How do health care & costs in the US compare with other developed nations?

@checkoutanytime Yeah, Ronald Reagan signed a law that said if a person shows up at an American emergency care facility, the person has to be treated, regardless of ability to pay. So, for decades, people who couldn't afford insurance have been waiting until their health gets bad enough to require an emergency room visit and then getting their healthcare there in the ER for free.

Seems you're one of those people who's counting on "free" ER care if things go bad for you.

@ElwoodBlues lol, no my kids are up to date, i pay for braces without insurance, its about my kids not Me.

@checkoutanytime

What about people who can't afford to pay out of pocket? Do you only care about yourself?
I mean that seriously. Do you not care if a single mother has to choose between paying rent and paying for medicine for her kid?
When you say "I'd rather pay out of pocket" are you saying that you'd rather people who can't pay out of pocket just suffer? Sucks to suck?

@checkoutanytime So if you get into some catastrophic accident, do you have insurance that will cover it? Because if not, you going to pawn those costs off on your fellow citizens. Hospitals pass those unpaid ER costs on to all [i]paying[/i] patients.

@Pikachu if they cant afford to pay out of pocket, they surely cant afford Obama care, thats a no brainer.

@ElwoodBlues

It seems strange that Americans will pay taxes for roads and firefighters and police...but they've been brainwashed into thinking that paying for universal healthcare is a bridge too far.

@checkoutanytime [quote]if they cant afford to pay out of pocket,[/quote] BULLLSHIT!!!
Big insurance companies negotiate costs that are FAR lower than the numbers you see on hospital bills. Insurance, even with overhead, is cheaper than paying the bills hospitals send you.

BTW, if you really did have a dental insurance plan for your kids, it would pay part of the cost for medically necessary braces. Maybe you have no dental insurance for them?

@Pikachu homeopathic medicine is as big as the fake pharmaceutical medicine here in the USA, Poloticians just dont make any money if they dont sell the Rockefeller instutes promotion of Allopathy medicine which basically is communism.

@checkoutanytime

Obama's health care plan was neutered. It was by no means the best system.
But i'm really asking you about universal healthcare of the kind that every other developed nation has in one form or another.
You pay a percentage on what you earn and it goes into the pot so that everyone can access medical care when they need it.

So i ask you again, do you care only about yourself or would you be happy to know that your neighbour who isn't as well off as you can pay for their medical care and their groceries?
Is it only about you? If you're fine then fuck everyone else?
Is that the kind of world you want to live in?

@ElwoodBlues no, im sincere Obama care would cost me $1,300 a month, & isnt essential by any means.

@checkoutanytime I notice you continue to duck my question about catastrophic insurance, so let me ask it again:

So if you get into some catastrophic accident, do you have insurance that will cover it? Because if not, you going to pawn those costs off on your fellow citizens. Hospitals pass those unpaid ER costs on to all paying patients.

I can't make sense of your comments about homeopathy; is that what you're depending on if you get into some catastrophic accident?

@checkoutanytime

[quote]fake pharmaceutical medicine[/quote]

lol tell me how fake pharmaceutical medicine is the next time you take pills for a headache or anesthesia for surgery.

@checkoutanytime [quote], im sincere Obama care would cost me $1,300 a month[/quote] For how many people? BTW, are you aware of the cost of 1 day in a modern emergency room?? And do you know who pays your ER costs if you have no insurance??

@ElwoodBlues 2 children & myself, too extreme for me to even question its positive.

@checkoutanytime Let me try asking a *third* time:

If you get into some catastrophic accident, do you have insurance that will cover it? Because if not, you going to pawn those costs off on your fellow citizens. Hospitals pass those unpaid ER costs on to all paying patients.

@ElwoodBlues insurance is a socialist thing, i dont see as American. We are a Capitalist society, we reap what we sow, we DO NOT BEG FOR HAND OUTS!

@ElwoodBlues those costs are inflated and meaningless, by paying for what if it would demise my capital gains, that I earn, while subsidizing a fat cat piece of shit, I absolutely find insurance unconstitutional, if anything insurance should be a % of a loaned agreement.

@checkoutanytime Let me try asking a *fourth* time:

If you get into some catastrophic accident, do you have insurance that will cover it? Because if not, you going to pawn those costs off on your fellow citizens. Hospitals pass those unpaid ER costs on to all paying patients.

@ElwoodBlues I am insured out the wazoo including long and short-term disability. But even the long term is finite. It covers for 18 months and then you get cut off. Of course, I have been paying into Social Security for almost 40 years so I I am disabled in an accident; I don't think I am sponging off of anyone to collect SSD. After all I have paid into the program, by force I might add.

@Roadsterrider Good for you. Private insurance is mostly how we pay for health care in the US. It works but it has higher overhead than Medicare & SSD. That higher overhead explains some of our higher costs but not all of them.

@ElwoodBlues if u go to the ER and don't have insurance they just send u a high bill. Nobody else pays for it

@smileylovesgaming Average car crash with hospital stay costs $57,000. So suppose you have an average crash and get billed $57,000. You can't pay, so the hospital fails to collect.

What do you suppose happens next? The hospital "eats" the cost. But only in the short term. In the long term, they've raised all their billing to pay for the people who can't pay their bills.

So those of us who do pay for insurance end up paying the costs of those who don't have insurance and incur high costs.

@ElwoodBlues I never heard of that before. Usually they just set up a payment plan and u pay it

@smileylovesgaming Depends on how big the bills are. Also, here's some food for thought:

[quote]Other findings on payment patterns between 2014 and 2016 include:

* 63% of hospital bills were $500 or less; of those hospital bills, 68% were not paid in full in 2016.
* 4% of hospital bills were $3,000 or more; of those hospital bills, 99% were not paid in full in 2016.
* 10% of hospital bills were $500 to $1,000; of those bills 85% were not paid in full in 2016.

“There are many reasons why more patients are struggling to make their healthcare payments in full, the most prominent of which are higher deductibles and the increase in patient responsibility from 10% to 30% over the last few years,” said Jonathan Wiik, author of the book “Healthcare Revolution: The Patient is the New Payer” and the principal for healthcare revenue cycle management at TransUnion, in an announcement.[/quote]
[b]https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/finance/study-2-3-patients-don-t-pay-their-hospital-bills-full[/b]

@ElwoodBlues bc SW is boring right now, im returning to this, what i probably should of said from the start is im a minimalist, in my perspective unwarranted insurance are only another form of excess, one of many, that are a negative impact on society and the planet.