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The True Cost of Healthcare in the US

truecostofhealthcare.org

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Re: The True Cost of Healthcare in the US

#81

Post by jasonlotito »

rubyrescue wrote: post #74
danielweber wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The numbers are vanishingly small Well, compared to what? The odds of having your private health insurance rescinded in the US is also very small -- but it's quite likely among people who suddenly rack up big health care costs. Similarly, if you compare Canada-to-US medical tourists to the Canadian population, I'm sure it's amazingly tiny. But how does it compare to the people of means who have a medical procedure de…

Well, I can't find any canadians who don't want their system. I can't find any (non-partisan) news sources complaining of a even a small number of people who would opt out of the Canadian system. Tommy Douglas, the founder of the system, is repeatedly voted the most popular Canadian in history... And...anecdotally every Canadian friend of mine loves to likes the system. I'd love to see some, any, hard evidence that t…

My wife, who is Canadian, used to love the health care system in Canada. After actually relying on it, she came to despise it. We left Canada and came to the US precisely for health care for my son (who is also Canadian). He received more care in the first 2 weeks here then he ever received in Canada. She now sings the US health cares praises.

I could go on and on about the abuse my son received at the hands of the Canadian health care system, but I'll just say that I hate the system. At every step of the way, despite doing everything we could, my son suffered because of the system.

A part of me understands it's because it was Quebec, but Quebec is an example of how the Canadian system fails, and fails hard.

A part of me feels as if it was my fault. I should have moved sooner, when we were first lied to. But we figured if we played by the rules, things would work out. We were wrong.

So no. I'd fight tooth and nail to prevent that abuse from coming to the US. And if it did come, I'd leave. I will not let my family suffer like that again.

Re: The True Cost of Healthcare in the US

#82

Post by cema »

rowanseymour wrote: post #80
skylan_q wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because there are thousands of Canadians every year that go bankrupt because of health care costs. Actually, there are. They go the US to get care that's not offered in Canada. The care here is about as good as former soviet bloc countries. If there was a chance that an illness such as cancer could kill me, I'd get out of Canada in a heartbeat and embrace poverty if it meant keeping my life.

"as good as former soviet bloc countries"... really.. ? How many Americans (like Sarah Palin) are going the other way across the border? According to one study [1], only 0.61% of Canadians are going to the US for healthcare. And you have to consider that that the Canadian government pays for much of that care in the US. I'd imagine that if things were as bad as you claim, that number would be a bit higher [1] http://…

Excuse me, what was that about Sarah Palin?

Re: The True Cost of Healthcare in the US

#83

Post by dave48 »

guylhem wrote: post #78
dave48 wrote: post #75

Hi, My name is David Belk and I wrote the website. I noticed a lot of traffic from here this Morning. I'd just like to say thank you and, are there any questions I can answer? I'm having a busy Morning but I'll be free in about an hour.

One question : just how would you prioritize actions to turn heathcare into a real market, or as close to it as possible ? I would go for: 1) full price transparency 2) making price discrimination illegal 3) attacking the information asymmetry by providing a free, subsidized first line triage Whether treatment is taken or the patient decides to do without it, making sure tests and diagnosis are performed could help p…

Price transparency is good but, what's also missing in health care is value transparency. In other words, not only do most people (including most physicians) not know how much anything in health care really costs, they don't know how much anything should cost! The level of blindness in this business is truly unprecedented. What's also needed are a number of consumer protection laws that we take for granted in pretty much every other industry. Those alone would go a long way toward correcting many of the problems we have in health care.

Re: The True Cost of Healthcare in the US

#84

Post by jasonlotito »

rowanseymour wrote: post #80
skylan_q wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because there are thousands of Canadians every year that go bankrupt because of health care costs. Actually, there are. They go the US to get care that's not offered in Canada. The care here is about as good as former soviet bloc countries. If there was a chance that an illness such as cancer could kill me, I'd get out of Canada in a heartbeat and embrace poverty if it meant keeping my life.

"as good as former soviet bloc countries"... really.. ? How many Americans (like Sarah Palin) are going the other way across the border? According to one study [1], only 0.61% of Canadians are going to the US for healthcare. And you have to consider that that the Canadian government pays for much of that care in the US. I'd imagine that if things were as bad as you claim, that number would be a bit higher [1] http://…

> And you have to consider that that the Canadian government pays for much of that care in the US.

