Why are Americans poisoning themselves?

[Chrkeller]

DekutheEvilClown 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.  

Private healthcare and universal healthcare are not mutually exclusive. In Europe there are lots of private healthcare providers. If you want to pay you can see a specialist tomorrow. Since the private healthcare system has so few people you can basically walk into the top specialists in the country at little notice. 

Yep, exactly what we did.  Paid a ton in tax for universal Healthcare, then bought an American style private healthcare on top of that in order to ensure my 12 year daughter could get spinal care.  

Edit

To get back on topic, Europe crushes the US in terms of food quality.  The one thing I truly miss from living in Europe is high quality food.  The US does need better food standards.