No, we’re paying double the cost of health care in other countries because we pay double the cost of health care in other countries.
It’s not because of private insurers. The entirety of private insurance is only about 30% of total health care spending in the U.S., and the net cost of private insurance is only about three percent of total health care spending.
It’s because we pay more for the health care. We do more services, and we pay more to the providers for those services, than anywhere else. Our per capita costs in the public programs are vastly higher than other countries. In fact, the amount of “overpayment” is highest in the over-65 group, which is almost entirely in Medicare.
We pay more in health care because we spend about $23K per capita on seniors, compared to $12K per capita on seniors in Canada - even though seniors are almost entirely covered in the public programs.
If you got rid of private insurance and switched to universal single payer, our health care expenditures would barely budge. A few percentage points, at best. More likely they would probably rise, because health care providers have proven themselves very adept at making sure that government spending on health care stays high.
You may not have heard Sean Hannity bellowing about a move, in California, to remove soda pop vending machines from public schools. Of course he was against the Commie government denying school kids the “freeedom” to drink pop. Back when I had cable, I made a point of watching Fox Noise, especially the “opinon” (extremist propaganda) programs, because I wanted to know what was being said on the nutter fringe.
Here’s an example of people getting ripped off by pharma.
This was for my father. The doctor he preferred operated a concierge practice. Dad paid him $100 a month for unlimited office visits. The doctor also provided most of his medications.
The doctor sold him a bottle of celecoxib, 100-capsules per bottle, for $16.50.
When he went to assisted living, they asked if we would use the pharmacy they prefer. It was optional. I agreed to it, expecting a slight increase in drug cost. The celecoxib being ordered by KCH through their pharmacy was $111 for 30 capsules. So, a 90-day supply would cost dad $333. $333-16.50=$316.50; plus 10 extra capsules. That’s a substantial difference. Dad’s other medications were also substantially higher, but not as extreme as this.
That excuse does not fly. Never has, never will. Military people especially. If they were held “personally liable”, then they would have to make the choice to face major loss if they were held responsible for their choice(s).
It is legal in most of the world because local mother wisdom informed cultures are dying and even dead. Crap food is especially legal on to veneration (ohmygodHostessCupcakes!) in the USA because at the beginning of the last century the USA Congress, “guided” by an AMA responding furiously to threats to doctor’s income and status, bought the outlawing of nurses from having power and also of Public Health as part of USA public policy.
CEO and chairman of UnitedHealth Group Inc., McGuire retired with a $1.6 Billion retirement package, dwarfing the retirement package that the ExxonMobil CEO received that year.
Yeah, Medicare is cheaper to run, i wonder why.
