Why are Americans poisoning themselves?

[Chrkeller]

Farsala said:

Chrkeller said:

I am not a fan personally.  The US system isn't as expensive as people make it out to be.  It is founded in a shared risk system, similar to Universal.  The difference is Universal is paid via taxes, while employment pays for the US's shared risk plan.  The max out of pocket, on average, is 4-5k.  Nobody in the US is paying hundreds of thousands, that is a BS myth (not directed at you) that the media has created.  The other point is, when I lived in Europe with Universal, waiting times for a specialist was 6 to 9 months.  In the US, yeah it costs me 4k, but I could see someone in a week.  

Meh. When I was on the health insurance plan with my mother's workplace the yearly deductible was $10,000 15 years ago. Which is a far more massive tax than the health insurance tax from universal in many countries. Of course I am not unhealthy so I actually paid $0, but for the more prone to health issues, over 10 years that would be $100,000.

For a family, yes.  Take 5k and times by 2, get 10k.  And that 10k is likely max out of pocket, not deductible. 

And my experience with universal was pay a ton in taxes and wait half a year before seeing a doctor.  Not impressed.  

Edit

100k earner in the US takes home 79k.  In the UK 72k.  Germany 62k...  guess what, I just paid for my healthcare max out of pocket.  

*rough numbers because it depends on credits, deductions, source of income, etc.  Obviously various from person to person.  

Point being, nothing is free.  It is being paid for, just different routes.  And the largest point, for the US, is healthcare will continue to raise in costs as people continue to be unhealthy.  Health needs to be part of healthcare.

Disposable Income by Country 2026

Last edited by Chrkeller - 11 hours ago