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In a word... Capitalism. The US is a mess of private healthcare insurers, insurance brokers / consultants, reinsurance companies, pharmacy benefit managers (PBM's) along with Medicare and Medicaid.
Everyone except Medicare and Medicaid is running a "for profit" business model in a Capitalist economic system. That means several middle men in the process who all want to get paid and make a profit. It is inherently complex, inefficient, and drives costs up.
And then we have pharmaceutical companies who have bought Congress with huge sums of dark money funneled through lobbyists so they can limit competition and charge outrageous prices to make obscene profits. Capitalism strikes again.
And then we have the medical device manufacturers. Imaging devices like Xray, CAT scan, MRI, PET scan, and Ultrasound. Once again they have bought Congress with large sums of dark money to limit competition so they can charge outrageous prices and make obscene profits.
Healthcare in the US is ALL about delivering obscene PROFIT not good Healthcare.
You'd have to be a moron to expect that shit show to deliver anything but ridiculous costs. But the morons of MAGA have been conditioned by 50 years of propaganda to worship Capitalism. So the mentally challenged idiots keep voting for this insane Healthcare model while screaming socialized medicine is "COMMUNISM". And even when they are dying without healthcare they can't afford or drowning in medical debt, the stupid fuckers cling to the propaganda that it's all about Capitalism and free markets vs Commies and the govamint taking away their freedumb.
It appeared to in the 1970. When automated equipment began to show up in Medical labs. Insurances paid 80% of usual and customary charges. I sat in Hospital pricing meetings about laboratory charges. The usual way to handle the situation was to increase a charge to the point that the 80% paid by insurances covered the entire bill. Then came volume work load. A laboratory's ability to crank out massive numbers of analytical results made lab big business. Profiling instead of ordering individual test provided more information than needed for a diagnosis but the price per test was low because of the machines. Profiles for screening. Lots of numbers for research. It was not totally a bad thing. Suddenly "for Profit" became an entity, Labs and Imaging were making loads of cash. The cost of professionals began to be a giant expense that had to be cut. Soon Lab professionals lost there specialty and were being replaced by less experienced aids. Go for profit and and sell stock. Hospital CEOs had to satisfy stock holders. Volume became king.
At that point, no money was being made by nursing and room rent. That had to change as well.
Where is the MHO button?
When you have an operation it can cost hundreds of thousand dollars.
OMG!! Yeah that is what I am talking about. And why is it so expensive? Where does the money go mainly? I suspect doctors. And also from what I have heard here medicine per se is also extremely expensive there in the US. Because everybody wants to have a piece of the pie in such an unregulated system. They suck the blood out of American people without restrain. What a system!
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34Opinion
u Because it is better than healthcare on other countries and receives far fewer government subsidies.
@InknKink yep. He is so off from the truth, it's shocking someone can actually have such a belief. The reason why it's expensive is because we are paying the greedy healthcare ceos salaries, NOT because it's the best. The US doesn't have a healthcare system, it has a healthcare business. The US spends more on healthcare than any other nation, yet a smaller percentage of our population has access to the healthcare, and we also consistently have one of the lowest life expectancies, and one of the highest rates of depression/ mental health problems. That tells you everything you need to know.
@InknKink
In 2025, physicians across Canada reported a median wait time of 28.6 weeks between a referral from a GP and receipt of treatment; down from 30.0 weeks in 2024.
This is 208% longer than the 9.3 week wait Canadian patients could expect in 1993.
Wait times have decreased in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, while increasing in the other five provinces.
Ontario reported the shortest total wait (19.2 weeks), followed by British Columbia (32.2 weeks) and Quebec (32.5 weeks).
Patients waited longest in New Brunswick (60.9 weeks), Prince Edward Island (49.7 weeks) and Nova Scotia (49.0 weeks).
This is according to the Canada-based Fraser Institute. www.fraserinstitute.org/.../waiting-your-turn-wait-times-for-health-care-in-canada-2025
Is this what you want to brag about, eh?
@OlderAndWiser the wait time argument is just pure propaganda. Anyone who lives somewhere where universal healthcare is a thing will tell you that
@Kingofkings1992 Of course! 
