Non-Americans Stunned By American Health Care Costs

[Bofferbrauer2]

Mr Puggsly said:

curl-6 said:

The new benefit just as much from it when they need it though, unlike in a Ponzi scheme where new investors do not get a fair share of the benefits.

If you get injured in a car crash at age 18 or are born with a lifelong congenital disease, you still get the full benefits. When I got cancer at age 30 I didn't have to go broke or go without treatment as a low income earner because of it.

I tend to be a bit pessimistic about programs run unsustainably. At some point the "new" are gonna have to get hit with a large tax increase. While the "old" will say, "I am entitled because I paid!" Hence, its not gonna be fair at this rate because the old are getting more than they put in, the new will pay more because the program is no longer sustaining itself. We are already at that point by the way, there just hasn't been a tax increase.

Medicaid and social security are different. I'm fine with safety nets for people that truly need them. Primarily if they have real problems, not just a series of dumb life choices. I want people with cancer and other serious conditions to be socialized for the poor. It would take only fraction to pay for that versus every little need that many working people could pay out of pocket. Everybody needs the small things, but a much smaller number of people need help with bankrupting medical issues.

Just as a comparison with the luxembourgish healthcare, which gets run 100% by how much gets paid in by the employees, which is 3.25% of the monthly wage (for those used to yearly wages, in case of a 60k salary you'd pay $162.50 per month for the healthcare, much cheaper than most premiums I saw in the US lately). Our healthcare had only 3 times run a deficit since 2000 (2008, 2009 and 2017; the coronavirus tests and vaccines are directly done by the health ministry, otherwise 2020 and 2021 more than likely would also had a deficit) despite giving much better coverage and cheaper prices than in the US.

And while there was an increase in the amount of the wage that goes to healthcare in 2013, it was only raised from 3.20% to 3.25%, so a 0.05% increase that maybe cost us an Euro or two more per month.