Competition is needed to improve health insurance options for Americans

[carolina73]

We also have to add Medicare and Medicaid patients which is government healthcare.

Because they are basically breakeven payment for services, then the doctors have to charge the public insured and uninsured at higher rates to make their profits there.

It is the one thing that the left does not want to talk about with Medicare for all. If they implemented that as it is today then hospitals would close and doctor's would go broke. They would have to increase the government payment rates by about 50% to implement what they want and keep the system from going broke. Unless you want to be like Bernie's favorite Cuba who is out of medicines and supplies as you read this.

[Refugee]

I'll read your diatribe later, if I have time. Your NHS is failing miserably, why you tout it is beyond comprehension. You must be relatively healthy. Healthcare is very affordable in this country, you are either completely ignorant on the subject, or deliberately attempting to misinform. The poor in this country get free healthcare.

No need.
Google: How many Americans die every year unable to afford medical care.

‘One in eight American adults — an estimated 34 million people — say they have at least one friend or family member who died in the last five years after being unable to afford treatment for a medical condition, according to a new West Health-Gallup survey of more than 1,000 adults released Tuesday.’

[Refugee]

Maybe you should ask why anyone that can afford private health insurance in countries with public insurance do exactly that. Many times a private health insurance policy comes with the job, especially in the UK.

No it doesn't. Because we have a national health service, a private plan would only be included as part of the 'perks' in the high end of employment.

[Captdon]

Other states have a lot more. Competition won’t lower costs, these insurance private companies will bleed you dry, have done and are doing. Non-profit NHS (National Health Insurance), is the only way to go.

No thanks. I don't want to wait three weeks to see if I have a heart problem. You have a limited success rate because if I die waiting I no longer appear in the stats. NHS is just making numbers say what they want them to say.

[Refugee]

Green is free and universal healthcare
Red is countries without
Other colours are a mixture of

In other words, the US has the same healthcare system popular in parts of the African third world and SE Asia.

[Refugee]

No thanks. I don't want to wait three weeks to see if I have a heart problem. You have a limited success rate because if I die waiting I no longer appear in the stats. NHS is just making numbers say what they want them to say.

Well yes, if you can afford private health care that will cater for major surgery that’s good. And if you can’t?

[Captdon]

US privatized health has a lot going for it, if you can afford it. For those that can’t I imagine it’s a nightmare. I suppose you could say, 'well, I'm alright, sod everyone else', but that's not the way we see it.

Governments aren’t good at business, I think we’d all agree with that. However, not everything is socialist just because a government runs it. The US armed forces are not socialist because they’re under the command of the Federal Government. Similarly, the UK National Health Service is not socialist because it’s managed by the government and it’s actually a non-profit insurance scheme that removes the middle men corporate profiteers.

Compulsory deductions are taken from salaries at source, there is no opt out. You pay depending on your income level, which can be as low as $7 a month to those on a minimum wage, to a more realistic $300 for higher earners in the middle income bracket. Prescription drugs are charged a set rate at, I think at the moment $12, although if you’re young, old, pregnant … there’s no charge.

Co-pay and deductibles are unknown as is crowd funding for money to buy treatment and everyone gets a one level service. Those with lesser ills stand in a queue, emergencies go straight to the front.

We all complain and it’s always aimed at funding levels, but it’s a fact that in every western country that abandons privatized medicine, no population ever demands its return. We just value our health above profit, but for those who have never lived under other health care systems, I suppose it’s normal to make a profit.

Try saying how much the tax rate is that allows this. It is not paid for by the people who get it. It is 80% paid for by taxes. Why would you think we want that?

https://fullfact.org/health/how-nhs-funded/

[Captdon]

That’s fantastic. So why does anyone bother to buy health insurance? Do they also provide cheap medicines?

Non-profits have to pa their costs too. They simply put any profit back for equipment or to lower the premiums for their clients. You are talking about something you know little about. What is so hard for you to understand>

I have a government insurance plan. It's Medicare. I paid 2% all my life and still pay 150 a month. I get 80%n,not 100%. I need a secondary plan to pay that 20%.

Tell me again how the government is the way to go.

[DGUtley]

No need. Google: How many Americans die every year unable to afford medical care. ‘One in eight American adults — an estimated 34 million people — say they have at least one friend or family member who died in the last five years after being unable to afford treatment for a medical condition, according to a new West Health-Gallup survey of more than 1,000 adults released Tuesday.’

I cry b.s. on that one. I review medical records every day for Medicaid recipients making claims. My two daughters work at the city hospital here. We have plenty of free healthcare in this country. The programs are there.

[Chris]

Green is free and universal healthcare
Red is countries without
Other colours are a mixture of

In other words, the US has the same healthcare system popular in parts of the African third world and SE Asia.

Pathetic appeal to emotion.

The real problem is the rise of health care costs beyond what anyone can afford private or public. And that is true even in those gree "free" countries. Free, LOLOLOL.