That's something referring to non-life threatening elective procedures. If you go to your GP saying you have elbow pain, and then yes, you might have to wait several weeks to see a specialist to then tell you it's tennis elbow and proceed down that route to a physical therapist... etc...
However... if you have a real emergency...
All you have to do is go to an ER at any hospital and you'll be treated immediately without any fear of financial ruin.
The wait time you think we have is both a real issue but a massively insignificant one at the same time. If you NEED medical care. You get it. That waiting non-sense you think we all have to suffer through isn't really a thing.
There isn't a single Canadian who would trade health care systems with your US system. Can you say the same?
Because americ.\nAn people are waking up and understanding that big pharma is nothing but\nA rip off
Medicines come from plants
Big pharma is losing big bucks every single day
And the doctor pharmaceutical pimps that sell or write prescriptions for their products that don't work in the long run are trying to find new ways to make money and keep people sick for every prescription written doctor makes money
The prescription that the doctor has written
People.\nAre finding out?\nThat it is plants are herbs
It makes them start to think they're feeling better but then all the\nOther chemicals.\nThat are put into the drugs do more damage in the long run
now that will cost more money to the patient or the insurance agency
The people are waking up\nAnd in time , it's all going to change and big pharma knows it its sad that.\nBig farmer really has a lot of cures to help people. But the more people they help get better, the less money for them. It's all greed
Obesity and all the underlying health conditions people have. If most people were healthier it would cost very little.
Runaway overcharging by the medical and pharmacutical that's enabled by the insurance companies. They're scalping basically.
Sort of like the price of college has been able to be spiked, because the loans.
If you're not rich... you're basically forced to buy the insurance or to take the loan.
Same dynamic with house prices sort of the same... prices enabled by a pay system that scalps the shit out of people, and when they fail... Daddy Government has a history of bailing them out.
1) The US supplements health care in the rest of the world, making it more expensive for us and cheaper for them.
2) There is a serious and growing shortage of doctors and other health care professionals. We need lots more medical schools and we needed them decades ago.
3) Over regulation
4) Bureaucracy, red tape and paperwork
5) HIPPA - This is a huge cost driver
6) Massive waste at all levels
7) Seriously messed up Medicare and Medicaid systems that are extremely inefficient and wasteful. ( Its the government, what would you expect? )
That's just a start.
Consumer negotiating power is almost zero in medical treatment. In terms of medication, obviously patents are restrictive and generic versions only available after expiration of patents or a similar drug is developed.
If you need a doctor, you need a doctor and then it is often where you can be seen in a suitable time frame. So all around you have low to zero bargaining power.
In Australia, our Federal Gov't does the bargaining for us. It has the power to do so because we all pay a 1.5% income levy for health care. So we have free health care from that levy sure.
But costs are minimized because consumers are negotiating collectively via Federal gov't with medical providers collectively. There is bargaining power on both sides, so that tends to produce an optimal outcome on cost and availability of services.
A doctor whose costs are, say double that of equiv doctors, will go broke.
u Blind believing into the almighty capitalism, where the free market regulates everything. Result: The poor American schmucks pay five to ten times the drug and treatment prices that Europeans pay (example, standard asthma spray, 45-50€ vs. 240-250$), and have worse outcomes and life expectancy! Bravo!
The US treats healthcare as a for profit business where other countries treat healthcare as a service similar to police and fire departments. Pharmaceutical companies in the US block a lot of inexpensive natural cures from around the world from entering the country. I know people who travel to Mexico and Thailand for medical vacations and the care is every bit as good as an American hospital at a fraction of the cost.
This is an issue about which most people are very ignorant and uninformed. Think for a moment about how advanced medicine is today compared to even just ten years ago. There are countless examples. A good friend of mine, age 31, was diagnosed with a brain tumor last year, a very scary diagnosis. His treatment? A daily pill.
My aunt had a knee replacement last year. Aside from a few lingering occasional aches and pains, she is virtually 100% now and as active as ever.
So how did we get here? Billions of dollars spent on research.
