111–120 of 291 posts
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In Canada, 16% of the money spent on health care is spent on administration; in the U.S., 28%. Tell me again how the free market is more efficient?
The US healthcare market is not a free market. I know this well enough to commit to a challenge: name me any two actors in the space and I can name you how each one is screwing the other one thanks to a law or regulation.
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In universal care you dont get access to 'clinical trials and research and things like that, where people need access to leading-edge potential treatments' You are also not eliminated the need to get funds, you are changing who you are asking them from. And let me tell you that government officials are seldom generous.
Access to leading-edge potential treatments is a minor concern in health care: few need it, fewer qualify, and fewer are helped. Even then, your statement is false: leading edge medical research is carried out in all countries with universal health care. The U.S. has an infant mortality rate worse than 43 other countries because large numbers of pregnant women can't access routine prenatal care. That's but one exampl…
Medicaid will pay for prenatal care, and there are other options as well.
GoFundMe is comical, every day there is a new idiot asking for money for not buying (or invalidating) their travel insurance . Little Fred is sitting in hospital now with bills over $xx,xxx due to a motorbike accident whilst backpacking in XYZ, please give generously so Little Fred can keep his iPhoneX and his large family don't have to put their hands in their pocket. e.g. https://www.gofundme.com/injured-by-scooter…
Only a couple weeks later to see pictures of them buying a new car from a dealership to their son.
I do not know... Perhaps it is because me, who unlikely to ever buy a new car (despite having several Xs of income than that family) or perhaps the fact they were not committed 100% to solve their immediate problem themselves first and instead looked for someone to donate some extras - it pissed me off. Unlikely to ever donate to anyone ever again, unless I know for sure people are in genuine trouble.
I like to write short stories in my free time. One that I’ve been working on over the last year is one where the concept of “crowdfunded healthcare” evolves into a dystopian game show where people go on TV and share their sob story on why they need money. Then the viewers at home get to choose who gets the show’s prize money each season through a bracket style voting system that crowns a champion at the end. I had to…
> On that note, I find it supremely fucked up that people have to turn to crowdfunding to get their unexpected healthcare costs covered by benevolent internet citizens. So who should pay for it? All taxpayers instead? All countries that have tried that are now in the red. The only good solution, I think, it to work to make healthcare a lot cheaper in the long run.
We need to get rid of health insurance companies. They are the reason all of our costs are massively inflated. The same thing is happening in education: universities know that a large percentage of students are getting financial aid, so the true costs are buried in a layer of bureaucracy. Fees and administrative fees continue to go up and the universities will always get their money. The students are then on the hook…
I agree, that in a form current insurance companies exists - i.e. perpaid medical discounts plan, they should be removed. People should be getting insurance from insurable events - i.e. accident, heart attack, etc. Not from routine vaccination, annual checkup, seasonal cold. High-deductible plans are a hack to get people to pay for more of routine stuff and I think it moves into the right direction.
There is no up-front price. There is no market pressure. You still don't know what you will need to pay until weeks or months later.
GoFundMe is comical, every day there is a new idiot asking for money for not buying (or invalidating) their travel insurance . Little Fred is sitting in hospital now with bills over $xx,xxx due to a motorbike accident whilst backpacking in XYZ, please give generously so Little Fred can keep his iPhoneX and his large family don't have to put their hands in their pocket. e.g. https://www.gofundme.com/injured-by-scooter…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Access to leading-edge potential treatments is a minor concern in health care: few need it, fewer qualify, and fewer are helped. Even then, your statement is false: leading edge medical research is carried out in all countries with universal health care. The U.S. has an infant mortality rate worse than 43 other countries because large numbers of pregnant women can't access routine prenatal care. That's but one exampl…
Can't access, or don't? Medicaid will pay for prenatal care, and there are other options as well.
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Universal healthcare. It works well in the majority of civilized world.
In universal care you dont get access to 'clinical trials and research and things like that, where people need access to leading-edge potential treatments' You are also not eliminated the need to get funds, you are changing who you are asking them from. And let me tell you that government officials are seldom generous.
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I’d still prefer the state over private insurance companies (Medicare is well run and popular). As Steve Jobs said about Dropbox, you’re a feature (insurance companies) not a product.
You realize Medicare Part C and D are entirely run by private companies right?
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It means there are things the US healthcare provides that universals systems don't, and in a practical way that affects people, not purely in the world of ideas. The great folly of the world universal is that it implies everything would be available, and its a step in the opposite direction: a set of things will be made available, and the things that aren't will be delivered by the private market. Private care is sti…
Do you know what else affects people in a practical way, and not purely in the world of ideas? Having to choose between medicine and the rest of life's necessities. "Can I afford both my kid's insulin and my rent this month?" That's a real-world consequence which, offhand, only the US healthcare system offers.