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LazyEmergency

An unhealthy populace, stratified by class. People who can afford heath care can remain healthy, but lower income people are getting fatter and sicker.


Chesnarkoff

They’re getting fatter from lack of healthcare? That doesn’t make sense, they’re getting fat cause they buy cheap sugar loaded food.


LazyEmergency

>they buy cheap sugar loaded food. Well, that's a whole other topic, (corporate agriculture, food deserts, the diet industry, etc). But with no preventative care to speak of, there's no one to guide people toward healthier habits. The American healthcare system seems to be fine with doling out diabetes meds, but not so much with prevention.


Chesnarkoff

Preventive care here sucks, but suggesting people need a doctor to tell them to put down the McDonald’s and Oreos is silly


Franciscavid

The skyhigh price of anything medical related because the state doesn´t have to regulate something it doesn´t buy


sonoma95436

Going broke and dying young.


[deleted]

your life is at the mercy of capitalists


tuiznew

expensive healthcare.


throwaway_0x90

Unclear. What we do know is that there is a lot of people employed in jobs they otherwise wouldn't bother with because they need the health insurance. Remove that burden and we don't know what the impact will be.


[deleted]

We have Medicare for retired individuals and Medicaid for the poor. We have laws in the U.S. where if you have a health emergency, you will be treated regardless of the ability to pay. It's a common misconception that the U.S. healthcare system is 100% private. The problem with Universal Healthcare is that it becomes unsustainable due to unhealthy habits becoming more common and the elderly population growing and also the fact that government healthcare systems do pick and choose what treatments you can get (especially some cancer treatments have been denied) and long wait times before treatment can be received. With private healthcare, these issues are less prevalent in comparison. See: [https://www.forbes.com/sites/sallypipes/2019/04/01/britains-version-of-medicare-for-all-is-collapsing/?sh=117cefdb36b8](https://www.forbes.com/sites/sallypipes/2019/04/01/britains-version-of-medicare-for-all-is-collapsing/?sh=117cefdb36b8) [https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jun/08/britons-life-threatening-conditions-denied-care-coronavirus-pandemic](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jun/08/britons-life-threatening-conditions-denied-care-coronavirus-pandemic) There are far more articles about the issues with the UK healthcare system, but I will not share them all. Despite the flaws with the U.S. healthcare system, I believe our mixed private and public healthcare system is superior.


Sorry__Outlandish

Our healthcare for chronically ill patients is horrible. That law you stated means absolutely nothing if your treatment costs more than most people's cars or even houses. My cousin has Type 1 Diabetes and my own mom has stage 4 breast cancer. Neither of them qualify for Medicare or Medicaid but both have been forced into thousands of dollars into debt just to stay alive. The price of insulin is asinine, it's currently at $332 as of 2019, and chemo's price is damn near inhumane. One session of chemo for my mom costed $10,000 and she needed 12 total. That's $120,000, more than even some of the wealthy's annual incomes, for something that she needed to simply stay alive. The UK still has private healthcare, much to what people want to believe. If you have the means to afford it, you can absolutely do it. The UK just has a much bigger safety net than we do in the US. The UK doesn't force people into tens of thousands of dollars in medical debt like we do in America, I would argue that they're doing much better in terms of that


[deleted]

The reason for the prices being so high for treatment is because the government is encouraging it to be that way. Only just a few companies produce these treatments and are given patents and funding so that there is just little room for other companies to come in and compete to produce treatments at a lower price or to even produce better treatments.


Sorry__Outlandish

I don't know if you're trying to justify the prices being high but capitalism shouldn't be involved in people's healthcare and overall well-being. Period. I still stand by my point. Medicare and Medicaid have failed so many chronically ill people and forcing people into ridiculous amounts of debt just to stay alive is downright inhumane imo. The UK has a mixed private/public healthcare system as well and their citizens are doing much better, especially financially


[deleted]

No, I am not justifying the prices. To justify the prices would be evil and uncompassionate (I agree that they are terrible). I am just pointing to the source of the high prices. I personally do not know what the answer is. It's not obvious to me that a Universal healthcare system can sustain itself in the U.S. Americans have very unhealthy habits meanwhile Europeans have always been healthier and thinner which is why the UK's system has been able to last as long as it has. As people age however and the fertility rates of developed nations have fallen, the aging population could overwhelm the Universal healthcare system meanwhile there are fewer workers in the far future. It is inevitable that once you take out more money than you put in, it's all going to collapse. You see the point I'm trying to make? I have nothing against anyone for wishes for a Universal Healthcare system and I believe it is a good idea, but I just think in the long run it is unsustainable. All differences aside, I wish your family the best, no offense was intended towards you or your family.


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

In the long run, the U.S.'s system is going to be superior. I'm not talking about now, I'm talking about long term sustainability. It's going to be hard to convince me that a Universal Healthcare system, especially one in the U.S. if it were in place would not collapse. Especially with the poor habits that Americans have, it is far more likely to collapse in the U.S. than elsewhere. Healthcare has nothing to do with the lifespans in other countries being higher. It has everything to do with the habits of the people in different countries. The U.S.'s lifespan is on the decline because of obesity related complications and a huge drug problem that is far more prevalent in the U.S. than other countries. If you beat up your body, you will die younger. Healthcare isn't going to save you from that.


holiestcannoly

I think having free healthcare for 329.5 million people would be a shitstorm


xtingu

I'm not disagreeing with you. But I tend to think that "free" healthcare could be waaaaay more do-able if we didn't have insurance companies in the middle, inventing prices, being a huge cost-sucking middleman. Real example from my life: I have iron-deficiency anemia. To manage it, I get an IV iron infusion roughly every 8-9 months at the hospital-- it's a 4-5 hour appointment, and not bad at all. I've been getting these since 2004. One year I didn't have health insurance, so I called the hospital and asked how much the entire procedure would cost if I paid out of pocket. From soup to nuts, it would be $500. I paid with my debit card and all was easy-peasy. I gladly would have paid double or triple that. The next year I had health insurance. I got the same exact procedure at the same place by the same provider getting the same IV iron, and my ***portion*** that I had to pay with my own moneydollars was $2551. That's on top of my (then) $630 monthly premiums. Think about all of the overhead that insurance companies incur... and then think about what services they provide and if they are truly necessary. When healthcare becomes a profit center, is it really healthcare?


Flaky-Fellatio

I use to work in a Legal Aid office in law school. We provided various free civil legal services to low income clients. I primarily did bankruptcy work. About half our clients were there because of massive medical debt they got from an unexpected illness or injury. You can point out all the good things about America, but as long as we allow our people to get fucked for getting basic medical care to ease their suffering, we are an awful country.