Good post - thank you. It ignores that the US (with it's lack of "socialized medicine" not only spends orders of magnitude than other G7 countries, it has worse outcomes by almost any metric. Further, much of US healthcare is "socialized", i.e., Medicare (which people generally quite like) and is further "socialized" due to the tax deductibility of insurance premiums - a horrible accident of history that sadly linked health insurance to employment.
I'll also note that there are multiple other solutions to Universal Access than Single Payer (like Canada or UK), Germany has private insurance as a first line solution and, here in Spain (and, I believe Portugal), private insurance is readily available at minimal price.
US subsidizes drug discovery for the rest of the world and, even worse, allows rapacious behavior by investor-owned hospitals and insurers. I could go on but...
💯 but I was afraid if I went down that rabbit hole I’d lose most people - tried to find one thing that most people might not have considered that might be a crack in their disdain / misunderstanding- but yes yes to everything you said - I have a very affordable (€54 /mo) Private supplement for me and my son here in PT such a huge relief
M.E.G., I do love your writing, and when you sink your teeth into something.., yikes.
I tried to think of something humorous to say here but nothing comes to mind. FFS.
‘Experts’ suggest that are many factors that contribute to the high cost of healthcare in the US including wasteful systems, rising drug costs, medical professional salaries, profit-driven healthcare centers (!!!), overprescribed medical practices, health-related pricing, etc. Put simply, greed, gouging, control and paranoia are among the many perverse pillars that now support the US medical industrial complex.
Hardly the model of public service to trumpet about..
So fricking exhausting even trying to talk on a rational level about health care. Economics alone says a large government like the United States can buy in larger bulk than any one state. Moreover, the GOP cites a larger pool when purchasing insurance across state lines and I agree; 330M people,. all in the same pool would drive costs WAY WAY WAY down, right?? WHOA there, son! That there sounds like socialism. No, that is what governments are supposed to do for us.
Oh and if you don’t follow Robert Reich you’d probably like him. -his argument which I appreciate is that the U.S. is socialist but just for big business and the rich 😳
Love Robert! Yes, I follow him and America is a socialism for the rich! The cognitive dissonance the rich have just to be able to rationalize their greed and selfishness, not realizing they are sucking the guts out of the economic engine that enables their wealth is gobsmacking…
We obviously agree 😃 and yes even if you don’t understand economics everyone understands volume purchasing - maybe Walmart just needs to take over the U.S. healthcare system 🤔 just kidding
I would argue that the vast majority of Americans who do not want to see a centralized system are completely blind to how the current system benefits them and they have no clue what so many others go through just for basic care.
I racked up nearly 500K in medical expenses in 2019/2020 following a cancer diagnosis (I am healthy and out of the woods now). I was privileged to have very good insurance through my spouses employer. Our out of pocket was about 8K over two years. I contrasts that with a friend who has been battling cancer for the past three years and is constantly needing to set up "Go fund me" pages just to get by. Employer based healthcare is truly unfair and filled with inequities even when one has it.
We expect to be starting our new life in Portugal next month, I obviously can't speak to healthcare there, but we have affordable private insurance, and I trust that while there will be bumps in the road, but we will be just fine.
So glad you are healthy and got out minimally unscathed financially - as you said so many people go bankrupt over their health issues in the U.S. - it’s insane. Yes the combo of public safety net with an affordable private supplement works well here in PT - congrats on your new life (almost)!
Good post - thank you. It ignores that the US (with it's lack of "socialized medicine" not only spends orders of magnitude than other G7 countries, it has worse outcomes by almost any metric. Further, much of US healthcare is "socialized", i.e., Medicare (which people generally quite like) and is further "socialized" due to the tax deductibility of insurance premiums - a horrible accident of history that sadly linked health insurance to employment.
I'll also note that there are multiple other solutions to Universal Access than Single Payer (like Canada or UK), Germany has private insurance as a first line solution and, here in Spain (and, I believe Portugal), private insurance is readily available at minimal price.
US subsidizes drug discovery for the rest of the world and, even worse, allows rapacious behavior by investor-owned hospitals and insurers. I could go on but...
💯 but I was afraid if I went down that rabbit hole I’d lose most people - tried to find one thing that most people might not have considered that might be a crack in their disdain / misunderstanding- but yes yes to everything you said - I have a very affordable (€54 /mo) Private supplement for me and my son here in PT such a huge relief
M.E.G., I do love your writing, and when you sink your teeth into something.., yikes.
I tried to think of something humorous to say here but nothing comes to mind. FFS.
‘Experts’ suggest that are many factors that contribute to the high cost of healthcare in the US including wasteful systems, rising drug costs, medical professional salaries, profit-driven healthcare centers (!!!), overprescribed medical practices, health-related pricing, etc. Put simply, greed, gouging, control and paranoia are among the many perverse pillars that now support the US medical industrial complex.
Hardly the model of public service to trumpet about..
:P
Oh US medical system how are you dysfunctional let me count the ways 😂 It’s sad 😞
So fricking exhausting even trying to talk on a rational level about health care. Economics alone says a large government like the United States can buy in larger bulk than any one state. Moreover, the GOP cites a larger pool when purchasing insurance across state lines and I agree; 330M people,. all in the same pool would drive costs WAY WAY WAY down, right?? WHOA there, son! That there sounds like socialism. No, that is what governments are supposed to do for us.
Oh and if you don’t follow Robert Reich you’d probably like him. -his argument which I appreciate is that the U.S. is socialist but just for big business and the rich 😳
Love Robert! Yes, I follow him and America is a socialism for the rich! The cognitive dissonance the rich have just to be able to rationalize their greed and selfishness, not realizing they are sucking the guts out of the economic engine that enables their wealth is gobsmacking…
Yes and how the masses don’t see it is mind boggling
We obviously agree 😃 and yes even if you don’t understand economics everyone understands volume purchasing - maybe Walmart just needs to take over the U.S. healthcare system 🤔 just kidding
My heart stopped!!!! Don’t do that, not in THIS country!!!!! 😂😂😂
Just kidding - deep breaths 😂
Great post... A lot to unpack here.
I would argue that the vast majority of Americans who do not want to see a centralized system are completely blind to how the current system benefits them and they have no clue what so many others go through just for basic care.
I racked up nearly 500K in medical expenses in 2019/2020 following a cancer diagnosis (I am healthy and out of the woods now). I was privileged to have very good insurance through my spouses employer. Our out of pocket was about 8K over two years. I contrasts that with a friend who has been battling cancer for the past three years and is constantly needing to set up "Go fund me" pages just to get by. Employer based healthcare is truly unfair and filled with inequities even when one has it.
We expect to be starting our new life in Portugal next month, I obviously can't speak to healthcare there, but we have affordable private insurance, and I trust that while there will be bumps in the road, but we will be just fine.
So glad you are healthy and got out minimally unscathed financially - as you said so many people go bankrupt over their health issues in the U.S. - it’s insane. Yes the combo of public safety net with an affordable private supplement works well here in PT - congrats on your new life (almost)!