American Healthcare: How your system works

by Diogenesister 100 Replies latest social current

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  DesirousOfChange

  Very beneficial/interesting discussion.

  I learned that as a citizen of the USA, my taxes are lower, gasoline is lower ($3.19 USG), I pay less for food & utilities & housing. So I guess I'll quit bitching about my taxes. My State has an average of 8% sales tax on most items, but only 3% on food. Some States have no sales tax. Others have no State income tax. But I think we have higher cost for medical care and esp for Rx drugs.

  For comparison purposes, I have a 4,000 SF (370 SM) home w/ 5 bedrooms & 5 bathrooms on 1/3 acre. Because I live in the Midwest where the cost of housing is lower than either coast, it's value is about $500,000. On either coast, it would be double, triple, or quadruple that value. My home's monthly utilities (water, electric & gas) totals about $300/MO. We have 5 cars. My highest mileage car gets 22 mpg. My lowest gets less than 10 mpg and requires premium octane gasoline at $3.59/USG but I only drive it about 3,000 miles per year. We are "middle class" (some might think "upper middle class"), but certainly not exceptional. Professional people (doctors, lawyers, engineers) earn far more than I. In the USA about 20% of working individuals earn over $100,000/year. Those in the top 10% usually earn over $250,000/yr.

  I'm afraid I know very little about how that compares in other places in the world.
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  LoveUniHateExams

  Obviously the ideal is for the whole Country to implement a proper system - but why should all the US citizens who disagree with free (at the point of delivery) healthcare be forced to pay for it via their tax dollars?

  Doesn't sound fair to me.
  
  
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  LoveUniHateExams

  Here's another thing I forgot to say in my comments on page 5 ...

  If every state decided for itself - yes, there would be migration to the states that have 'free' healthcare.

  But there would also be migration the other way. Small-c conservatives who disagree but happen to live in a left-leaning state would move to a conservative state.

  This kind of thing goes on already. I follow an African-American women who has a youtube channel. She has conservative values and has moved to a state like Texas or Georgia for that very reason.

  So, I guess my point is that migration works both ways.
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  Anony Mous

  Fact check: 12% of GDP is spent in the UK on healthcare, 18% of GDP is spend in the US on healthcare. As I already pointed out, the US has free government healthcare for low income (<$50k/person) households and many states have expanded access beyond that. With the exception of wealth diseases (heart and diabetes) outcomes are overall better in the US across the board.

  So the US already spends more on government healthcare, when you break down what it is spent on R&D makes up much of that value in the US. More than 50% of new medicines in the world are funded by the US government.

  At the end of November, a record 7.2 millionpatients in England were waiting for non-urgent medical treatment on the NHS, known as “elective” care. This spans diagnostic tests and scans, procedures such as hip and knee replacements, but also cardiac surgery, cancer treatment and neurosurgery.

  More than half of those on the list had been waiting up to 18 weeks and about 400,000 patients had been waiting more than a year, according to data from NHS England.

  To avoid joining a waiting list, more and more people are paying for their own private medical care or taking out health insurance.

  In the second quarter of 2022, the number of patients paying directly for private hospital care increased 34% compared with the same period in 2019 to reach 67,000, according to the Private Healthcare Information Network, which collects data on UK private healthcare.

  The figures revealed a 184% jump in the number of people paying privately for hip replacements over that period, a 153% increase in self-pay for knee replacements and a 42% rise in private cataract surgery.
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  road to nowhere

  DOC

  Interesting. Also note the USA was a ( small d) democratic country with supposed no class distinctions. We have no nobility, castes, etc. The now decried white protestant ethic led the exceptionalism of an expanding country. We do have a growing elite, a parasitic entitled woke population, and a reliance on 2nd and 3rd world countries for grunt labor.
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  SydBarrett

  "Interesting. Also note the USA was a ( small d) democratic country with supposed no class distinctions. We have no nobility, castes, etc."
  
  That may be what we liked to put in the marketing material, but we have and always had class distinctions. It's slightly more fluid than other places, but it exists.
  
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  LV101

  AGREE ^^^ re/class distinctions/caste system in US - definitely the few in top echelon controlling the mass wealth.
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  Diogenesister

  LUHEI still think letting each state decide for itself has some merit in it."

  Phizzy Yes it does, apart from perhaps very small population States, but the people there could be given the opportunity to pay in to a nearby states system the same as if they were resident, and still take advantage, even if a bit of travel was involved ? maybe ? dunno. (maybe not , Social Care has to be considered kin the equation)

  Interesting. I'm certainly no expert and definitely sounds the most reasonable step that every state should absolutely have the right to choose.

  (NB LUHE just to say wasn't me wot disliked your post by the way 😂 )
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  Diogenesister

  DOC For comparison purposes, I have a 4,000 SF (370 SM) home w/ 5 bedrooms & 5 bathrooms on 1/3 acre. Because I live in the Midwest where the cost of housing is lower than either coast, it's value is about $500,000. On either coast, it would be double, triple, or quadruple that value.

  ^^^same in the UK DOC.

  I have 5 cars

  Spat out me tea😆🤣

  (To be fair Brits have one of the highest fuel costs in the world DOC)
  
  
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  Diogenesister

  Anonymous The figures you quote have skyrocketed in the last few years due to covid back logs.

  Our waiting list was right down to the point we were squawking over an 8 month wait for elective non urgents (16 week target)

  I'm not saying that there is no one who suffered whilst waiting for a hip operation, for example. But generally it was reasonable.

  The private list will include a lot of plastic surgery and things like wart removal etc.

  (NB am a nurse. Until very recently my unit spent quite a bit of time rectifying the cock ups made in private clinics. I will admit they've improved recently and I was damned impressed with their take over of cancer treatments during covid)