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I didn't say that. The way the system is constructed, the vast majority of Americans never see the real cost. Because of that there is no real pressure to reign in health care costs. That is actually what protects the present dysfunctional system and prevents us from moving to a more sensible single payer system.
My mother-in-law had chemotherapy. The cost was around $60,000 (we saw the number on the paperwork). But she paid none of that. Medicare picked up the tab. So she doesn't really care ... she has no skin in that game. If she and millions others actually receive bills for that kind of money then better believe the system would change and fast.
The only area where there is any pressure is the cost of health insurance. But that is not going up enough or for enough people for that to generate any real pressure for change.
As an aside, gotta love C-D. Get a 20 cent increase in gas and C-D is screaming like posters have been disemboweled. But the healthcare is ripping us off for billions and not a peep.
I find this very strange.
People not having skin in the game driving problems in the system leads you to conclude we should move to a single payer system where nobody has skin in the game? That doesn't make any sense to me.
A government bureaucrat isn't spending his own money any more than a person with insurance is now. So how does moving to a single payer system remove the problem of people not caring about costs since they have no incentive to keep them down?
Bad health care choices cut across the board. Not every illness is someone's fault.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Woof
SOME health problem may be linked to lifestyle choices, but there's no clear "this cancer is caused by that bad habit". correlation does not imply causation. Lots of people who live a healthy lifestyle get cancer or heart attacks, I've seen a lot of that during my life.
You're both putting words in my mouth. All I said was that poor people have worse lifestyle and health habits than people who are not poor and they should take responsibility for that.
People not having skin in the game driving problems in the system leads you to conclude we should move to a single payer system where nobody has skin in the game? That doesn't make any sense to me.
A government bureaucrat isn't spending his own money any more than a person with insurance is now. So how does moving to a single payer system remove the problem of people not caring about costs since they have no incentive to keep them down?
Because single payer systems work in the rest of the developed world and at half the cost of our own dysfunctional system.
And "working" means people get in to see doctors that they need to see and have funds (usually via insurance companies) to pay for treatment.
That is not what happens in these other countries that are apparently so great.
Keep drinking the kool-aid.
I have lived in the UK and in Switzerland. And what you say is simply not true.
That said, the quality of care in the USA is very good. But so is the quality of care in other developed countries. The difference is that we pay twice as much as we should be paying.
You're both putting words in my mouth. All I said was that poor people have worse lifestyle and health habits than people who are not poor and they should take responsibility for that.
No, I'm questioning the words you're putting in your own mouth. Data indicate that socio-economic status has an effect on health outcomes, but that can be because poorer people lack access to preventive health care services, have less money to buy necessary medications, less time for exercise, higher stress levels, inadequate housing, lower education levels, or less money for a healthy diet---endless factors that go along with poverty.
But personally I have not seen any data from which you could generalize that "poor people have worse lifestyle and health habits than people who are not poor."
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