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Forums - General - Explanation of U.S. healthcare costs.

stof on 03 September 2008
HappySqurriel said:

While American's live with a healthcare system where some people get excellent care, most get adequate care, and some have little or no access to healthcare ... all Canadians have little or no access to healthcare.

Realistically, the problem with healthcare around the world is that it is too expensive because people are not taking adeqate care of themself, doctors are favouring expensive new drugs over conventional therapies far too often, and malpractice insurance has become amazingly expensive due to people accepting the risks of surgery and then suing when the risk becomes a reality.

I know your profile lists you as Canadian, but I don't think you've ever actually been to Canada



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Kasz216 on 03 September 2008
SamuelRSmith said:
Kasz216 said:

I pay over $100 a month for my healthcare. And my healthcare plan blows.

Still when people compare healthcare plans to other countries what they ignore is America's immense size.

The population and landmass a national healthcare provider has to cover raises the prices...

We will ALWAYS pay more then Great Britian does per capita for healthcare... by a significant margin, privatized or public sector.

Personally I think because of this... Healthcare should be treated like how the schools should be treated.

State responsibility. That way you cut out the huge overhead and wastefull spending of the federal government.

Healthcare is one of the things that i think should be partially privatized.

No one ever seems to go with the mixed market approach though.  They either want everyone to be covered for everything... even the tinyiest things... or they want nothing covered.

Me... i'm for enough "universal" healthcare to make sure every worker can get patched up and go back to work, with extras for things like... laser eye surgeries and stuff.

 

 Couldn't having it in seperate states lead to things like  people being able to pick up different prescriptions in different places, or hospitals not treating patients if their in the wrong state, or something.

I wouldn't see the latter being a huge issue, as, in the UK, the NHS wouldn't reject a foreigner for treatment most of the time.

The only issue i'd see would really be the people going 1 state over if one state has healthcare that was a lot better then the others.

Even that however really wouldn't be a problem since states could just inact laws where those from "Out of state" only get treatment of the Illnesses and stuff that would be covered by basic plans anyway.

I mean the government has to foot the bill when people can't afford their medical bills as it is.  Heck, hospitals in the US by law can't turn away ANYONE if they are in need of care.

As for the drugs... you just need to make perscriptions only fileable in the state they come from.  Easy enough i think.

The VFW has one of the best healthcare systems in the country now... in both cost and effectiveness... after it had been turned from the usual government organization to a succsesful one by one man.  So it's possible to break out of the ineffectiveness of the federa government... you just need the incentives to do so. 

In this case it was the dishonour of finding two dead bodies that had been lost....

By having the states "compete" with each other like a regular buisness you get the advantages of government run and economic run programs.

Since if North Dakota has better healthcare then South Dakota for cheaper... people are going to move.... etc.

Right now... the government ties the hands of states too much on a number of issues so the poorer states can't compete with the richer ones when it comes to things such as healthcare, education etc.

 



TheRealMafoo on 03 September 2008

If I don't use my heath insurance, I actually make money. 6 bucks lol.

It cost me $494 a year, and my company puts $500 in my account for me.

As for the overall issue... This country is in dire need of healthcare reform. The 100% wrong way to go about it however, is to nationalize it. Socialized medicine is, without question, the worst thing the US can do.



ManusJustus on 03 September 2008
TheRealMafoo said:

As for the overall issue... This country is in dire need of healthcare reform. The 100% wrong way to go about it however, is to nationalize it. Socialized medicine is, without question, the worst thing the US can do.

You can say that all you want, but the fact is that socialized medicine in Europe is thriving.  I believe I linked to you before about how all European nations pay less than America for healthcare per capita, for example USA pays $5,000 per capita while Great Britian pays $1,800 per capita.

 



Timmah! on 03 September 2008
ManusJustus said:
TheRealMafoo said:

As for the overall issue... This country is in dire need of healthcare reform. The 100% wrong way to go about it however, is to nationalize it. Socialized medicine is, without question, the worst thing the US can do.

You can say that all you want, but the fact is that socialized medicine in Europe is thriving.  I believe I linked to you before about how all European nations pay less than America for healthcare per capita, for example USA pays $5,000 per capita while Great Britian pays $1,800 per capita.

 

You can't really compare the two side by side. Out of control lawsuits, illegal immigration (they get emergency care for free), the vast size of the US, The larger population, etc, etc. US Healthcare will cost more no matter what you do with it. Regulating lawsuits would be a first step, this would help A LOT.

 



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ManusJustus on 03 September 2008
senseinobaka said:

Yea, that's illegal. A pharma company cannot pay kickbacks for writing perscriptions. Drugs yeild no profitability to doctors. Also, poor people usually aren't economically smart enough to realize that buying a name brand drug at a clinic pharmacy is stupid. You can save alot of money buy buying a generic from a walmart or target.

Its not illegal, and it is impossible to say that a doctor made a wrong decision unless it was blantantly obvious.  Surgery to remove an infection or medicine?  Surgery is much more profitable while medicine is a lot safer and more effective (no new infection from surgery, no missed infection during surgery).  However you cannot fault a doctor for advising surgery because its an individual opinion on two well accepted methods.

Patients aren't stupid, they are ignorant.  If anything you are the ill-informed one because many generic drugs lack proper delivery systems that name brands have.  I do not understand these mechanisms because I am not a doctor (that makes me ignorant too), but I have close relatives that are who inform me when I can buy generic and when its best to buy brand name.



Kasz216 on 03 September 2008
ManusJustus said:
TheRealMafoo said:

As for the overall issue... This country is in dire need of healthcare reform. The 100% wrong way to go about it however, is to nationalize it. Socialized medicine is, without question, the worst thing the US can do.

You can say that all you want, but the fact is that socialized medicine in Europe is thriving.  I believe I linked to you before about how all European nations pay less than America for healthcare per capita, for example USA pays $5,000 per capita while Great Britian pays $1,800 per capita.

 

The UK is much smaller and has much less people in it.

Even if the US had an identical healtchare system it would pay much much more per capita.

 



akuma587 on 03 September 2008

Lawsuits are a complete red herring issue. They passed a cap on damages in Texas where the most a plaintiff can receive is $250,000, but guess how much good it did? None whatsoever, healthcare is rising as fast here as it is anywhere else.

The entire system needs to be reevaluated. The easiest way to fix the current system we have in place is:

1) Do not allow insurance companies to price discriminate unreasonably

2) Do not allow a health insurance company to turn down people who have a preexisting condition (hell, my mom had one test where she had slightly elevated blood pressure and they dropped her completely, and a few months later it was fine)

3) Prevent hospitals from charging so much extra (often 3 times as much) to people who don't have insurance. They should pay the same that insurance companies do, otherwise that is price discrimination.



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steven787 on 03 September 2008
TheRealMafoo said:
If I don't use my heath insurance, I actually make money. 6 bucks lol.

It cost me $494 a year, and my company puts $500 in my account for me.

As for the overall issue... This country is in dire need of healthcare reform. The 100% wrong way to go about it however, is to nationalize it. Socialized medicine is, without question, the worst thing the US can do.

 

No, the worst thing is to keep it "locked" by politics.  Keeping out competition and keeping prices artificially high through legislation in the name of a free market.  Our system is not free it's pluralized - in the hands of special interest groups.



I would cite regulation, but I know you will simply ignore it.

steven787 on 03 September 2008

double post.



I would cite regulation, but I know you will simply ignore it.