Healthcare in America (1 Viewer)

[zztop]

Thought maybe there should be a dedicated topic about healthcare policy/affordability/progress (or lack thereof)

 

[Dragon]

A close friend from when I went to college in the US visited me and my family 4 months ago and fell ill with a bad case of the flu a few days after she arrived. We took her to the emergency room and they kept her overnight because she has a long history of asthma. She was released the next day with the necessary medicin for 3 days and a prescription to get more at the pharmacy. Total cost for her: 0

 

[TampaJoe]

A close friend from when I went to college in the US visited me and my family 4 months ago and fell ill with a bad case of the flu a few days after she arrived. We took her to the emergency room and they kept her overnight because she has a long history of asthma. She was released the next day with the necessary medicin for 3 days and a prescription to get more at the pharmacy. Total cost for her: 0

Free to her. But not free. There is always a cost.

Glad she was helped.

 

[UncleTrvlingJim]

Free to her. But not free. There is always a cost.

Glad she was helped.

But almost always cheaper overall on a per person basis in the places with "socialized" medicine. We have a highly inefficient system here in the United States. It's maximized for profit, and in this case the incentives are to provide great high end care for a small number of people.

 

[TampaJoe]

But almost always cheaper overall on a per person basis in the places with "socialized" medicine. We have a highly inefficient system here in the United States. It's maximized for profit, and in this case the incentives are to provide great high end care for a small number of people.

Well cheaper isn’t always better. But perhaps one of the reasons it is more expensive in the US has something to do with the fact that our people on average are less healthy.

I do not disagree with you that our system has problems. It does. Where we differ is whether a system such as M4A is a more efficient and cost effective solution.

 

[Dragon]

Free to her. But not free. There is always a cost.

Glad she was helped.

Well - Imagine how many man hours it would take to register every service and item she was provided as well as dealing with her travel insurrance paperwork and billing!

My point is that it was actually cheaper this way.. The hospital and the staff was there anyway - part of our healthcare system - so basically the only extra "cost" was a clean bed, some meds and a couple of meals.

How much overhead does keeping track and billing every single service provided by US hospitals, add to the final bill? Not to mention the processing of the actual payments either from insurrance companies or the patient? That money would be better spend on actual patient care.

 

[TampaJoe]

Perhaps that works in your country. You have a population of 6 million versus US population of 350 million. Not to mention the geographic and demographic differences. We have 50 sovereign states with their own sets of health care laws and regulations. So there are many differences which must be taken into account.