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Universal health coverage could save $1T and 114k lives a year: study

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Re: Universal health coverage could save $1T and 114k lives a year: study

#141
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about them? The Canadian healthcare system has better outcomes than the American healthcare system in several areas. Most simply, Canadians live longer.

6 month median wait time for treatment, as in the case now in Canada, is not something I'd trade the American system for.

The difference is wealthy people get the care immediately in the US while the poor can go to the ED and get a bankruptcy.

Re: Universal health coverage could save $1T and 114k lives a year: study

#142
post #77

What about quality of care tradeoffs? In Canada, for example, you are forced to use the government system, and if it doesn't deem you important enough, there is no private option.

So the government provided healthcare covers everything then? If not, you cannot legally get it by paying for it by yourself? Curious.

My understanding is that a clinic or hospital can’t legally charge you for a procedure that’s universally available through the provincial healthcare system.

So you’re free to pay for anything else if you want.

Re: Universal health coverage could save $1T and 114k lives a year: study

#144

What about quality of care tradeoffs? In Canada, for example, you are forced to use the government system, and if it doesn't deem you important enough, there is no private option.

What about them? The Canadian healthcare system has better outcomes than the American healthcare system in several areas. Most simply, Canadians live longer.

I'm 29 and when I was a kid, getting a family doctor used to be an easy task and if you needed to see your doctor you could get in that day. Now all the doctors are so overworked, they're fleeing to America where they can get paid a reasonable wage for a reasonable amount of work. If you can even get a family doctor, if you want to book an appointment, they'll ask you which day you'd like 4 months from now.

My mom's been dealing with an issue with her lungs for the better part of the past year, and trying to get help through any of the intended methods just gets her put on a 2 year wait list. At this point her plan is to pay tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket to see a specialist in America.

The current generation of elderly Canadians now having lived a long life spent most of that life in an entirely different Canada. My generation is going to die on a waitlist.

Re: Universal health coverage could save $1T and 114k lives a year: study

#145
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if your solution requires perpetual majority control I think once universal health coverage is established, it amounts to political suicide to try to take it away again.

I don’t think “political suicide” exists anymore.

We still have Medicare, Medicaid, and social security. Even though each program has been weakened, none of them have been abolished and they can all be restored.

Heck, we still have SNAP, even though it's almost universally hated by republicans.

Re: Universal health coverage could save $1T and 114k lives a year: study

#146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$1 trillion less profit.

That would be a massive hit to our GDP.

Are you implying you would decide to sacrifice citizens health for a few GDP points, a somewhat useful but oversimplified metric that doesn’t reflect anything tangible?

Re: Universal health coverage could save $1T and 114k lives a year: study

#147
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans just consume a lot of healthcare services. Any substantial cost savings requires providing less healthcare service.

Citation needed (per capita please). Given that people constantly, literally AVOID care because they can’t pay for it until it’s such an absurd problem that it’s very, very expensive, I struggle to believe this, at all. And money amount doesn’t matter in this evidence because, again, Americans regularly avoid care until it’s catastrophic because they literally can’t afford it and/or have to wait for insurance to meet…

The people who avoid care they need because they can't afford it are a very small portion of the population that gets an outsized share of attention on the issue.

Until public healthcare advocates understand this and make actual attempts to convince the majority of people who are satisfied with the current system that there are benefits, the status quo will remain.

Re: Universal health coverage could save $1T and 114k lives a year: study

#148

What about quality of care tradeoffs? In Canada, for example, you are forced to use the government system, and if it doesn't deem you important enough, there is no private option.

My dad, in the US on Medicare (one of the government funded systems), was denied a test. Because we have the option and had the money, he went and got the test himself on his own dime. That kicked off a series of events that led to a quadruple bypass, avoided an impending heart attack, and likely added many years to his life and his ability to remain and functioning member of society. While I love the idea of never h…

The availability of universal healthcare does not preclude the availability of privately paid healthcare as well.

Re: Universal health coverage could save $1T and 114k lives a year: study

#149

We've been down this road. ACA was predicated on studies like this, to no avail (it turns out that intense opposition chips away at it over time regardless of these studies). I'm of the opinion that, if your solution requires perpetual majority control of legislative, executive, and judicial branches, your solution is in fact a campaign slogan. I'm not saying that this is what is happening now , but I am saying that…

George Bush Sr. made a deal with Democrats to raise taxes and cut spending. Ever since then the Republican strategy has been to oppose pretty much anything a Democratic President proposes. The ACA was a Republican healthcare idea and they didn’t support it because a Democrat proposed it.

There are only two realistic possibilities. Get a Republican to propose some sort of national healthcare or have Democrats fully embrace socialized medicine and not give a shit what Republicans say or think. If it gets implemented quickly enough then getting rid of it will be very difficult to do. People won’t give up free at the point of usage healthcare once they try it out.

Re: Universal health coverage could save $1T and 114k lives a year: study

#150

We've been down this road. ACA was predicated on studies like this, to no avail (it turns out that intense opposition chips away at it over time regardless of these studies). I'm of the opinion that, if your solution requires perpetual majority control of legislative, executive, and judicial branches, your solution is in fact a campaign slogan. I'm not saying that this is what is happening now , but I am saying that…

These types of studies, and the goals they aim to support, always frustrate me as solving a surface-level problem rather than root cause. The problem with US healthcare isn't who pays for it, its how damn expensive it is. As always there are multiple factors at play, my list would include corruption, lack of legal accountability/responsibility, and a population that is much less healthy than reasonable. Go after any…

No, it’s not a question of who pays for it but who benefits.

You could have universal health with zero additional spending by the US government, but all that administrative overhead is someone’s income.

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