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Lifespan is a poor metric of quality of medical care because it has heavy cultural influences, USA has lots of obese people and far more accidental deaths than most other developed countries.
USA is in the top 20 of every category, and in the top five in half of them including #1 in breast cancer. Yes USA system has many flaws, but the actual outcomes for care are excellent. To add to this in two months the Surprise Billing Act takes effect which will alleviate one of the main sources of financial hardship related go insurance covered medical services, and the prescription drug bill looks promising for controlling costs.
For each of the horror stories there are many other that you never hear of, such as a cancer survivor (me) that spent almost a year in chemo, a total of 8 surgeries, many appointments with Oncologist, Urologist, and Nephrologist, hospitalized 5-8 days 5 times with infections, and had two transfusions - all of this cost me $1,800 in 2019, $2,000 in 2020, my maximum out of pocket, thanks to a good medical plan through my employer. My share of the premiums was $80/paycheck in 2019, $84 in 2020 (now $90). I have no complaints with the health system.
Most people are isolated from that the premius for the average group health plan for a single employee are around $7,500 and the average family plan around $20,000 though. The cost can be a barrier. If you're not getting it through an employer or through a welfare program or subsidies, it's expensive.Other issue is deductibles. I save a couple grand a year for crappy insurance but that does mean a $6,500 deductible. Not chump change but I'm not going to have to worry about whether to pay a $6,500 medical bill or pay rent. If you look at ObamaCare with 86% of people getting welfare though a $6,500 bill is a lot of money to where people won't go to the doctor regularly even though they have insurance because the insurance won't pay anything anyway.
Basically, good medical care that some people can't afford is what we have here.
Most people are isolated from that the premius for the average group health plan for a single employee are around $7,500 and the average family plan around $20,000 though. The cost can be a barrier. If you're not getting it through an employer or through a welfare program or subsidies, it's expensive.Other issue is deductibles. I save a couple grand a year for crappy insurance but that does mean a $6,500 deductible. Not chump change but I'm not going to have to worry about whether to pay a $6,500 medical bill or pay rent. If you look at ObamaCare with 86% of people getting welfare though a $6,500 bill is a lot of money to where people won't go to the doctor regularly even though they have insurance because the insurance won't pay anything anyway.
Basically, good medical care that some people can't afford is what we have here.
Here's some irony for you.
Before Obamacare I had a retirement plan..it was a "high deductible" PPO plan..$90/month with a $5K deductible.
Obamacare killed it because it didn't offer maternity or pediatric care (this is a retirement plan).
So I got Obamacare ....$900/month HMO with a $6K deductible.
I had a year to plan so got my taxable income as low as possible and got a huge subsidy.
My health insurance plan got worse, not better. Thankfully I'm healthy and that is why I had the high deductible plan to begin with.
Before Obamacare I had a retirement plan..it was a "high deductible" PPO plan..$90/month with a $5K deductible.
Obamacare killed it because it didn't offer maternity or pediatric care (this is a retirement plan).
So I got Obamacare ....$900/month HMO with a $6K deductible.
I had a year to plan so got my taxable income as low as possible and got a huge subsidy.
My health insurance plan got worse, not better. Thankfully I'm healthy and that is why I had the high deductible plan to begin with.
Ouch.
Mine went from $105 to around $350, same deductible. Really not thrilled about what it will look like in later years though. When I get older though, yeah, it worries me. I might be wanting to slow down by then in which case I could keep contributing 20k or so to a 401k to lower MAGI while staying under the 400% FPL to be elegible for welfare. Or maybe by then they'll have figured out a better sollution. Probably not, but who knows.
I had a year to plan so got my taxable income as low as possible and got a huge subsidy.
TRANSLATION: I didn't have to pay what I owed. Which means somebody else who DID have to pay the full amount he owed, also had to pay a large part of mine.
The OP considers this a "better" form of Health Care.
Taking the story at face value, the spin with some of these posts justifying someone getting billed $700 for sitting in an ER and receiving no service is unbelievable.
I have no doubt if the people justifying the ridiculous billing practices in health care received a bill for that, they would be the same people raising a ruckus and wanting to speak to the manager in no polite way.
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