VAMatt said:
Do you have significant experience with healthcare both inside and outside of the US? I do. And I can tell you that, while being insanely expensive, healthcare in the US is far superior to anything I've experienced and what I have seen and heard of the experiences of my family in Europe. In Europe (The places that I'm most familiar with are Ireland, England, and Croatia), you don't have much say in your own healthcare decisions. You can refuse treatments. But, you don't have much ability to push for trying alternatives. You have very little control on when you can get in to see a specialist. You may be forced to wait unreasonably long times for care for moderate issues. Pain is mostly not considered a treatable condition. And the list goes on and on. I see it all the time with my European family members. From what I seen, people that don't have experience with both systems, mostly prefer the European style socialized healthcare. But, people that do have experience with both systems all seem to believe that the US system is better.  It true that healthcare costs in the US are totally ridiculous. That's because the whole system has become a bureaucratic hellscape. But, it does not then follow that we should take out all of the good parts of US healthcare and institute something that we can easily see has serious problems where implemented in other places. So, from what I've seen and experienced, healthcare is about cash, to some extent, everywhere. In the US, it's about selling as much expensive stuff as possible to make a bunch of money. In Europe and many other places around the world, it's about providing as little care as possible to keep costs down.  Then there's another conversation to be had about healthcare innovation. That is largely driven by the the ability of drug and healthcare equipment manufacturers to make a bunch of money by selling in the US. So, in that way, the US is subsidizing the entire world.  Anyway, healthcare in the US needs a huge overhaul. The nonsensical regulations around it have made it a bureaucratic nightmare. But, socializing it is not the answer, and the evidence for that is overwhelming and easy to see.  |
Great post. Not that I am defending US system, not at all, that shit is crazy and makes no sense at all in regarding to hospital bills. But seriously, people sometimes have no idea how bad it can be in a socialised system. I had private care in Brazil and now I have NHS in England, and there is not even a single day I do not wish I could have what I had in Brazil, to the point that me, like so many others, use my annual travel to Brazil so I can get proper care and treatment, exams and etc. And buy tons of medication.
I don't even try going to public services here anymore if I can afford private.
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