Now imagine if instead of paying a private corporation for the privilege of a deductible against a maximum coverage amount you instead paid a bit more income tax in exchange for free healthcare no matter how many times you needed it.
Based on other countries’ models the tax difference would have been less than $6k in all but the highest income brackets.
Unless you’re filthy rich enough not to care about premiums and have millions invested in health insurance. Then you can pay your media outlets to manufacture rugged individualism and paint any common-good policy with the broad brush of communism.
Last year I went in for an organ removal: $0.
The hospital bill for my child’s birth: $0.
Regular quarterly family doctor visits for routine monitoring: $0.
The comments from Americans who move abroad to other countries and experience the healthcare of other developed nations is eye-opening. I truly hope people find the means to demand a better base level of care and join the rest of the modern world.
many of us lose our homes trying to pay off medical debt, or die in waiting rooms of emergency clinics
it’s not like we’re being smug and superior about our healthcare system lol it’s really, really painful for most of us
comparison with other countries IS eye-opening but invariably leads to hostility toward Americans (“'murica”, school shooting references, etc) and it’s made a lot of us angry. we can’t help but be suspicious of comments like your last sentence because it has the potential to be abusive in nature, not helpful, and we’ve learned from past experience that there’s a non-zero chance it was meant to be.
but anyway yeah, I hope someday I find the means to demand a better base level of care
It was definitely not meant to be mean-spirited. A rising tide should lift us all. Selfishly, I imagine the good a few hundred million people could do for the rest of the world if suddenly freed from these sort of unnecessary financial and social hardships.
I broke my wrist at the start of 2023 and the bill to me after insurance was $6k lol. I saw the bill the doctor submitted to insurance and it was $40k. The ambulance bill came in separately at around $800.
I’m very luck to have a high-deductible plan through my employer. They take about $300/month out of my paycheck for it.
This year I had to have surgery, and now I owe the hospital six thousand dollars :)
Now imagine if instead of paying a private corporation for the privilege of a deductible against a maximum coverage amount you instead paid a bit more income tax in exchange for free healthcare no matter how many times you needed it.
Based on other countries’ models the tax difference would have been less than $6k in all but the highest income brackets.
That system sounds measurably better in every way
Unless you’re filthy rich enough not to care about premiums and have millions invested in health insurance. Then you can pay your media outlets to manufacture rugged individualism and paint any common-good policy with the broad brush of communism.
Last year I went in for an organ removal: $0.
The hospital bill for my child’s birth: $0.
Regular quarterly family doctor visits for routine monitoring: $0.
The comments from Americans who move abroad to other countries and experience the healthcare of other developed nations is eye-opening. I truly hope people find the means to demand a better base level of care and join the rest of the modern world.
many of us lose our homes trying to pay off medical debt, or die in waiting rooms of emergency clinics
it’s not like we’re being smug and superior about our healthcare system lol it’s really, really painful for most of us
comparison with other countries IS eye-opening but invariably leads to hostility toward Americans (“'murica”, school shooting references, etc) and it’s made a lot of us angry. we can’t help but be suspicious of comments like your last sentence because it has the potential to be abusive in nature, not helpful, and we’ve learned from past experience that there’s a non-zero chance it was meant to be.
but anyway yeah, I hope someday I find the means to demand a better base level of care
It was definitely not meant to be mean-spirited. A rising tide should lift us all. Selfishly, I imagine the good a few hundred million people could do for the rest of the world if suddenly freed from these sort of unnecessary financial and social hardships.
I broke my wrist at the start of 2023 and the bill to me after insurance was $6k lol. I saw the bill the doctor submitted to insurance and it was $40k. The ambulance bill came in separately at around $800.
I’m tired of fighting my own people when I say we shouldn’t be in chains