Why is healthcare so expensive in the US? Because the vast majority of those dollars are spent by US based companies. The entire world benefits from those advancements in medicine while the cost is born primarily by the US.
The question is, do you want expensive cutting edge healthcare, or less expensive but poor quality healthcare?
3 reasons, all are just my opinion:
1. Judges and juries awarding astronomical amounts to alleged malpractice which raises malpractice insurance for doctors.
2. Most countries have price controls on pharmaceuticals. The U. S. doesn't, so the companies ream the (blank) out of Americans to make up the difference.
3. The doctors offices have to employ so many people to do insurance billing, among other things.
This is mostly a competition for votes.
If your a conservative when your young you dont have a heart. If your a liberal when your old you dont have a brain.
Illegals can't pay their doctor bills but the doctors still want to be rich so its passed down to those with insurance. The more people that can't pay the more rates are hiked.
Democrats line their pockets in owned businesses that treat people very similiar to slavery. Its called sweat shops in our country and others.
Insurance companies just raise their rates to cover an increase in healthcare costs and people do not care what healthcare providers charge insurance companies.
Most people get health insurance through their employers so they really do ot care how much per month the premiums are.
@goaded Yes, you really have to advocate for yourself. I have changed doctors a few times before I found one that I could trust but I still question some of the things that he says. I have a so called Caddillac plan so I see any doctor and go to any hospital but the HMO plans severely limit access to resources. I imagine in a lot of cases care is withheld to people because it is too expensive.
It's simple: Profits over People. Healthcare is a business run by for profit corporations, just like any other for profit corporation in the US. That's why the food in the USA is laced with chemicals designed to get you ill and keep you that way. It's a never ending corporation profit cycle. There's nothing difficult, cryptic or complicated to understand about it.
The govt used it as a way to inflate the US economy for the last few decades. some may be due to advancements and the high cost of treating obese people whom eat garbage.
The obese should be taxed separately.
Honestly? Because we have a free market and Healthcare makes up 18% of the economy. So for the government there is little incentive to fix it. Keep the profits flowing and keep taxing the profits nor matter how many people bank accounts it cripples. You can do without a few frills like utilities and food.🙃😆
Lot of middle men paperwork. It's also to keep workers locked down. Can't get a new job because you got to work 6 months to be eligible then wait for open enrollment in October November.
It's really not complicated... the entire system is based on profits.
It's better to charge a single person $1000 than to charge 10 people $100.
Other countries with "free healthcare" regulate costs so pharmaceutical companies gouge the US to make up for it. We're paying for their commie health care.
u because it is not about health nor about care...
it's about business, profit and greed... and they just don't care
When you go to the market you care how much you pay for food. When you go the doctor you don’t care about the cost only if insurance covers it. So there is no economic pressure for medical services to be priced competitively.
Same reason oil is so expensive, because they CAN.
Because your President does not care about the people, only his EGO
Because most of the medical facilities in the US are a for profit enterprise.
For starters insurance companies take their share while (working) universal healthcare cuts out the middle man.
Simple. You’re paying someone who’s had the schooling in medical to watch over you. It’s just like taking your car to a mechanic
Because it's the shittiest parts of capitalism and socialism mashed together.
Because it's good. Generally the better the product, the more expensive it is. I live in California and I know people who occasionally go to Mexico for medical care because it's generally cheaper, but it's generally not as good.
you need to take into account the costs involved. The doctor needs to play expensive golf games.
Because…. it’s merely a business
Madam I know, but what makes this business so expensive then if you want me put it that way?
It is so expensive because a lot of hospitals and insurance companies are trying to make money. Treatments and medicines cost a lot…and there aren’t strong limits on prices. The system is also really complicated, which adds extra costs. Sometimes people even get tests or procedures they don’t really need…and that just makes the bill even higher
So it is poll number one as I suspect. Did you vote? :)
I didn’t because that’s not what I said rn
I think poll number one fits you nicely even though it is not what you said word by word. Why don't you vote now?
Patents and insurance fraud
Insufficient regulation.
Why is that you think?
Insurance providers drive up prices.
because they dont pay taxes
Medical insurance companies and big pharma.
Third party payors.
Greed.
Obama
Capitalism
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