Live data from Hacker News

Bloomberg Healthiest Country Index – 2019 edition

bloombergquint.com

71–80 of 82 posts

Re: Bloomberg Healthiest Country Index – 2019 edition

#71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d love to see real stats on that. All I ever see is the statement that there’s this huge problem in the US. Yet, when I travel I see tons of people without teeth, starving in the street, etc. It’s anecdotal, but I cannot imagine these countries are equivalent. I’ve even seen the claim healthcare is super good outside the United stares. Although it costs more, the US had a top notch system for medical care. They can…

Maybe the Cubans and the Spaniards have some magic genes on them, but I think is more probably that you vision of those countries is distorted. Personally, and this is my intuition talking, I think that the most important fact is primary care. If you need open heart surgery you probably would be better (marginally) in the States than Cube (assuming you can afford it), but what really makes a difference is to get diag…

I agree, and would add „lifestyle“ to the relevant factors. Cuba has a lot more „communal“ life. Eating alone, as but one example, just doesn’t happen. Even something like watching TV is more of a group activity. Even if the cause of that is an inability to afford your own TV, chances are it could have an impact on psychological well-being.

Physical activity is also far higher. Again, this may be a result of relative poverty. But walking or taking public transport to work just happens to also be healthy.

Interestingly, these are factors somewhat shared across Cuba, Spain and Italy, even though there is no similar economic pressure in those countries.

On the other side of the divide, I live in Germany. We have universal insurance that is functionally equivalent to government-run healthcare (I, and everyone else, can visit a GP any time without paying). Yet outcomes here, and in Britain and Canada, are closer to the US.

Re: Bloomberg Healthiest Country Index – 2019 edition

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They can see a doctor in minutes, get open heart surgery, and go home for See, that's one of the problems I have with the American system right there. Why do you have to pay for life-saving surgery when you already have insurance? That's absurd.

It’s called a co-pay and it’s because you’re expected to pay a portion along with all treatment. This is to make sure you aren’t going when you don’t need it. $8000 for lift saving treatment is nothing really. I can go to the doctor for $20 - $40. However, if I need open heart surgery, $8k is fair. In Ireland, Canada, etc you have to wait months to get treatment. People die on the list to get treatment. That’s my iss…

I really doubt anybody needs to be discouraged from frivolous open heart surgery by co-pay.

Also: nobody does on any waiting lists in Ireland or Canada. Or, more accurately: There may sometimes be waits for elective procedures, and people may get hit by busses while on such a list. But there’s no causality. The only waiting lists where people die are for organ transplants, as in most any country.

Re: Bloomberg Healthiest Country Index – 2019 edition

#73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe the Cubans and the Spaniards have some magic genes on them, but I think is more probably that you vision of those countries is distorted. Personally, and this is my intuition talking, I think that the most important fact is primary care. If you need open heart surgery you probably would be better (marginally) in the States than Cube (assuming you can afford it), but what really makes a difference is to get diag…

I agree, and would add „lifestyle“ to the relevant factors. Cuba has a lot more „communal“ life. Eating alone, as but one example, just doesn’t happen. Even something like watching TV is more of a group activity. Even if the cause of that is an inability to afford your own TV, chances are it could have an impact on psychological well-being. Physical activity is also far higher. Again, this may be a result of relative…

Out of curiosity, are primary care German doctors employed directly by the state, or are they private business that invoice later to the public health budget?

Re: Bloomberg Healthiest Country Index – 2019 edition

#74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I know you are not saying the report is propaganda, but I understand you mean appearing in media is. No, I do not mean what you are saying. I was talking about what is on the newspapers these days on here: * Catalonia * Next general elections (on April) * "Minor" cases of corruption (relative to others in either money amount or the person affected) * Football (Soccer for the people from USA) * Venezuela * "Famous"…

I'm sorry. I keep seeing much more political intention in your comments than the article per se.

