The Average Cost of a Family Health Insurance Plan Is Now $27,000

[YoDoug]

In addition to Tom's mention of medical R and D,

1. Scale and size. Most socialist healthcare countries that are considered first world healthcare are very small compared to the size of the US. The US has cities with more people and GDP than Canada. If Canada's socialized healthcare has issues at it's current size what would it be if it was the size of the US?

2. Socialized medicine countries send their resident and post grad docs here for specialized and continuing training. American doc doctors don't go to socialized countries for training. 

3. Americans pay for R and D that socialized countries benefit from. Big pharma charges $$$$ for drugs they sell in socialized countries for $.

[SuperHoneyBadger]

and in my case from 2 months ago I'd have probably died on a waiting list.

What actually happened is being a stubborn old fool, I waited far too long before going to the ER.
Despite being out of network, the people at ER recognized my distress. I was getting a CAT scan within 20 minutes
of walking in the door and I was in ICU within 40 minutes.

With all of the shortcomings our system has, if you show up in the ER and are about to die, you usually don't if it's fixable. In the experience of my dad's quad bypass, and my wife's gallbladder removal: he was under the knife the night he came in, and she had the offending organ removed within 2 hours of arriving at the ER.

I know it's only 2 experiences, but I believe the wait times are a bit overblown in the media. I can't say that I have heard anecdotes from anyone I know waiting on lists for months at a time for anything. But we're in a smaller city(pop ~1 million, 4 major hospitals), so maybe that has something to do with it.

[Here's Johnny!]

Socialized medicine countries send their resident and post grad docs here for specialized and continuing training.

This isn't true for Canadian doctors in general, some likely have or do. Toronto is a world leader in medical training and research. Particularly diabetic research, Toronto is the hub.

[Bucky Cornstarch]

Does anyone have a suggestion on how to make the US system more affordable, or are we just going to stay the course of "America Fuck Yea!"

[Smit]

Does anyone have a suggestion on how to make the US system more affordable, or are we just going to stay the course of "America 'Murrica Fuck Yea!"

Fissed that up for ya.

[YoDoug]

This isn't true for Canadian doctors in general, some likely have or do. Toronto is a world leader in medical training and research. Particularly diabetic research, Toronto is the hub.

In the year 2024 almost 400,000 H1-B visas for medical residencies, workers, and students were approved. As I said, America trains a large portion of the worlds medical professionals, including from socialized medicine countries. Not the other way around.

[Here's Johnny!]

Does anyone have a suggestion on how to make the US system more affordable

Well the Canadian system is almost at the point it is unaffordable. 2 Tier healthcare is coming to Canada more and more each year.

[SuperHoneyBadger]

Does anyone have a suggestion on how to make the US system more affordable, or are we just going to stay the course of "America Fuck Yea!"

Ok:

-1% of the Dept of War's total budget goes to the bottom 1% of hospitals each year, in 100 years every hospital will have received a cut, this year's cut would have been ~8.5 billion. And it ain't cash: that's a managed fund to be spent on equipment, renovations and salaries.

-Freeze the cost of all presciption drugs, 50% of the profits now go back into funding hospitals locally.

-Freeze big pharma exec + insurance exec bonuses and salaries, subject to a 10% additional tax directly to the states in which they reside.

-All 'unhealthy' or vice industries forced to pay 10% of profits annually to treatment(not research) for what they cause: cigarette companies fund lung transplants, McDonald's funds heart institutes, Budweiser pays for liver transplants.

-You need to show ID when you get healthcare, just like every nation with gov't provided healthcare, or you pay out of pocket.

-Maybe go for a walk and eat some broccoli, I hear Americans can get pretty tubby in the off-season.

Otherwise a large scale population reduction protocol would help the per-capita cost. You know, on account of having fewer capitas.

[Bucky Cornstarch]

Well being a Canadian......

Well the Canadian system is almost at the point it is unaffordable. 2 Tier healthcare is coming to Canada more and more each year.

The Americans ('Murricans) are talking here. Since you have no real skin in the game, myself and at least one other forum member would ask that you kindly STFU.

[neurosis]

This whole "skin in the game" thing has really grown some legs.

[Here's Johnny!]

The Americans ('Murricans) are talking here. Since you have no real skin in the game

I guess the same goes for Tyler and a few others.










And you can GFY!!!!

[neurosis]

And you can GFY!!!!

I think he was being sarcastic due to some other "you have no skin in the game" comments made about something else.

[Smit]

And you can GFY!!!!

You watch your mouth or we'll slap another 10% tariff on you so fkn fast your head will spin!! 

Hint: that was sarcasm. 

[YoDoug]

RFK says we just need to eat more saturated fat. I had such hopes for him but it's looking like he is just a front man for big AG touting gym-bro science as his justification.

Back to the OT of this thread. Since my wife had her surgery in 2022, we have hit our out of pocket max for family every year. Over the last three years between payroll premium deductions, deductibles, and out of pocket portion, I have spent approx $75k on healthcare for my family. Luckily we live below our means so we are able to absorb it, but it has made us readjust our budget and hurt my ability to save as much as I would like. 

[Newbeeee™]

Well the Canadian system is almost at the point it is unaffordable. 2 Tier healthcare is coming to Canada more and more each year.

Is it not strange, that UK too with their "best in the world NHS", also in the last couple of years have rapidly declined and now have such poor healthcare?
That my parents (85 at the time) would have to wait 7 weeks for a standard doctors appointment, and if that  was "too long", they could wait only 5 weeks, for a phone call from the doctor.
They have had since 1948 to get it right - so nothing is rocket science. It's intentional collapse.