U.S.A.! ('s heathcare sucks! U.K. #1!)

The origin of the phrase "You get what you pay for" is sometimes attributed to the fashion mogul Aldo Gucci, who said, "The bitterness of low quality is remembered long after the sweetness of low price has faded." But when it comes to healthcare, Americans get neither quality nor affordability.

The United States healthcare system is the most expensive in the world, but when it comes to health outcomes, it performs worse than 11 other similar industrialized nations, according to a new report released today by the Commonwealth Fund.

The nonprofit examined the health systems of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, and it found that the U.S. was last or near-last in measures of health access, efficiency, and equity.

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/06/us-healthcare-most-expensive-and-worst-performing/372828/

As good as Obamacare has been for us, it still puts us well behind most of the civilized world ...

Ben_Reilly wrote:

The origin of the phrase "You get what you pay for" is sometimes attributed to the fashion mogul Aldo Gucci, who said, "The bitterness of low quality is remembered long after the sweetness of low price has faded." But when it comes to healthcare, Americans get neither quality nor affordability.

The United States healthcare system is the most expensive in the world, but when it comes to health outcomes, it performs worse than 11 other similar industrialized nations, according to a new report released today by the Commonwealth Fund.

The nonprofit examined the health systems of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, and it found that the U.S. was last or near-last in measures of health access, efficiency, and equity.

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/06/us-healthcare-most-expensive-and-worst-performing/372828/

As good as Obamacare has been for us, it still puts us well behind most of the civilized world ...

well as one who has experienced both - and both are far from perfect - I can honestly say I miss the NHS.

the US expensive???? hell yeah. case in point. I was in our local hospital for a stick a camera down my throat thing and in the day surgery ward as well as prepping me and paperwork and taking vitals - wait for it......they gave me nice fuzzy purple socks with bear paw prints on them as well as a gown that - I kids you not - hooked up to an air blower and puffed up and blew hot air over me to keep me warm.....they still had to put a blanket over my feet.....I looked like a giant purple Micheline man. Mr. C and I were like WTF? So there is where part of my hideously expensive HOSPITAL SERVICES ONLY bill went.

sheeeeeyyyyet.

Having just been in the hospital, I witnessed it first hand. We had words...about how they want to perform every test in the world just to run the cost up.

Even with ACA, the US healthcare sucks.

Cass wrote:

Ben_Reilly wrote:

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/06/us-healthcare-most-expensive-and-worst-performing/372828/

As good as Obamacare has been for us, it still puts us well behind most of the civilized world ...

well as one who has experienced both - and both are far from perfect - I can honestly say I miss the NHS.

the US expensive???? hell yeah. case in point. I was in our local hospital for a stick a camera down my throat thing and in the day surgery ward as well as prepping me and paperwork and taking vitals - wait for it......they gave me nice fuzzy purple socks with bear paw prints on them as well as a gown that - I kids you not - hooked up to an air blower and puffed up and blew hot air over me to keep me warm.....they still had to put a blanket over my feet.....I looked like a giant purple Micheline man. Mr. C and I were like WTF? So there is where part of my hideously expensive HOSPITAL SERVICES ONLY bill went.

sheeeeeyyyyet.

I know them camera's down your throat ain't funny, had it done three times, but at least they didn't turn me into a hot giant blackcurrent!!!!!!   

Sassy wrote:

Cass wrote:
well as one who has experienced both - and both are far from perfect - I can honestly say I miss the NHS.

the US expensive???? hell yeah. case in point. I was in our local hospital for a stick a camera down my throat thing and in the day surgery ward as well as prepping me and paperwork and taking vitals - wait for it......they gave me nice fuzzy purple socks with bear paw prints on them as well as a gown that - I kids you not - hooked up to an air blower and puffed up and blew hot air over me to keep me warm.....they still had to put a blanket over my feet.....I looked like a giant purple Micheline man. Mr. C and I were like WTF? So there is where part of my hideously expensive HOSPITAL SERVICES ONLY bill went.

sheeeeeyyyyet.

I know them camera's down your throat ain't funny, had it done three times, but at least they didn't turn me into a hot giant blackcurrent!!!!!!   

it was surreal to say the least.....but still they knocked me out with propofol which was BRILLIANT ......still I wasn't best pleased by the anaetheti....whatsit....the very nice person who gives you drugs....making a VERY inappropriate joke about Michael Jackson......I was like really dude? what the zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Cass wrote:

Sassy wrote:

I know them camera's down your throat ain't funny, had it done three times, but at least they didn't turn me into a hot giant blackcurrent!!!!!!    

it was surreal to say the least.....but still they knocked me out with propofol which was BRILLIANT ......still I wasn't best pleased by the anaetheti....whatsit....the very nice person who gives you drugs....making a VERY inappropriate joke about Michael Jackson......I was like really dude? what the zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

You had anaesthetic!!!!!! I had a hanky soaked in lavender and some meditation first!

