Posted on 09/20/2016 10:35:52 PM PDT by benfranklinthomasjefferson
I have not found one study that says the US health system is number one. While there are pockets of great number one care, we are overall not doing that well.
In addition, the prices are astronomical paying 9k per person.
What can be done about this? How can we make it a competitive market? Should we make it a single payer system like all the other countries doing better than us?
You could move to Britain. They’re ranked #1 in the survey you linked to.
Goodbye, troll.
LOL. Tells you everything you need to know about the so-called survey.
Try the free market by repealing McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945: http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/01/22/new-hampshire-legislators-promise-free-market-health-insurance-to-fix-obamacare-mess/
That's an asinine question. Why don't you run this thread over to DU? They'll love it over there.
My lovely wife experienced the single-payer health care system of Italy a year or so ago. No thanks.
I don’t know how these studies are done, but my impression from is that they are pure bunk. I would MUCH rather have a health episode in the US than in Europe (or in Chile, the most developed South American nation, where we lived for 8 years).
You make a “competitive market” by getting the government totally out of medicine and insurance of all kinds. Prices would decline drastically and quality would rise rapidly. Far more people would have access. Universal access to government medicine means only that everyone has an equal opportunity to get into a long line to receive sup standard care if he lives to get to the head of that line.
And for that matter, why am I arguing with someone who signed up today to post this garbage?
Protip: When you feel your hair standing on end, it’s a good idea to go flat as quickly as possible.
Healthcare in the US is a monopoly not subject to normal market competition. Within Trump’s healthcare reform proposals are 2 points which could reduce healthcare costs by up to 80%. First, require ALL healthcare providers to post their prices. Hospitals, clinics, private offices, all of them. An example would be the Surgical Center of Oklahoma. Second, allow for the reimportation of all pharmaceuticals and medical devices into the US at current world prices. This second proposal would reduce our costs significantly but admittedly financially implode a few of those single payer, socialized systems that appear to be so fantastic as our subsidizing of their systems would cease.
Yes, the best system in the world is going bankrupt. So many of these reports are pure BS because they aren’t honest. In the case of infant mortality many countries define a live birth differently and some countries don’t consider it a live birth if the baby is expected to die, and still births are antidotal. So it goes, trash America.
I’m actually disappointed with Trump’s plan, because he doesn’t identify one of the most expensive requirements of Obamacare - mandatory maternity coverage and the evil twin, forbidding the pricing of insurance to be based upon gender. So of course, man or woman, you have maternity coverage on your policy.
For a 40 year old woman, that is an extra $350 a month on most insurance plans (vs pre-ObamaCare plans where maternity coverage was optional.) For a 44 year old man, that’s an extra $500 a month as equality requirements mandate that he pay just as much as a member of another gender.
Two more segments that need to be done - tort reform; juries and judges no longer have a blank check to seize unlimited amounts of assets at their whim. And bankruptcy - all debt, including medical debt, should be dischargeable.
Both of those would have dramatic effect on controlling medical costs - the first from the unholy tax we all pay in this country on every single medical device, pill and office visit that goes to feed the medical tort lottery (and a considerable legal system which feeds upon it.) The second is an outright encouragement to the medical establishment to keep prices affordable.
Healthcare costs drive insurance cost. Drive down the cost of the first and the second becomes it’s true definition, coverage for catastrophic circumstances. I too used to believe that tort reform would drive down costs dramatically. That changed in 2012 when I was privy to a west coast (California) hospital survey that included nearly all public and private hospitals in the state. Legal costs/liabilities amounted to slightly less than 3%, on the average, of these institutions total financial liabilities. Administrative errors amounted to around 4%. Remember, the medical industry is the only major US business not subject to ANY anti monopoly law/codes. Disclaimer: I and members of my family have been in the ‘industry’ for a combined 109 years.
Common Wealth Fund is an advocate for single payer run by an ultra left wing flunky of former president Jimmah Carter.
It does not matter what their prices are; unless you are a cash customer. The reimbursement rate is fixed by the payor, i.e., MEDICARE, MEDICAID or private insurance.
That is why so few doctors accept MEDICAID. The payments are often less than their costs.
I found one, Davis, you fool. It was in the second place I looked, and it's for the only thing that matters, survival. Here's what it says: "The highest survival rates were found in the U.S. for breast and prostate cancer." It's right here: http://www.webmd.com/cancer/news/20080716/cancer-survival-rates-vary-by-country
As someone with prostate cancer, I find this to be quite reassuring, and I also find you to be a babbling fool.
Get back to insurance coverage for major surgeries and hospitalizations only. Everything else should be paid out of pocket.
When they increase regulation of health care they never factor in the cost increases affect on the utilization of health care.
mark
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