The USA is the country that spends the most on its healthcare system, and the figures I'm seeing are pretty terrifying.
I know that you have health insurance, but that some of them don't cover all the care you need.
If I have to make a comparison with my own country, I don't understand how the US manages to reach such a level.
In France, life expectancy will be 82.5 years in 2021, almost back to pre-pandemic levels (82.9 years) after the drop in 2020. Since 2014, the US population has been losing a few months of life expectancy each year, and the decline has worsened sharply in 2020 and 2021, with a decline of 2.7 years in two years, to 76.1 years.
Of course, the healthcare system is not the only determinant of life expectancy, which is also linked to lifestyle and eating habits.
But most other health indicators show similar trends. According to the OECD, infant mortality is 3.6 per 1,000 births in France, compared with 5.4 per 1,000 in the United States. Maternal mortality in the USA is 23.8 per 100,000, the worst rate among industrialized countries, compared with 8 per 100,000 in France. The rate of preventable deaths thanks to treatment is 51 per 100,000 inhabitants in France, compared with over 90 in the United States.
Indicators of access to healthcare also show significant differences. According to the latest OECD figures, the density of doctors in France is 317 per 100,000 inhabitants (370 if interns working in healthcare establishments are included), compared with 261 in the United States. The number of hospital beds is 2.9 per 1,000 inhabitants in the United States, and 5.9 in France.
And yet, the United States is the country that spends the highest proportion of its GDP on healthcare, at 17.8% in 2021.
Mind you, my aim here is not to say that the French system is better. I'm sincerely trying to understand how this is possible.
I'm sure there's a lot I don't understand, so I'd be delighted to learn more.
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7 mo
Forgive me for making this comparison with France, but as it's my country, it was easier for me to make this comparison with France.
How is it that so many people in the United States are unable to seek treatment because of the astronomical cost of treatment?
The govt has been using the "healthcare" system to provide inflation, to mask the endless spending and debt. Anytime they get involved, it gets corrupted.
The answer for USA is our food system and eating habits are terrible. French are much more healthy... skipping breakfast, eating less calories and less sugar. We have family and friends in france and were able to compare. As well, the food there is more quality. In the USA we use GMO and it's about cheap or processed. France is about flavor and quality a lot more... I think as they subsidize a lot of the food.
In france... I hear it's not easy to get a Dr sometimes due to lack of incentives to do the work or vacations.
It is bad in the USA or worse. It's a lot to discuss, but have seen it going bad for decades because it's all about money. That said, If you are fortunate to have good insurance, you probably turn out ok... maybe with some big bills. we have good urgent care/emergency... generally speaking, not always.
Large portion of our American population want others to suffer and parish in agonizing pain and financial suffering. They themselves also get satisfaction from the same suffering just to not spend a single penny on someone else. Truly evil people.
There is arguments of innovation but American tax dollars are getting rob from basically the globe from off brand medical services. At this point we have to be universal healthcare to be competitive with global economics stealing our innovations. Our amarican people are subsidizing the global health care providers.
i partialy agree with you that u. s. government gives far too much global aid, unless a very close ally, when it could subsidize health care more... but only trump wanted america "first" and everybody called him racist for that so they voted biden, who like obama pumping the budget outside...
I think it goes like this. Everybody in the western world can negotiate a good deal on a large flat panel TV. That is because there is an effective market for flat panel TVs.
On the overhand no individual can negotiate a good deal with big Pharma. There is a complete power imbalance.
Capitalism works with TVs but doesn't with medicines. My gov't in effect does that negotiation on behalf of Australian consumers. I wouldn't describe that as socialism, as some US people might, but instead as creating an effective market place. This is particularly the case with generic drugs which can be sourced from many companies.
Essentially I think this is power imbalance in the market place.
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There is too much money to be made and not just by doctors. The medical community has the influence in Washington to have laws passed that benefits them and not the population as a whole. When a hospital administrator gets a 5 million dollar salary, there is something terribly wrong with this picture. It costs well over a thousand dollars a day to stay in the hospital. I worked in a hospital and it seemed like a two tiered system, The administrators made all the money and the rest of us hd to make do with what we had. I knew a guy that was hit by a car and was paralyzed from the waist down. He had a special cushion that he sat on so hw would not get bedsores on his butt. He told me they charged him $1000 for the cushion. There are so many instances where things dont make sense but if you look at it close enough you see that some company that backed the right politician is getting rich.
I dont know about you but that sounds like capitalism to me. Maximize profits for as much as the customer can pay and minimize expenses such as salaries of workers and equipment.
@Soteris capitalism will work but it has been subverted by the government. Medicare is the largest insurance provider so they make the rules. It just happens that the rules favor the companies that donate to the rightvpoliticians.
@Soteris that is because it has always been rigged. When Obama care was passed there were a lot of companies that went out of business because the big chains like CVS were able to have the small pharmacies locked out.
In the US many if not most people have health insurance, however it is very expensive. Most get it through their employers as part of their wages and it seldom covers the majority of medical bill in any situation. What is not covered must be paid out of pocket by the individual.
