Why are Americans poisoning themselves?

[Chrkeller]

Chris Hu 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.  

It's not a BS myth unless you like to ignore basic facts.  The US leads the world in medical bankruptcies and medical debt no other country is even close to the US when it comes to that basic undeniable fact. 

Approximately 14 million people (6% of adults) in the U.S. owe over $1,000 in medical debt and about 3 million people (1% of adults) owe medical debt of more than $10,000.” 

1% owe over 10k...  99% owe less than 10k.  94% owe less than 1k.  So, yep.  

Credit card debt is 6x medical debt.  Americans have a spending problem.  

College debt is 9x more than medical.  

And the US is the world leader in disposable income.  Number 1.  People need to learn how to budget.