I dare say you made this up so you can rail against it.
A lot of assumption in this post. Discretionary income varies. Being penny wise doesn’t mean that the emergency situation wouldn’t break the bank.
Scott Atlas is a free market healthcare supporter. That’s an opinion piece you cite.
Dont forget those flat screen TVs, and how dare they ever consider wanting access to the internet let a phone.
I went to the ER and the total charge for a fee hours was just shy of $20k. Even with insurance I owed a hefty $2k. Tell me who has $20k just sitting there in case of an emergency.
For most people after paying their bills, putting money in a 401k, paying for their kids to do extra curricular activities there is not a lot left over.
I ■■■■■■■ detest the attitude that people should somehow just exist in life and have nothing but work and toil.
I detest more the attitude that people should have to pay for others who make poor decisions through their work and toil.
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In Britain you can opt for private treatment if you like,I wouldn’t because of the price of it.
I’ve grown up with our health system and I wouldn’t swap it for the American model,it’s far too expensive
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Who said I always had better circumstances? Who is the one judging others?
Nope…that isn’t it at all. Let’s examine life, in a very simple manner…shall we? You have 24 hours in a day…7 days a week. In all 7, you get 8 hours of sleep and 8 hours to do as you please. In 5 of those days, you work and toil for 8 hours each…giving your very best efforts to yourself, those that depend on you and your country. Do you actually “detest” this attitude?
You don’t know that she paid a dime for those tattoos.
That’s a fair point.
That’s true…but logic dictates they weren’t free and applying that logic, I stand by what I said.
I’m pretty sure that’s circular reasoning…
I just outlined above a situation where someone didn’t pay for their tattoos. The point here is that people’s lives are complicated and situations vary and standing back and wagging your finger in judgement is a ■■■■■■ way to be. It’s a slippery slope and could be applied to anyone in any situation. I know it feels good to think you’re a better person because you aren’t in their situation, but it’s not true.
Could not the same argument be made that standing back, ignoring what you observe and not taking that into consideration is ignorant? Again remember…this is a discussion forum. If it was real life, I’d ask the individual questions and get the answers to better help my judgement call regarding anything I’m being asked to make a decision on.
Can we discuss the actual issue? That healthcare is a problem in this country? And not everyone who maybe has trouble procuring it for their families is in this predicament because they own a color tv or at some point in their life spent 850$ on tattoos? It’s ignorant to completely sidestep the actual issue that is harming millions of American families and finding reasons to ignore it that center on blaming everything but the system.
There is a problem with our healthcare industry in that the cost is too high. This problem has many facets to it that involve lawyers, insurance companies and factors that don’t actually improve the service but do drive up the costs. These factors should be addressed and IMO it would involve tort reform. I’d like to see it addressed. What I don’t want, are the contributing factors that are driving up costs to be ignored and the expense of insurance to then be placed on the backs of tax payers…and then let’s call it a day.
People here complain about health care all the time. However (this is purely anecdotal of course), in the past two years I, or people I was financially responsible for, would have been on the hook for hundreds of thousands in hospital bills in the US, but not here. For example, my father was in ICU for nearly a month, for which we paid… $35 for the ambulance that picked him up from the house. Average cost of ICU care is approx 4000 per day, so appox 120000 for the total. All covered by single payer.
For this, the tax I pay is less per year than the average US health insurance is for three months (it caps at 900 if you make over 200k per year, average US individual plan is approx 400 per month). There are plenty of things to complain about (yes there are sometimes long waits for example, although this is exaggerated somewhat by opponents of the system). However, some of these would not affect the US - we sometimes have long waits because the nature of single payer means doctors can make more south of the border so we lose talent there - if the US went single payer that wouldn’t be an issue as doctors would have nowhere else to go.
I have to agree with you. Neither system is perfect and both sides spout propoganda about the other.
The medical care I have received back home and in the US is the same but the sheer cost of health care services in the US is out of control.
No one in the Uk goes bankrupt for medical bills and thats the biggest driver of bankruptcies in the US.
But as you can see from this thread there is a train of thought that expects you to be able to plan for every eventuality in life and if you can lay your hands on 10 or 20k then your a loser who has made poor choices.
Insurance companies are actually working to drive down the cost. Take the recent innovations in provider reimbursement. I have been involved in a pilot that reimburses providers based on quality of care not the traditional fee for service.
Other areas of innovation is looking at the traditional delivery methods and disrupting these. Past few consultations i have had have been video chat with a $50 cost. Far more cost effective than an office visit. And yes I know video chat is not always suitable.
Educating customers to use urgent health care and retail clinics instead of the ER. We now provide details on Explanation of Benefits that gives alternatives to the treatment you had and provides a dollar amount you could have saved.
But I think we can both agree that providers have to be more transparent. Health Care is the only service we consume where we do not have access to costs up front. Can you imagine going to the supermarket where nothing is priced?
The biggest break through I found in reducing costs was a virtual visit. You use your phone and the doctor examines you, asks pertinent questions and diagnoses your condition right over the phone. They then call in a prescription and bam…it was a $35 dollar doctor’s visit plus the cost of your medicine.
