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SeanHaz t1_j9p5e12 wrote

Reply to comment by boldberserker in Amazon closes $3.9 billion deal to acquire One Medical | CNN Business by prehistoric_knight

America uses the capitalism model (more than most countries at least) and they have the highest income from people traveling for healthcare.

It is clearly doing something right, even if it's doing a lot wrong.

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boldberserker t1_j9pbg4f wrote

It’s true that all that money affords us the newest medical technology and nicest accommodations for in patient medical procedures. But I don’t think that should be reserved for only foreign oil barons and other billionaires that can afford it. If we can ever work together to demand proper universal healthcare with the funding it deserves we’d all be much better off.

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SeanHaz t1_j9pdckz wrote

I'm not so sure. I live somewhere with public healthcare and it is accomplished by giving employees less money (doctors nurses etc.). Since we're paying doctors less money many qualified doctors leave the country for places which pay more. Since we have a shortage of doctors and nurses the waiting times are long, we have many deaths due to long waiting times.

They also put a lot of money towards things which help their stats rather than things which improve quality of life for people eg. Keeping elderly people barely alive while they're bed bound for years to improve life expectancy.

I'm from Ireland and I'm familiar with the UK, it seems both have the same problems. We are one of the wealthiest countries in the world and this is the situation, I imagine the situation would be even worse in poorer countries.

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boldberserker t1_j9pf6rg wrote

I’m not saying it would be perfect or easy. Many people die in the US because they can’t afford healthcare even if they have insurance. It sounds like changes to the payment model for doctors and nurses need to be made in Ireland and the UK. It shouldn’t take years in a bureaucratic process to make those changes. Just because something isn’t perfect doesn’t mean it should be ruled out. There’s ways to improve it and implement better with the advantage of seeing how it has worked elsewhere for decades.

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SeanHaz t1_j9phsxg wrote

If you increase the cost we can't afford it, if you keep the cost the way it is we'll have the same problems.

I'm not saying it should be ruled out because it's not perfect, I think it should be ruled out because it is worse than your current system.

It has "worked" in Ireland for decades, it has also"worked" in the US for decades...to me it isn't obvious the public system is better. I know the USA had the most ventilators compared to its population which helped save a lot of lives during COVID, it's more expensive but you get what you pay for.

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boldberserker t1_j9pzxx2 wrote

It works in nearly every 1st world country besides the US. I don’t believe people should have to choose between going bankrupt or saving their loved one by treating cancer. We certainly don’t get what we pay for in the US. We pay the highest cost for pharmaceuticals in the world. They’re no better than what you can buy in Canada or Mexico for pennies on the dollar. My insurance premiums and all of the working people’s keep going up, but my healthcare has gotten worse. I have to make appointments weeks to months ahead of time and once I am seen I’m shuffled along so they can hurry to the next patient. They have stats they have to meet too which don’t have anything to do with making people better. I could go on and on. Most of us in America are not getting any better healthcare and definitely not getting what billionaires get. And it’s not like that business will go away. Billionaires will still pay doctors privately to get their luxury healthcare. Meanwhile the rest of us are paying to increase wealth for shareholders for increasingly less time with our healthcare professionals.

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SeanHaz t1_j9q19i9 wrote

You seem to be complaining about the quality and cost of healthcare. Unfortunately you can't have both.

I understand that you don't want people to choose between bankruptcy and death but that doesn't make universal healthcare a good idea. It will solve some problems and cause others. It's a really complicated issue and having seen what public healthcare looks like in a wealthy country I get the impression that privatisation is the way to go. You seem to have the opposite impression. To me this just shows that both systems suck and completely overhauling something which sucks for something else that sucks may not be wise.

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boldberserker t1_j9qlyi1 wrote

I see what you’re saying, and it makes a lot of sense. You don’t know what you don’t know. I’ve never traveled to another country and had to use healthcare outside of the US. The state I live in provides health insurance to those who can’t afford it, and I was very grateful to be able to use it for the births of all 4 of my children. Had I not been covered by state healthcare the cost for each birth is ~$10,000 and most insurance plans don’t cover more than $2000 of that. That adds up fast. I would be more inclined to agree with your point of view if healthcare costs in the US were similar to just 30 years ago, but they have dramatically increased and there’s no end in sight.

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