The U.S. more or less tends to have higher survival rates than most other countries in the world, and the governmeant pays more per citizen than most other countries
The U.S. governmeant spends 4,197 dollars per citizen, In comparison the UK government spends directly 2802 dollars per citizen (far less than the U.S. at 4,197), Japan 2965, Denmark 3841, France 3247, Australia 2614, and Canada 3074 per person.
It's rare for a single medical check-up to cost 16,000 dollars, in any country. But the U.S. has medicare and medicade, which pays for a large volume of healthcare costs, and all emergency care as well as certain conditions are paid for by the governmeant
What's not often paid is things like room expenses or time by doctors, so if you refuse to pay at all they may not have TV or shut off the lights in your room, but you will still get medical care
There's a 30 minute emergency wait time in the U.S., 2 hours total with treatment, compared to about 9 hours in the UK and Canada. That's emergency care. Long term care for even basic things can take weeks or even months
And on top of that, we already qualify as having "universal healthcare". By defintion it just means most people have access to quality healthcare, and they do. Single payer is the term most people are looking for, but European countries tend to have vastly different healthcare systems
"How come the country with the best healthcare in the world and that invents over 90% of the cures has terrible healthcare?! SMH."- if it sounds too crazy to be true, it's often a liberal lie.
Uninsured doesn't mean no healthcare. Under ACA you can have healthcare and insurance and be classified as "uninsured". For instance if you have catastrophic and pay out of pocket for incidentals (which is cheaper than the cheapest ACA plans) you are "uninsured".
Only this year was there an effort made to actually allow the importation of foreign-manufactured drugs; There was no competition from outside of the system.
When there's a 'small' pond with a few big fish, they don't have too much reason to actually compete with each other as long as they keep eating smaller fish.
Within my father's living memory, you could get entire surgeries for under 100$; But the patient's end costs have spiralled well in excess of actual inflation with the advent of medical insurance.
Again on medicine prices basically the way the law works here when you develop a new drug you get a local monopoly on it. This pays for the R&D which is why most new treatments are developed here. So when people go to Tijuana to buy medicine it's often the same drug from the same company sold at a lower rate. I'm perfectly OK with changing that.
Sure but the likely outcome would be an increase in price for overseas sales. Which is only fair if they want American medicine they should help pay the R&D.
I don't count the medical industry innocent here either. They use certificates as a barrier for entry to competition. Like I have a buddy who did 2 tours as an army medic. Uncle Sugar considers him perfectly qualified to treat gunshot injuries in Afganistan but not qualified to render basic medical care at home. And why do you need a bachelor's in English Literature to go to medical school?
See, that sounds good when on paper, but something bothers me about a doctor with the same motivation and work ethic of a craftsman or welder. Often times there isn't an opportunity to say "oops, oh well, lets try again" when its a human life at stake rather than a crossbeam
