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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

#181

Post by triceratops »

kylehotchkiss wrote: post #15
jimbob45 wrote: post #3

It's unfair to judge the EU piecewise but then judge the US as a whole. Either let us compare apples to apples by judging the whole EU against the US or let us judge individual European member states against individual US states.

Ugh. This. Not just for healthcare though, for everything. Using small wealthy countries with populations smaller than our states as a comparison against our continent sized country is really not helping or proving anything.

> Using small wealthy countries with populations smaller than our states

I don't know which countries you're talking about. Sweden has a population of 10m, which would make it the 10th largest US state. Norway's 5.5m people would make it the 23rd largest.

Even if we go really small and rich, Luxembourg's population is 670k - that's more than Washington DC (not a state, I know), Vermont, and Wyoming.

The only really wealthy European country that's smaller than a US state is Iceland.

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

#182

Post by HPsquared »

naming_the_user wrote: post #68
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.

Yeah, I've always found the "meme" of the 1% kind of amusing. The 95th percentile US taxpayer earns as much as the 99th percentile Brit. Huge, huge difference.

The the UK is quite "unequal pay" as far as Europe goes.

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

#183

Post by davidguetta »

Yeah that's the funny part: in the US you should pay thousands of dollars for the basic exam / ambulance ride and many people don't have coverage while in entirety of europe is basically free, but the US gov is still paying 50% more in GDP than the other

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

#184

Post by A_D_E_P_T »

jq-r wrote: post #169
A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. But in Croatia where things are a little bit... well... different. For instance, I don't need a prescription to buy (almost) any drug in the pharmacy. And I don't need a prescription or referral for any medical exams or blood tests; I can order them myself. Asia is like this, but Europe to the north and west of Croatia really isn't. I believe that things in the UK and Germany might be a lot slower and much more…

Well some relatively common things are easy to get in Croatia (bloodwork and meds - GPs like to prescribe those to get rid of you), more serious like exams, treatments, surgeries are absolutely terrible with waiting lists which are years long. People are dying, and/or their condition worsens before they even see a specialist. This is common knowledge for many years now. Private clinics are opening left and right with…

I've lived in the US where my health insurance had like a $6000 deductible and a $1400/month price-tag. (And, by the way, I really didn't appreciate how American doctors would gatekeep drugs, restrict their availability, and add significantly to their cost.)

Here, you can walk into any private clinic in Croatia, and arrange for even a fairly complicated surgery, and it'll cost you way less than all that. Your annual medical expense bill won't even come close; a very sick person in Croatia, who does everything in private clinics, pays less (annually) than a perfectly healthy person in the US who never sees the inside of a doctor's office.

My wife just gave birth here at an "expensive" private clinic, with a private room of her own, and the total price was cheaper than a few months of medical insurance would have cost in the US.

Ultimately, private clinics are a damn good thing, because price transparency, price competition, and paying out-of-pocket -- they all serve to keep fees reasonable. If a Croatian clinic tried to charge $100 for an aspirin tablet or a bag of saline, there'd be riots with pitchforks and torches.

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

#185

Post by nope1000 »

InDubioProRubio wrote: post #136
nope1000 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the problem in the west is just demographics. More older people leads to high demand on the healthcare system and fewer working age people leads to less supply.

China, SKorea, Japan.. all aging

And they all make their citicens work insanely long hours. So they are not sustainable either.

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

#186

Post by InDubioProRubio »

nope1000 wrote: post #185
InDubioProRubio wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China, SKorea, Japan.. all aging

And they all make their citicens work insanely long hours. So they are not sustainable either.

Got to keep that Necropolis warm

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

#187

Post by cafard »

tmaly wrote: post #175
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…

I had to visit the ER in Philippines. In US we sit there for 5-7 hours and see a nurse practitioner. In Philippines we were in an out in 2 hours and saw two doctors.

My last trip to the ER was in 2010. Probably because I had good health insurance, they saw me quickly (less than half an hour), cleaned me up, maybe glued a cut, and I was done.

This was in the US, just outside Washington, DC.

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

#188

Post by vkazanov »

archagon wrote: post #176
vkazanov wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone in the same income range, and many friends in comparable spot, I have to say that NHS is sometimes ok . Here's an NHS case. Case 1. My friend's wife had her body going numb, like, completely senseless. They didn't have a private insurance back then. It was maddening hard to get past the GP. And then there were numerous tests, and queues, and... She had a viral brain infection that was, luckily, easy to fix…

How much do you pay for your private insurance?

Wasn't me, it's a corporate perk

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

#189

Post by xtracto »

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…

In Mexico my experience was this:

* 8am arrive to the emergency room in a private hospital

* 8:10am get seen by an internist doctor and after initial review, tell the doctor that I would like to get an MRI.

8.20 get a doctor prescribed mri ans take it to the radiology department

8:40 get the MRI

9:30 Get the results of the MRI, and pay for the whole thing: No more than $1500 USD. Without insurance .

10:00am take mri to doctor and get appropriate prescription.

That was an amazing experience. We have these incredible technologies that could be used to detect illness waaaay before . Like, allow everyone to have an MRI every 6 months. Regardless of illnes, after.say you are 30.

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

#190

Post by Bayart »

evnix wrote: post #71
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…

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…

> 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.

In France I could have a blood test right now, without an appointment, and an X-ray by tomorrow morning (just checked).

But the ER is generally far too slow and some specialists have much too long waiting times.

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