The things you don’t understand, I also don’t understand, because it’s frankly stupid.
It is entirely possible to go broke in this country due to medical problems.
What do you call it when people go broke due to medical expenses in the wealthiest country the earth has ever seen? A failed system is what you call it.
For everyone there is a deductible. That does not include how much we must also pay through payroll deductions towards the cost of insurance aside from the deductible.
Everybody can seek treatment they have clinics they have free counseling you can go to a place and pay three dollars for a counseling session. It may not be super high-quality like expensive doctors but it’s still counseling better than nothing. But if there a certified psychologist, they must know something, because if not, they wouldn’t be certified.
They have clinics where the medication is really cheap. It’s the same medication as other expensive medication and they have basically free counseling you’re not reading between the lines you think everybody in America charges top dollar for counseling and medication.
Just because you don't like the figures doesn't mean they're wrong. Life expectancy is falling, etc. It's not a very good sign. Just for the record, these same figures are worrying Mr. Trump and other presidents.
I haven’t even seen your figures you’re reading something wrong I live in America you’ve never even step foot in America, you believe everything you see in the links. I've personally seen this and you act like I’m just talking a bunch of crap I’m not it’s the truth
The difference between you and me is that you let your emotion speak, not rationality. You haven't even read the figures, and you're criticizing them, even though they were established for the most part by the American government, especially under Trump.
That's why your comments from the start have been beside the point.
You’re just looking for a debate just for the purpose of debating. I’ve have real experiences I've witness this there is no debate I’m speaking the truth it’s a fact and I don’t care about your figures. You have act like everything is super expensive in America it is but you can get great deals enough said I’m not gonna spin my wheels with you and it’s probably time for you to go to bed anyway isn’t it late?
Yes, the problem is that you don't care about reality. You consider that you can derive a general reality from your experience, which is not the case.
To choose another example, I know several people who have smoked all their lives without catching any disease, but 75 thousand people die because of smoking, which represents a little more than 50% of smokers who die because of it.
The fact that I know people who didn't get sick even though they smoked a lot doesn't change this reality. I can't generalize from my experience.
In conversation, you're the person who focuses solely on your own experience, without taking into account the wider reality.
You act like I’m talking about myself they have clinics all over the place seeing thousands and thousands of people probably every state in America. You probably don’t p know what a clinic is? the clinics are seeing thousand of people getting on a sliding scale you’re talking about something totally different. How old do you want to explain going to a major hospital in Florida for $40 you don’t know cause you never even been in this country. You’re looking at things on the Internet come on. Anyway, nice little debate. I’ll talk to you later on.
I can be treated for cancer with all the treatments without paying a cent. I can have my teeth, eyes, etc. treated without paying a cent.
Moreover, these are not my figures, but those of your government in part, and some even come under the Trump presidency or organizations supported by it.
In addition to the title of my question, my subject does not stop there. Let's say that 99 percent of Americans are able to treat themselves, but I still don't understand why the USA, with such an economic investment in the healthcare system, isn't getting the results it needs.
Once again, if the majority of Americans can have access to healthcare, the situation is even worse because it means they have access to mediocre treatment. Having such a shortage of doctors, declining life expectancy, etc., whatever you think, is not a good sign.
That’s because you probably have free healthcare. Health insurance in America are very complicated health insurance. I’m just telling you that there’s a lot of programs out there where you can do a lot of stuff real cheap dirt, cheap treating thousands of people. But you have to get in on their sliding scale.
I think every system in the 1st world is better. I saw a documentary about this a short while ago. I think our NHS is pretty good but it does have its problems, but that is largely the fault of the government and timewasters and to many people.
If medical treatment was provided at cost price most people wouldn't be able to afford it. That's why in most countries healthcare provision is funded through taxation. But rather than pay higher taxes Americans would rather take the risk that they never get sick.
The problem is thta health care is a for-profit business, and the entities profiting from it take the majority of the available money. As long as it stays like this, the quality of health care in the US will continue to decline.
Healthcare system in the US is a good example of what happens when you insist on applying capitalism to absolutely everything, including things. It's simply do not work under capitalism. Like health care.
No clue. My health insurance has always covered everything I need. I had a heart attack last year. Medical bills were 1.3 or 1.4 million. I paid the same 5k I pay every year.
@strateguy632 Every job I ever had gave the option of health insurance and now you can buy it on the exchange if your job doesn't, so I don't know who these people are with no insurance, but they make shite life choices is all I can figure out
well if you have no industry or political institution that puts any checks and balances to the prices, they can ask a 1000 bucks for a liter of tap water. nobody is gonna be able to do anything about it.
There is a French woman who lives in Usa , she said that it cost her less to pay the plane and come to be treated in France and leave in the USA , than to be treated in usa. I was there OMG 😂
too @RyanEC, content if, that is the key word "if". the u. s. system of competition pushed companies to attract costumer and cover the critical stuff. it won't cover the alternative stuff but the critical stuff is included as above.
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