I didn't want to say anything more than what healthcare we've got is good, and it is despite the budget cuts. If I had wanted to introduce more politics I would have done so explicitly at the end of my comment, instead of a general lament. So I'm sorry if that whas the impression I gave you.

On the other hand, and repeating myself: I do not attribute any political intention to the article at all. How many more times do I have to deny it? You not letting go of this act like some bad actors when doing clumsy manipulation of debates.

Re: Bloomberg Healthiest Country Index – 2019 edition

#75
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is an argument made towards "rampant privatisation", i.e. a transfer of a business from public to private control. However, data shows that government expenditure has increased above CPI, the driver of prices (not an output like "GDP per capita", which for some reason you refer too as an economic driver of sorts). I cannot observe, from official data the I link to, a slow down in public healthcare investment by…

The data you request (if I'm reading it correctly) is in your link, in the "2002-2016 series" document, page 9, point 3.3 The transference to the private sector in 2002 (thousands of Euros): 25017 In 2010 (the highest of the serie): 81997 In 2016: 54913 I didn't say the "rampant privatization" thing, but, as you can see, the spending more than doubled. Should we take into account the inflation here or not? GDP per ca…

Page 6.

Page 9 is central administrative costs, and then, if we put your private expenditure figure into perspective: in 2010 (highest of the series) private costs were €82m vs €69,000m total healthcare costs in 2010. That is a 0.12%

Re: Bloomberg Healthiest Country Index – 2019 edition

#77
post #16

Love how 'click HERE' is not a link. > To access the Bloomberg 2019 Healthiest Country Index data set for all nations, click HERE.

The article seems to have been taken from the main Bloomberg site: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-24/spain-top...

The "click here" link is for terminal subscribers only so I guess Quint might not have been able to resolve it properly.

Re: Bloomberg Healthiest Country Index – 2019 edition

#78
post #76

I'd be curious how individual US states stack up here--it seems like there would be quite a bit of variance (and I'm sure the US isn't the only country whose stats become much less informative when aggregated to a single number).

https://www.americashealthrankings.org/learn/reports/2017-an...

Re: Bloomberg Healthiest Country Index – 2019 edition

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, and would add „lifestyle“ to the relevant factors. Cuba has a lot more „communal“ life. Eating alone, as but one example, just doesn’t happen. Even something like watching TV is more of a group activity. Even if the cause of that is an inability to afford your own TV, chances are it could have an impact on psychological well-being. Physical activity is also far higher. Again, this may be a result of relative…

Out of curiosity, are primary care German doctors employed directly by the state, or are they private business that invoice later to the public health budget?

They are independent businesses. Most people have public health insurance. These are still entities distinct from the general budget. You can chose between different insurances, which have some minor differences in terms of extra services they offer. Rates also differ, but only very slightly. It’s around 12% of income.

There are also private insurances. They offer flat rates (not indexed to income) and are attractive to high earners and some young people.

Re: Bloomberg Healthiest Country Index – 2019 edition

#80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are starving in the U.S. of A. as well. And healthcare is nearly inaccessible to them. And what they can get, some law makers want to take away or make even harder to get.

You get free food in the US as well as Cuba if you are poor. I literally just bought 20lbs of pork for $20 and 20lbs of rice and 10lbs of beans for another $20. You can beg and easily make more than $20 a day. But even then the US gives out food coupons and there are tons of soup kitchens.

You make it sound so easy. It really isn't. We foster, so we deal with "the system" daily. These poor parents, trying to get things back together are working a system that simply isn't always set up to help them. To get those coupons you speak of, they have to go stand in line during work hours. But they can't miss work because they'll not be able to pay rent. Do they eat? Or do they pay rent? This is an almost daily decision these people have to make. It's not just food coupons, it's meeting requirements[0] that they have to meet to get their family back together, it's all during normal business hours.

And before anyone gets to the argument about why they're in that situation, it often is cyclical. Go read up on trauma and trauma informed care (you can start with ACE scores).

[0] Counseling, court appearances, etc...

Post reply on HN