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US health system ranks last compared with peer nations – report

theguardian.com

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Re: US health system ranks last compared with peer nations – report

#111

Post by xvector »

wickedsight wrote: post #102
l5870uoo9y wrote: post #93

The UK performs better (third place) than, for example, Germany (second last place). The UK's healthcare system is often heavily criticized as being on the brink of collapse - any explanation for this?

> any explanation for this? Everything is relative. Most people only use health care in their own countries and therefore can only compare to another time in their own country. So if it used to be better in the UK, it might feel really bad now. If it's always been meh in Germany, it probably feels ok there, since it's always been that way. Also, populism. Healthcare is a major point in the UK elections. It's been a m…

> It's been a major talking point [...] doesn't have to be objectively true for people to feel like it is true. Just like everyone always thinks crime is up even when it's down.

I'm sorry, but no. It's not just a talking point. As someone with family in both countries, as well as having parents that have worked in both medical systems: The NHS waiting lists are genuinely bad and this isn't all in peoples' heads.

It's not even a "left vs right" issue; no one thinks the system is working right now.

Re: US health system ranks last compared with peer nations – report

#112

Post by HPsquared »

renewiltord wrote: post #66
gsa wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Electronic interop, in my experience talking to my GP (not US), is tricky not because of technical challenges but very strict privacy implications.

I wish I could pre-select an "I don't care. I'm informed and choose an open docs policy" box once after writing a 1 h exam and call it quits. My genome is on the Internet. I bet nothing bad will come of it by the time I die.

There's safety in numbers.

Re: US health system ranks last compared with peer nations – report

#113

Post by HPsquared »

l5870uoo9y wrote: post #93

The UK performs better (third place) than, for example, Germany (second last place). The UK's healthcare system is often heavily criticized as being on the brink of collapse - any explanation for this?

That makes me doubt the metrics..

Re: US health system ranks last compared with peer nations – report

#114

Post by vidarh »

Trhoe3849 wrote: post #55
simonbarker87 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For a lot of elective procedures, the price is even low enough that it'd pay you to fly to the UK and stay in a hotel to get things done here if the recovery isn't too long. But please don’t do this. Our system is better than the US but private is now starting to struggle along with the NHS wait times as more people use their private coverage where they wouldn’t have done before.

Flying to UK for cheap healthcare is a sick joke. There are much better countries for medical tourism: Thailand, Malaysia, Greece...

If you want it as cheap as possible, sure. The point was not that it's the cheapest option but that even a high cost country like the UK is still cheap enough to be viable destination.

But the UK does attract a significant amount of medical tourism, and has hospitals specifically targeting an international clientele who clearly considers it a good balance of cost and quality.

Re: US health system ranks last compared with peer nations – report

#115

Post by zdragnar »

chgs wrote: post #91
tstrimple wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Joe Lieberman sabotaged the public option.

If one person has such power you aren’t really in a democracy

Perhaps you don't understand how voting works? When the difference between minority in favor (not passing) and majority in favor (passing) is one person, then yes, one person has such power.

Democracy doesn't mean that the minority gets to overrule the majority when they feel like it. In fact, it is quite the opposite.

Re: US health system ranks last compared with peer nations – report

#116

Post by evnix »

angio wrote: post #100
evnix wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The general slowness extends to simple things like x-rays and blood tests too. This is not just US but whole of the west seems to have the exact same attitude. Most of Asia has same day or next day medical tests. In India you can order something like UberEats where in a technician comes home collects your blood samples and the results are emailed within the next 24 hours or so. Medicine seems to be commoditzed in the…

If you're willing to pay out of pocket (~100 euro or so) that service is available in western europe too.

Can you name a few services that do this for that price.

Re: US health system ranks last compared with peer nations – report

#117

Post by mytailorisrich »

l5870uoo9y wrote: post #93

The UK performs better (third place) than, for example, Germany (second last place). The UK's healthcare system is often heavily criticized as being on the brink of collapse - any explanation for this?

Those rankings are of course heavily influenced by the methodology and metrics chosen. Differences can be very small but obviously even a very small relative difference results in a higher or lower ranking. That's how rankings work.

For instance, in this case: "The U.K.’s health system is the top one for affordability... In the U.K., the National Health Service (NHS) provides free public health care, including hospital, physician, and mental health care"

This does not mean it is 'better' or that others are in fact unaffordable.

For instance, in France a visit to the GP costs 30 Euros but 28 are covered by social security and private cover. Arguably 2 euros make no difference vs. "free" but it's just that you can beat "free" when ranking on affordability.

That being said, I think anyone with experience with the UK and other European countries' healthcare systems will be surprised, shall we say, with this ranking overall...

Re: US health system ranks last compared with peer nations – report

#118

Post by evgen »

xvector wrote: post #96
vidarh wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that I'm trying to make you feel worse about it: In the UK we pay less per capita in taxes toward healthcare than you do in the US (or at least did last I added up the numbers - Medicare and Medicaid alone added up to a higher per capita cost than the NHS), and if we do want private health insurance, which here is basically "queue skip insurance", it costs a fraction of in the US because they only need to provide…

In the UK you also pay insane taxes and your _median_ citizen in the UK has far less disposable income after all expenses including healthcare, according to OECD metrics. In software engineering specifically, I'd make a third of my current income in the UK. I'd much rather make 3x as much in the US and still get free healthcare through my employer, with shorter waiting lists and better treatment outcomes than the NHS…

> In the UK you also pay insane taxes and your software engineers make a third of what they make here. At my big tech, as an IC5 I was making more than our UK Directors.

How strange. When I moved from US to UK within a FAANG I took a fractional pay drop and got an RSU topper. After leaving and working as a UK employee in an international org I make more than a lot of US directors. Perhaps the difference comes from the value you brought to the company?

One thing that is objectively true though is that, outside of the whinging from software devs in the 1% that no one really cares about, the outcomes and efficiency of the US system sucks compared to every other western nation.

Re: US health system ranks last compared with peer nations – report

#119

Post by [deleted] »

chgs wrote: post #95
zjp wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also: an unironic 1%-er income in France is like literally the bottom of the barrel Bay Area salary. If you're at or above the median America is great, outside of some very high cost of living cities.

Really teachers and baristas and builders get paid more than 99% of people in France Or are you just talking specific tech jobs.

[deleted]

Re: US health system ranks last compared with peer nations – report

#120

Post by fnordpiglet »

arjie wrote: post #36

One thing that's surprised me about the US is the general slowness of most things. In India, you can get MRIs and CT Scans same day. Or you could the last time I was there. And it didn't cost very much in comparison. My doctors have all been good (attested to by my parents who are surgeons themselves) but the healthcare system is wonky. One thing I didn't expect is that the Indian system where you just drag your heal…

This changed about 15 years ago. Prior to that you would often just go same visit to imaging or whatever.
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