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When you posted this earlier, I decided not to wade into this particular debate simply because i'm not an economist.
However, I don't think what you have posted provides a clear indication that UHC is better than non-UHC healthcare systems. I think all it shows is that the United States spends more money on health care per person. I do not believe it shows that UHC will bring healthcare costs down per person. I don't believe what you've posted here is enough evidence that any one system is better than the other.
I've seen the chart from the other poster many times. It's shocking, to be honest.
As for 'better', I guess that depends on your definition.
Since the U.S. seems to be spending a significantly great amount of money on health care, both privately and publicly, you would assume that the U.S. citizens are receiving "more" care, higher quality care, better access, and many other factors.
I do not have studies at hand to link to but they are out there. I'm sure that in some areas, the U.S. does outperform the other countries. But overall, we get one of the lower scores on how healthy we are. We have a cadillac system in place but the benefits to most of the population don't seem to be playing out. There is something wrong. Part of it is probably due to inefficiencies of different systems and redundancy, and the other issues are probably due to greed with "the middleman" aka, the private insurance company.
There must be some way to take that out of the equation and deliver quality health care to everyone without people becoming billionaires from it.
That is because people with uncurable illnesses want medical delivery industry to spend millions of dollars to prolong the life of people who are going to die anyway. Give them something to manage the pain and send them home to their family.
I'm all for reforming the system. But if buying insurance after the fact is a routine occurrence in America, then no wondercosts are higher. Would you insure for the same price someone you knew to be a higher risk factor than a person that didn't carry the same known risk? My guess is that you probably wouldn't.
Here's the problem right here. Money and profit margins should not even be in the equation when we're talking about health care. But that's "compassionate conservatism" for you. We have plenty of money to bomb and occupy countries in the name of corporate interests, but we can't provide a basic human right.
Damn right it was. People died from serious injuries (such as a broken back, for instance), instead of living in pain for 30 or 40 years, doped up on 15 kinds of "pain medication" and spending their lives as spaced-out semi-invalids on "disability". People who contracted diseases either survived because they were strong, and had a strong immune system, or they died. Now days, we keep every pathetic invalid alive so that the American medical system can prosper financially regardless of the quality of life that the person has.
I am all for getting back to "survival of the species mentality". Newsflash, sometimes people die, it's all part of the plan.
Damn right it was. People died from serious injuries (such as a broken back, for instance), instead of living in pain for 30 or 40 years, doped up on 15 kinds of "pain medication" and spending their lives as spaced-out semi-invalids on "disability". People who contracted diseases either survived because they were strong, and had a strong immune system, or they died. Now days, we keep every pathetic invalid alive so that the American medical system can prosper financially regardless of the quality of life that the person has.
I am all for getting back to "survival of the species mentality". Newsflash, sometimes people die, it's all part of the plan.
Damn right it was. People died from serious injuries (such as a broken back, for instance), instead of living in pain for 30 or 40 years, doped up on 15 kinds of "pain medication" and spending their lives as spaced-out semi-invalids on "disability". People who contracted diseases either survived because they were strong, and had a strong immune system, or they died. Now days, we keep every pathetic invalid alive so that the American medical system can prosper financially regardless of the quality of life that the person has.
I am all for getting back to "survival of the species mentality". Newsflash, sometimes people die, it's all part of the plan.
50 years ago, as college students, DH and I paid for the birth of our childen in a hospital out of the wages we earned as part time students. If the child got an infection we payed for the Dr. visit and the antibiotic. We had no hospitalization.
When DH became employed I was stunned to learn that the company would pay for part of the Dr. fee and all of the hospital. Childbirth was not considered anything medically unusual.
Do most of us spend as much on medical care each month as we do on the insurance?
Perhaps having major medical coverage is what we need. We each pay for regular stuff and if treatment or hospitalization is required, then the insurance kicks in.
That was the days when it really was insurance.
The insurance is just that, pooled insurance. If everyone had to pay for their own health "care", those that used it just once or twice would be bankrupt. Once you price out a knee surgery, or many other normal procedures, you'll quickly see how much it costs.
I doubt that all but a small percentage of younger people could afford the costs of delivering a baby, much less all the prenatal visits that go along with it.
My "compassion" comes with a dollar limit until I quit caring and move on with life.
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