Sassy wrote:

Cass wrote:

it was surreal to say the least.....but still they knocked me out with propofol which was BRILLIANT ......still I wasn't best pleased by the anaetheti....whatsit....the very nice person who gives you drugs....making a VERY inappropriate joke about Michael Jackson......I was like really dude? what the zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

You had anaesthetic!!!!!! I had a hanky soaked in lavender and some meditation first!

yes. I have a VERY low pain threshold. God bless the United States Pharmaceutical Industry

Cass wrote:

Sassy wrote:

You had anaesthetic!!!!!!    I had a hanky soaked in lavender and some meditation first!

yes. I have a VERY low pain threshold. God bless the United States Pharmaceutical Industry

Wasn't painful at all, not nice and uncomfortable, but no pain. In fact I watched it on the screen and was facinated.

The USA may be bottom of the table but at least they have someone at the helm who cares about the health of his countrymen and women and is actually trying to do something about it.
I'm not that familiar with Obamacare and whether it makes things better but at least he's trying.

Good luck to him.

Irn Bru wrote:The USA may be bottom of the table but at least they have someone at the helm who cares about the health of his countrymen and women and is actually trying to do something about it.
I'm not that familiar with Obamacare and whether it makes things better but at least he's trying.

Good luck to him.

true but honestly Hon until we loosen the death grip of insurance companies, massive hospital and doctor owned conglomerates which answer to share holders, the medical equipment companies and yes,as much as I need them, the pharmaceutical companies there will be no great progress.

The ACA is market-based and not tax-based. The full name is the Patent Protection and Affordable Care Act. It protects the inventers and developers of drugs, and prevents the Pharmas from getting ahold of them and charging an arm and a leg for such. By putting a lid on the high costs, the Act permits insurance policies that are affordable. Yet, unlike the NHS, it still goes through the market.

So the great virtue of the ACA is that it works through the private market, and is self-funding.

Original Quill wrote:The ACA is market-based and not tax-based.  The full name is the Patent Protection and Affordable Care Act.  It protects the inventers and developers of drugs, and prevents the Pharmas from getting ahold of them and charging an arm and a leg for such.  By putting a lid on the high costs, the Act permits insurance policies that are affordable.  Yet, unlike the NHS, it still goes through the market.

So the great virtue of the ACA is that it works through the private market, and is self-funding.

BUT is complete SCAM and rip off.. laughing stock of the rest of the world

Which is why our PBS regularly has to tell them to Fuck off we are making it ourselves rather than pay the 100 times mark up they put on it.... our system is simple do it a fair price and we buy it, be unreasonable and your patent doesn't stand here and the gov't make it as a generic drug and price goes from $50 plus to $2.

veya_victaous wrote:

Original Quill wrote:The ACA is market-based and not tax-based.  The full name is the Patent Protection and Affordable Care Act.  It protects the inventers and developers of drugs, and prevents the Pharmas from getting ahold of them and charging an arm and a leg for such.  By putting a lid on the high costs, the Act permits insurance policies that are affordable.  Yet, unlike the NHS, it still goes through the market.

So the great virtue of the ACA is that it works through the private market, and is self-funding.

BUT is complete SCAM and rip off.. laughing stock of the rest of the world

Which is why our PBS regularly has to tell them to Fuck off we are making it ourselves rather than pay the 100 times mark up they put on it....  our system is simple do it a fair price and we buy it, be unreasonable and your patent doesn't stand here and the gov't make it as a generic drug and price goes from $50 plus to $2.

I think of it as the difference between a neighborhood in which the Mafia tries to make inroads just to have the police come down on them like a Biblical plague, and a neighborhood where the Mafia has been running things for so long that people resist its removal. In our case, the Mafia would be the private insurance companies.

You can see how deeply it permeates American culture when we have entire TV series like 'Breaking Bad' that simply wouldn't be plausible if our health care system wasn't so screwed up. Let's see a British, Australian or Canadian show about someone who turns to selling drugs in order to pay off his hospital bills ...

That said -- the ACA is definitely better than what came before it. People tend to forget that before the ACA, a lot of people not only could not afford health insurance, they'd never even stand a chance of getting to buy it, because if you had some medical problem ("pre-existing condition") they could just tell you to fuck off and (literally) die. The ACA is what keeps insurers from being able to do that now.

As Quill was saying, the fact that there is more competition between insurers now (along with a provision that 80 cents of every dollar or something be spent on actual heath care) has made health insurance cheaper. So people like myself save a few hundred dollars a year compared to before the ACA and get better coverage; a lot of people have seen a far more dramatic improvement to their health care situation.

But at this point in our history, we've still got the Mafia threatening to break people's legs if we try to do too much. We'll get there eventually, but there's still basically a war to be won.

  A FUNNY thing about those American-based Health Insurance funds is that they were happy enough to set up shop down here in the 1980s and '90s when they would make about 8-10% profit on their turnover in the local market ~ compared with the 40-50% they were used to in their home markets, pre "Obamacare" changes...

JUST shows how greedy those health funds are ~ and why they are so keen on sabotaging any and all attacks on their Republican-backed criminal activities, and maintaining their status quo whenever possible..

AND just how stupidly gullible the Tea baggers/neighbourhood Rednecks/NRA goons/white supremacists/FauxNews followers are ~ that some of them are preparing to bring down all of Western Civilisation so as to defend their "free choice" as to getting ripped off for worst-choice health cover, against that interference from the Obama "communistic" guvm'nt !!!     

AND we needn't mention how US hospitals charge about double for simple surgery, and 5-10 times the daily room costs ~ when compared to equivalent offerings from the rest of the "First" world health systems..  THAT discussion can wait for another day.