For those Americans who can’t afford health care coverage, why don’t we just outsource the operation and cost to the UK and Canada? Isn’t healthcare a human right? Are those countries not for human rights? Or are they only for those human rights for those who live inside their “arbitrary” lines of national citizenry? Does that not count, here, in this case? Sort of like they outsource the costs of their national defense to me, and the American taxpayers? If universal state-run single-payor system will reduce the overall costs of healthcare, the amount they’ll be required to kick in would be exponentially lower than what we pay to maintain a military readiness over all of Europe. I think we’ve found a way to make this work, IP.
Well, if everyone could take an ambulance anywhere, anytime and someone else had to foot the bill - the ambulance system would then be so well-used as to become cheaper, as even a basic understanding of economics would show. I think if enough people rode ambulances, they actually start to produce money - and it just flies out behind it. But seriously, if we just outsourced the trillions of dollars of costs that our national defense requires to another country, we could all drive ambulances all day.
An ambulance ride should cost a bit more than a taxi. It's a vehicle; you're paying for mileage and maintenance, plus the rate of the tech in the back at about... $35 an hour? I doubt the ride takes an hour. I guess the flashing lights add to the price? Staying in a hospital is trickier. There are at least 30 nurses ignoring you, so probably need to cover the daily cost of each, and then the linen.
I’m no fan of our healthcare system but it isn’t going to become cheaper or more efficient by adding more bureaucracy and bureaucrats running it. We’ve removed the consumer so far from the pricing and cost with so much red tape, regulations and other stuff. It’s amazing it isn’t even more screwed up.
With my three kids it was the other end of the spectrum with the nurses. They were in all the damn time making sure we weren’t giving our new little human Mountain Dew in a bottle or other stuff.
You have it backwards. The moment physicians stopped setting prices, and moved it into the hands of administrators, who passed it off to insurance companies, we got screwed up. The logic was that a physician shouldn't be hamstrung by the potential cost of a test or procedure, and should do all they can for the patient. But the irony became that, though while medically sound, it is not financially sound. While no medical harm has been done, financial harm has been done. The consumer has never set pricing for a medical procedure, because when you're having a MI... you can't really shop around.
Were you all the only ones there... because if not, well... those nurses couldn't be in two places at once. OR could they. Maybe that's why the cost...
What pushed the increase for administrative positions since they add little value to the overall system
Physicians not wanting to know, or handle, the administration, and only wanting to focus on the practice of medicine.
half of the parents of the kids in my kids’ nicu weren’t paying anything. Just come here illegally and it’s all free
I’m not a huge advocate for the current system. I’d love to see more open market ideas and competition in health care.
This is the only answer. More competition, and not less. A single payor system of zero competition would be disastrous, on every level.
There's a very funny home video of my mother in law asking my then 3 year old brother in law if he wanted "anymore Sprite in his bottle". We give both of them hell over this.