Despite Americans paying nearly double that of other nations, the US fares poorly in list of 10 countries
The United States health system ranked dead last in an international comparison of 10 peer nations, according to a new report by the Commonwealth Fund.
In spite of Americans paying nearly double that of other countries, the system performed poorly on health equity, access to care and outcomes.
“I see the human toll of these shortcomings on a daily basis,” said Dr Joseph Betancourt, the president of the Commonwealth Fund, a foundation with a focus on healthcare research and policy.
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The fund said the US would need to expand insurance coverage and make “meaningful” improvements on the amount of healthcare expenses patients pay themselves; minimize the complexity and variation in insurance plans to improve administrative efficiency; build a viable primary care and public health system; and invest in social wellbeing, rather than thrust problems of social inequity onto the health system.
But the US system ranks first in wealth extraction from people to billionaires, so it’s working as intended.
Shocking. “Best health care system in the world,” my ass. “You’ll have to wait months if there’s universal healthcare.” Bitch, I have to wait months now.
“You’ll have to wait months if there’s universal healthcare.”
Yeah, but that healthcare is still practically guaranteed, and it won’t put you into debt
Several times I’ve had to wait for months on healthcare in the US system. This is such a weak argument against a socialized system.
Literally anything I want done is a wait list here. Eye exam; schedule a time. Dentist; is it an emergency? We’ll schedule you sometime next month. Phycologist; its a theee month wait list. Primary care; see you in three months. Finding a reliable primary care has been a dead end nightmare.
I’m not shitting on doctors or nurses. Just this whole system is bonkers. For what reason? Healthcare is not a business.
“In capitalism everything’s a buisness.” Well get fucked.
I’m not saying we should be reductive. There is reasons for the way we do things. I am saying though, we’ve gone too far and it’s obscuring the goal of a having a functional society.
People need professionals to help with their health; an extremely complex field. Every person needs this. Its not an optional thing. You want a society, well a society needs people, and people need Healthcare.
“Well I never wanted to be part of a society.” Did you enjoy the luxury that having a society provides? From plumbing to super yatchs, all of this wealth we share was made by people like you and me.
Not only have I had to wait months, but then the doctor will argue with you and gaslight you about your fucking symptoms. Here’s a $200 bill for 5 minutes discussion and being told I am actually fine and not having the symptoms I’m having and even if I was they don’t want to do treatment because it’s too painful and difficult and so testing is pointless too since they won’t treat.
I am TRULY TRULY fine with the day doctors lose their jobs to AI. I genuinely wish I could have an AI primary care doctor now. Or even just a veterinarian, because vets aren’t taught to gaslight their fucking patients.
Who has ever said that? You guys have no healthcare. It’s literally a joke to anyone outside of US.
Not a high bar if they’re also saying immigratns are eating People’s pets.
They always bring up Canadians having to wait for long periods of time at the emergency room.
Wendell Potter spent decades scaring Americans. About Canada. He worked for the health insurance industry, and he knew that if Americans understood Canadian-style health care, they might … like it. So he helped deploy an industry playbook for protecting the health insurance agency.
https://www.npr.org/2020/10/19/925354134/frame-canada
Here’s an archived piece Wendell wrote for WaPo about what he did and how he did it.
The health care scare: I sold Americans a lie about Canadian medicine. Now we’re paying the price.
My insurance bumped up the copay on primary care to make it less affordable than an urgent care visit, incentivizing us to get care with immense surcharges. But at least we can get a same-day appointment instead of waiting a month or two to see the most qualified and familiar person with our conditions. Fuck capitalism, as usual.
I had my primary care doctor retire. The gigantic hospital system with which they work put all existing patients in as new patients for the incoming doctor. It has been 18 months and I’m still waiting for the new patient visit. Fighting to even get maintainance medications filled has been crazy because I keep being told “I have to see my doctor.” Circular logic abounds.
The gigantic system makes it so I cannot directly contact the office, it is all hurry up and wait through their patient portal systems which require 24-48 hours for response time. Can’t go to the doctors office to complain without an appointment.
This system is working optimally for someone. It is not us.
Avg hospital CEO earns $649,198 to $1,093,977 in my state of NC.
That’s who the system is working for. Additionally, all it’s share holders.
My wife broke her ankle and insurance denied the entire claim for being “not medically necessary”. The “medical professional” (not doctor) who denied the claim had experience in OBGYN, not orthopedics.
100% going to win the appeal because like, we have x-rays of the shattered bones in her leg, but seriously wtf. People seriously believe this is the ideal medical system?
Cigna doctors spend an average of 1.2 seconds per case. Their whole system is to deny everything right off the bat, and then they only have to potentially pay out for patients who have the resources to appeal.
When I was in the insurance industry, for a company who administered various policies from Aetna, BCBS, Cigna, United and Medicare, that was the SOP. Deny anything that took more than a few seconds of brain power, put clients through endless rounds of appeals. The medical director was amoral AF too, because well, the insurance company exists for profit, and bonuses are dependent on paying out as little as possible. It got pretty bad, too, enough that my immediate supervisor started signing off a bunch of approvals, circumventing the medical director, where any shred of plausibility was available.
Now, there is automated software. HIPAA has it’s pros and cons.
I’m on appeal #3 right now with my insurance for something they told me would be 100% covered. I’m getting my doctor in on it to do a peer to peer. He sounded so fed up with everything he was like “it’s probably some retired pediatrician who doesn’t know anything about what you need” when talking about who he’d need to talk with. If this one doesn’t work then I’m on to the “threaten to sue” stage which I’m not excited about. The whole thing is a mess and the process and money that’s gone into it would have easily bankrupted or put me homeless at most previous times in my life
It’s honestly infuriating that these companies are essentially diagnosing and treating patients without doctor-patient relationship (required by federal law). And like LITERALLY determining and dictating treatment. That’s illegal if ANYONE else does it. Even if your own medical provider doesn’t see you per new condition, that can be considered a violation of that law. And these insurance guys have never seen us in real life.
I also think that it’s a really strangely allowed violation of HIPPA. Why should everyone at the insurance company, or ANYONE at an insurance company, have the right to my medical information? Why are they able to communicate with my doctor’s office? I absolutely hate the privacy aspect of insurance so much.
It’s helpful to know that if I ever leave the US, I’ll have better healthcare. I don’t even need to spend any time researching that aspect.
No, you actually won’t. I went to Canada, had an accident and had to wait 8 hours in the emergency room to get care because apparently I wasn’t dying
As an American, I had to pay $1000 for this privilege
You had to go to Canada for that? I had that same experience right here in the states.
Well, almost. It cost me $1500, and that was after my insurance paid down the majority of the bill.
It was four hours in the US. Trust me, staying in the hospital until 1 am is way different than sitting until the morning in a plastic chair
My family and I moved from the US to Canada in the summer of 2023 and last week was the first time I had to make use my Services Card. I went to the ER in excruciating pain, had blood and urine labs done, a shot of pain killers then waited around (a long time) for a CT scan. The doctor said it might be a new record, but I had been bumped a few times by suspected stroke patients that came in, so totally understandable. Several hours later with a prescription slip in hand I exited the hospital. Easy as pie.
For anyone who has never had the displeasure of experiencing an American hospital you can not understand how much simpler and less stressful and cheap the Canadian system is. I dont know what it would have cost me in the USA, probably whatever my insurance deductible was, but it certainly was not $0. That state of not knowing what all this is going to cost you, and how you will afford it, makes an already awful experience even worse. Not being harassed for money on the way out, never once discussing the cost of something with the DR was truly eye opening. Source