It does not pay a dime.

Re: The True Cost of Healthcare in the US

#86

Post by rowanseymour »

cema wrote: post #82
rowanseymour wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"as good as former soviet bloc countries"... really.. ? How many Americans (like Sarah Palin) are going the other way across the border? According to one study [1], only 0.61% of Canadians are going to the US for healthcare. And you have to consider that that the Canadian government pays for much of that care in the US. I'd imagine that if things were as bad as you claim, that number would be a bit higher [1] http://…

Excuse me, what was that about Sarah Palin?

"we used to hustle on over the border for health care that we would receive in Whitehorse"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/sarah-palin/740955...

Re: The True Cost of Healthcare in the US

#87

Post by noahc »

cdavid wrote: post #53
noahc wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is comparing prices by putting it into 2013 dollars. It has nothing to do with availability. You can take a car, computer, or any other good that has a price and easily convert it back to 1865 or 1900 or whatever dollars and this helps understand the cost of things relative to today. This makes your two middle paragraphs irrelevant. If you want to just look at cancer here is a place to start: http://www.cancer.org…

The cost of cancer/dialysis/diabete is quite relevant since those things are inherently expensive today, and you won't be able to pay it from your pocket unless you are in the top few % income wise. Regarding the 7 % costing 90 %, it does not surprise me much (the figure I heard in France was something like 10 % costing 60 %, but I don't pretend for their accuracy). You need to take into account that the 7 % are not…

It's an attempt to measure relative affordability, part of this is that humans are unable to take a value such as an average inflation rate of 3.4% and work backwards over 20 years.

I'm not sure how useful that number is, however, I'm pointing out that it doesn't add to the invalidity of his argument.

Re: The True Cost of Healthcare in the US

#88

Post by rowanseymour »

jasonlotito wrote: post #84
rowanseymour wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"as good as former soviet bloc countries"... really.. ? How many Americans (like Sarah Palin) are going the other way across the border? According to one study [1], only 0.61% of Canadians are going to the US for healthcare. And you have to consider that that the Canadian government pays for much of that care in the US. I'd imagine that if things were as bad as you claim, that number would be a bit higher [1] http://…

> And you have to consider that that the Canadian government pays for much of that care in the US. It does not pay a dime.

"Most patients who come from Canada to the U.S. for health care are those whose costs are covered by the Canadian governments. If a Canadian goes outside of the country to get services that are deemed medically necessary, not experimental, and are not available at home for whatever reason (e.g., shortage or absence of high tech medical equipment; a longer wait for service than is medically prudent; or lack of physician expertise), the provincial government where you live fully funds your care."

http://www.denverpost.com/recommended/ci_12523427

Re: The True Cost of Healthcare in the US

#89

Post by allons-y »

cobrausn wrote: post #59
smutticus wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Whenever someone talks about the need for socialized medicine because "otherwise people would go bankrupt", remember it is the socialization of medicine that caused costs to rise to the point where people would go bankrupt. Because there are thousands of Canadians every year that go bankrupt because of health care costs. Your argument doesn't even begin to make sense.

Don't confuse an effective single-payer system for what we have or what 'Obamacare' (I hate that word) is giving us.

Then call it what it is, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Re: The True Cost of Healthcare in the US

#90

Post by dave48 »

mlguenther wrote: post #34

The author missed a very important reason why hospitals are charging such high fees. In 1986 Reagan passed the "Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act". Since that time, hospitals are required to treat anyone, regardless of whether or not they have insurance, as if they were a fully insured patient. My wife, who is a physician in a busy hospital, consistently sees about 40% of her patients have no health in…

You should read my epilogue on why hospitals are going bankrupt: http://truecostofhealthcare.org/epilogue Or watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LieVr0QvkME No one is admitted to the hospital these days who doesn't qualify by a rather strict set of criteria. If you qualify and have nothing then, in most States, Medicaid picks up the tab. If you have anything, the hospital gets it.Hospitals give free care the way Heidi Fleiss gave free love.
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