It's finally happened!

It must be due to the lack of single payer… .

Not necessarily. There are benefits in reduced costs to consumers and not being dropped for spurious reasons.

I wonder if the Democratic Socialists realize that Venezuela doesn’t have
a middle class?:thinking::thinking::thinking:

Even before Obamacare, 40 cents of every dollar spent on healthcare was Federal (i.e. public tax money) money. Since that legislation the amount of federal money has gone up … and so has the cost. There is no indication that going to 100% Federal money will lower cost.

As an aside, our suburban schools do just fine on the world stage.

Can we learn anything from other countries that seem to have healthcare systems that work and are lower cost than ours?

Some perhaps, but nowhere near all.

“Work” is a subjective term. Why do so many citizens from those countries come here for treatment?

Do they? I’m not aware of statistically significant studies of that phenomenon.

Of course. On average though our suburban public schools perform fairly well against the world.

But it is cherry picking the population.

I think that is a bit of a myth. If you are looking for the best care and will pay for the best care, this is the place. Most people don’t here don’t get that though.

And “work” doesn’t need to be a subjective term. We can look at outcomes for various diseases.

The only way they can lower costs is lower the availability and quality of care even further.

Obamacare already has us seeing nurses and PA’s instead of doctors for many things. What’s next, “Surgical Technicians” in the operating room instead of MD’s? That’ll be fun!

That is factually false on it’s face.

The average person in this country can get “the best care” available wherever they are.

Even those on Medicaid and Medicare can do so as well. Very few providers will not take Medicaid, Medicare, or any private insurance that’s available.

You haven’t looked very far then.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2016-08-03/canadians-increasingly-come-to-us-for-health-care

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Are you serious?

Thanks for the link. Having read it, I’m not sure you realize that it doesn’t make your point so much as it reinforces mine. A couple of excerpts:

" The Commonwealth Fund, a U.S. think tank, released a report two years ago ranking Canada 10th out of 11 wealthy nations in terms of health care. Only the United States fared worse. The report, based largely on satisfaction surveys by patients and health-care providers, placed Canada last in timeliness of care. The United Kingdom was ranked No. 1."

In the 2014 Commonwealth Fund survey, a periodic study that goes back to 2004, the U.S. ranks dead last in access based on cost-related problems, which you would expect from the only country in the study without universal care. The U.S. ranks 5th in access based on timeliness of care.

“The Fraser Institute, a Canadian public policy think tank, estimates that 52,513 Canadians received non-emergency medical treatment in the U.S. and other countries in 2014, a 25 percent jump from the roughly 41,838 who sought medical care abroad the previous year.”

52K / 35M (population of Canada in 2014) = .0014, or 0.14%. That means 1 out of every 675 Canadians in 2014 chose to seek medical care outside Canada (not necessarily the U.S.), for a variety of reasons, only one of which was timely access to care. A case can be made for this statistic’s significance OR insignificance, depending on which side of the fence you’re on. But I certainly wouldn’t use it as a basis for a decision on national vs. privatized health care.

Again, thanks for the link. It’s one of the most compelling statistically-based arguments I’ve seen IN FAVOR of universal healthcare. The cost parameters alone make it a no-brainer, and the access issues appear to be addressable through more efficient allocation of resources.

What’s wrong with seeing nurses and PAs for many things? That’s already a standard thing and excellent for managing costs. This has nothing to do with Obamacare.

Good lord, managed care companies were doing this years before Obamacare. Indeed, there wouldn’t be PAs and LPNs if there weren’t a demand for them, which is the very quintessence of capitalism.

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Fox News is the fakest one of all. And the members of the news media, which isn’t liberal despite Fox’s lies that they are, don’t have time to plot bias. They’re too busy reporting the crooked Trump admin.

With pleasure.