There is certainly a problem with the “list prices” vs what insurance companies pay. Someone without insurance should not be charged $10,000 for something an insurance company has negotiated down to $100. In Trump’s first term, they tried to get hospitals to disclose their prices, which I believe the hospitals are simply ignoring.
There is also an issue with legal expenses. What is the malpractice situation in these other countries? And the issue of who pays for deadbeats. People get treated at some level even if they do not pay. And they usually use the emergency room as their PCP, which is the most costly way to go. Also, we have to consider the quality of the data we are working from. A lot of this comes from organizations whose goal is to have the gummit running the entire system top to bottom from Washington. I have trouble trusting what they have to say.
I just wish we could get reliable data that does not come with an agenda and just compares apples to apples.
As far as life expectancy is concerned, that will not get better until individual Americans learn to eat right, exercise a little, and generally stop abusing their bodies with drugs and alcohol and promiscuity and probably a dozen other things. You can bet a lot of that extra money is keeping us alive in spite of our bad habits.
I think the president could do a lot with hard nosed negotiating on drug prices. They should also do what they can to promote competition from the compounding pharmacies. I use compounded semaglutide for weight loss. It sets me back $30/week, which is well within my budget. But, as almost of us here know, President Trump has a lot of irons in the fire and I don’t think he needs more right at this moment.
Reforming education is a whole other ball of wax. For the time being, I am hoping that the rush away from expensive, burdensome and useless university degrees and toward skilled trades starts putting the pressure on that issue. And under no circumstances should student loans be forgiven. I graduated in 1979 with $9000 in student loans. That was 50% of my starting salary. I had to drive a Chevette for a few years, but I got those loans paid off. On time. Paying bills on time is one aspect of what they call these days “adulting”, and I think kids need a lot of practice. They can start by diligently paying their debts.
Well,that is about all I have to bloviate about tonight. Good night, everyone.
Nothing wrong with it but borrowing money for school just never occurred to me so I worked, every opportunity I had.
I had a great job one year for a guy I really got along well with. Joe did all he could to help me and let me work all the overtime I could stand. When contracts ended he hired me as a welder to do maintenance on the barges and such. I was making more than my Dad, a regional manager. I thought I might lay out of school a year and bank a bunch then go to back having time for better grades. Dad frowned on such an idea so I continued to work nearly 40 hours a week at various jobs until I completed school.
It looks like hospitals and others are simply ignoring Trump. I have not seen but one price list by one clinic.
Perhaps getting rid of some of the illegals will relax the deadbeat loadings but I do not expect to see any dividends from that.
I too would like to see unbiased data, I can’t find it so settle for the best I think I can find on short notice.
Other countries have many of the same problems with drug and drink that we have. I see no reason to attempt aid or counseling to these people. I’d like to see their ilk just fade out of the gene pool.
Drug prices are outrageous and until medicare, insurance et al refuse to pay them they will go on.
Most defend the cost and what I see as the ineffective indifference of a lot of medicine by a string of excuses. They roll off of tongues like butter. The fact remains, our medical system is at least 50% more expensive than any other in the world and delivers only middle of the pack results by the metrics most use. You can try to make chicken salad out of chicken crap but it is still chicken crap and you need to look for better ingredients / solutions. Medicine in the US is broken and excuses don’t change that. All we are doing now is pointing fingers in a circular firing squad.
Edumacation, a train wreck brought to us by laziness and the NEA. I only caught the tip of liberal education in high screwl in a system that was still almost rural. The kids went to TAMU when it was all but a conservative bastion and majored in engineering and military science. They have protected the rights of people to be stupid, fat, lazy and liberal for nearly 20 years now.