From Variety:
Quotas obligating Netflix, Amazon and other streaming services operating in the European Union to dedicate at least 30% of their on-demand catalogs to local content are set to become enshrined in law soon.
Roberto Viola, head of the European Commission department that regulates communications networks, content and technology, said the new rules, which will also demand visibility and prominence of European product on streamers, are on track to be approved in December.
"We just need the final vote, but it's a mere formality," he told Variety at the Venice Film Festival.
Netflix, Amazon and other streamers will be required to fund TV series and films produced in Europe by commissioning content, acquiring it or paying into national film funds through a small surcharge added to their subscription fee, something which is already happening in Germany. Netflix tried unsuccessfully to fight the German surcharge in court.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Tuesday September 04 2018, @06:11PM (12 children)
So please explain this to me: How is it that the first-world countries that have socialized medicine both spend a lot less money and have better medical care outcomes than the privatized system of the US does? And if you want the biggest bang (increased life expectancy, quality-of-life, etc) for the health care buck anywhere in the world, look no further than communist Cuba.
And there are lots of reasons why the US system is demonstrably less efficient: For instance, any money spent on marketing a hospital or treatment is money not spent on providing that treatment.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 04 2018, @06:20PM (2 children)
I'm not sure that's true. What is true is that you will not be bankrupted by a curable illness when costs exceed your insurance cover.
Come on now. [panampost.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 04 2018, @07:54PM
hospital comfort != patient outcome
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Tuesday September 04 2018, @09:16PM
If you're not sure, it's because you haven't bothered to look at the data. Here are some basic numbers for 4 countries provided by the World Health Organization:
Cuba [who.int]
USA [who.int]
Canada [who.int]
France [who.int]
If you look at the numbers, you'll see that the USA spends about double what Canada and France do, and about 4 times what Cuba does, and yet Americans have a lower life expectancy than all of the others. The USA also stacks up badly compared to those other countries on infant mortality [cia.gov].
As for your article about the Cuban health system: I have serious doubts as to your source, since it took some digging to figure out basic information about the publication like where it was based and who owned it, and it turned out it was based in Miami. That means that its writing about Cuba is almost definitely coming from the Cuban exiles whose longstanding goal is to overthrow the Cuban government, which means it's very hard to take what they say at face value. As for the people I know personally who have been to Cuba, and the Cubans I've had direct conversations with, the medical system was doing some truly innovative and good ideas at least in the more rural areas, like:
- There's an assigned neighborhood or village doctor. That doctor is responsible for primary care for all the residents of the area.
- The doctor is consulted for decisions that affect health in the area, for instance ensuring that latrines aren't near water supplies.
- Doctors are trained in cheap herbal remedies that they grow right in front of the clinic. More minor problems get those herbal treatments, rather than pills that are often unavailable.
Is it perfect? Nope. But it's a lot better than many of the other countries in the same region at similar income levels facing the same problems.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 04 2018, @06:21PM (2 children)
The US has socialized medicine, its just crappier.
Interestingly, my friend recently went to cuba and said hotel concierges are richer than the doctors (since they get tips from foreigners). The real story about cuban healthcare is that it proves 99% of modern "healthcare" is unnecessary or even harmful since they can achieve similar results without the newest tech, etc.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 04 2018, @10:13PM (1 child)
Don't you worry, that only lasts until your tip is lower than expected.
Tips are cancer and a tool of modern slavery.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 04 2018, @10:36PM
How so (to both sentences)?
(Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday September 04 2018, @06:22PM (4 children)
Because what you're describing as 'privatized' is nothing of the sort. It's been progressively collectivized and it's no less collectivized in the US than in European model countries. It's simply been collectivized in a different way - primarily for the benefit of insurance companies, and other big players in the health care market.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 04 2018, @07:14PM (3 children)
So there's really no real-world example we can point to of modern, capitalist medicine.
Is there?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 04 2018, @08:03PM
china ?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5678764/#CR1 [nih.gov]
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Tuesday September 04 2018, @08:08PM
Medical tourism probably comes closest. People fly in from somewhere else, pay, get treated and fly home. It's mostly elective or cosmetic surgery, but it does provide a model for the system.
From memory so don't quote me, I think the costs for cosmetic surgery in Thailand were about one third that of surgery in in AU. There was a current affairs show interviewing people doing it from here and even with the airfare it was cheaper.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday September 04 2018, @10:55PM
The best we can do is distinguish between markets which are a bit more or less free in various ways, but there is no real free market for medical care, anywhere.
As someone else already mentioned, medical tourism might be the closest thing to look at, places like Thailand for instance have relatively less regulation (at least in some important ways) and as a result we see things like people from Canada and Sweden skipping the lines and flying to Thailand for care. But that's not really a free market, it's just one slightly less unfree corner of a much larger and incredibly unfree market. They're still competing directly against socialized systems in a setting where they can't possibly compete on price, yet they do brisk business, so they're doing something people like.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday September 05 2018, @12:55PM
Socialized medicine is a white privilege which can only be successfully implemented if your population is over 80% white OR if you make medical your countries super-industry secret sauce (like Cuba).
Socialists of the national variety are generally pretty chill for right-wingers with the concept of socialized medicine; you just can't run that program unless the population stats permit it. The state of Maine could run socialized medicine; the city of Detroit not so much.