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The US spends more on healthcare for no gain says new report from Johns Hopkins

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531–537 of 537 posts

Re: The US spends more on healthcare for no gain says new report from Johns Hopkins

#531
post #334

I speak for myself, but I'm pretty sure many people would share the thought: healthcare is the number one reason for which I'd never move to America. And there are a billion things for which you might want/not want to move to another country. And I'm healthy, and there are many other things that might seem crazy about America. I don't know, maybe I'm just paranoid, but I do seriously hope for the sake of everyone (an…

This is odd. If you have a decent job and health insurance coverage, there’s nothing better in terms of healthcare than living in cities such as Boston. I can’t think of another city where you have access to multiple world-class hospital systems. Quality of care is simply unmatched.

> Quality of care is simply unmatched.

Your mileage may vary. I would describe my few serious interactions with American healthcare as "nightmarish".

Re: The US spends more on healthcare for no gain says new report from Johns Hopkins

#532
post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely true. As a doc, the US problem boils down to a cultural issue that can be summarized as: "there is no reason my money should pay for the care of others, but if I personally need care, then it should be of the absolute best quality and should be provided until my last breath no matter what" The people maintain the system themselves by insisting on that, and that is the root of every other problem. Before al…

"there is no reason my money should pay for the care of others" Isn't the cultural issue largely a idealogical issue - things like the UK NHS are avowedly socialist? In the words of Aneurin Bevan, founder of the NHS: " A free health service is pure Socialism and as such it is opposed to the hedonism of capitalist society." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aneurin_Bevan Personally, at least when it comes to healthcare, I…

I think have a socialist healthcare improves the capitalist opportunities for people in those countries. Having your job tied to your health insurance means people are less likely to change jobs, thereby not giving their true optimal output to a capitalist society.

A worker who is free to offer his labour to whomever he wants knowing that his healthcare is not tied into their employment has more options and choice to them then someone who can't change jobs.

A point on your last point, people would argue that even in the US you can still access the emergency room when you have no money so no one is turned away due to lack of means.

Re: The US spends more on healthcare for no gain says new report from Johns Hopkins

#533
post #471

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"there is no reason my money should pay for the care of others" Isn't the cultural issue largely a idealogical issue - things like the UK NHS are avowedly socialist? In the words of Aneurin Bevan, founder of the NHS: " A free health service is pure Socialism and as such it is opposed to the hedonism of capitalist society." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aneurin_Bevan Personally, at least when it comes to healthcare, I…

Paying for the care of others is also the insurance model, which is not socialism. I think where you lose support from part of the population is when the system is being abused. I understand France for instance has an abnormally high number of depressions, as it is a common way for a lazy employee to take some time off at the expense of the system. In the US I understand there is an abnormally high number of people o…

> but from the fact that if it is managed by the state, it will be badly managed, abused by a minority, and you end up over-paying while getting a bad service yourself the day you need it

Fact you say? Sounds like an opinion to me.

Re: The US spends more on healthcare for no gain says new report from Johns Hopkins

#534
post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the main reasons why I gave up career in the States and came back to my home country (Japan) was healthcare. I had a day surgery in the US and the whole experience (i.e. bills) just scared heck out of me. I am very happy with the system here. Everything is extremely efficient compared to the US. A little while ago, I had this mysterious headache and went to an orthopedist, dentist, psychiatrist, neurosurgeon t…

In Canada, if it was serious, half a year is actually even quicker than I'd expect. I'd really love to try out the Japanese healthcare system. As it stands, I'm convinced that healthcare is an impossible problem to solve.

UK is fine too. Even minor surgery I was scheduled in for 2 days after seeing a doctor.

We are having some trouble due to austerity cuts and freezes by the current conservative government. But in the whole it works.

Re: The US spends more on healthcare for no gain says new report from Johns Hopkins

#535
post #255
post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We want to see a doctor now. We want immediate access to all the best equipment, and specialists, and drugs, and we don't want to wait around or travel far. And we increasingly want it for every citizen. Australians can get these at a fraction of US prices though

Can they? Mr Meschemberg’s cancer is HER 2-positive (HER 2 is a protein found on the surface of some cancer cells). HER 2-positive cancer cells tend to be far more aggressive, as they divide and grow faster than normal. “That makes [my cancer] a bit different,” he said. “There are drugs that are available to help but they’re not on the PBS.” https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/mee...

It takes a few extra years for new drugs to get added to the PBS, but even if they are not, there's a cap on how much 'out of pocket' you'll pay for treating serious medical conditions. It's maybe $3000 per year depending on your situation. Medicare will cover the bulk of it even if it's not on the PBS.

Re: The US spends more on healthcare for no gain says new report from Johns Hopkins

#536
post #528
post #81

The book The Healing of America by T.R. Reid, 2010 was a phenomenal look at this subject and the conclusion was this: we are the only developed nation whose government allows for-profit health insurance companies to exist with ZERO regulation to cap healthcare prices. Because of this, we spend 20% of every dollar on "administrative" costs compared to 3%-7% in the European and Asian countries. The goal for American he…

Americans spend more on healthcare but get less for one simple reason. We artificially restrict the number of new doctors each year through licensing and other government regulations, which reduces the supply of medical professionals. When you restrict the supply of anything and demand is inelastic, prices go up.

This is a totally inaccurate answer. The intricasies of healcare inflation are way more complex than simple supply and demand economics and I’d suggest you read the book I mentioned in the my original comment to be more educated on this subject

Re: The US spends more on healthcare for no gain says new report from Johns Hopkins

#537
post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So where does the money physically go? If I’m a rent-seeker, I still have an incentive to be stingy with my expenses. The only reason I wouldn’t would be if someone else had a monopoly and was rent-seeking on me, but who’s doing that? I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that it’s rent-seeking all the way down, but you’d have to make that case. Suppose you say, doctors and pharma companies are rent-seeking, and I say…

Yes, you, personally have an incentive to be stingy. But when you are talking about a big organization, they find ways of spending money because the managers of the organization are not aligned with the shareholders. Every organization has pressure to keep expanding because there is always more stuff that could be done, and you can hire people to do that stuff up until the total earnings are in line with the market r…

You know, the more I think about it, the more I like this idea. It's not so much that capitalists are rapacious and sociopathic, it's that most administrators and bureaucrats are prone to mediocrity and only exercise cost discipline when they are under a constraint forcing them to do so.

The robber baron would actually be preferable, in a certain sense, because at least then, someone would benefit from the rent-seeking. The problem being that if you were a robber baron, there are much better ways to get rich. Also, many of these rent-seekers are not even for-profit enterprises.

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