low-effort criticisms that contain no rigor, depth, research, or citations, but do contain witty, biting criticisms of US healthcare and political soapboxing. In that sort of environment, there's not much of an incentive for people with domain knowledge who've studied these issues to participate in earnest.
So I guess that's one thing we can agree on: the futility of continuing this comment subthread.