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Re 1: In regards to health care, US public spending on health care is similar to that of other western countries, although it does spend more on private. Make
by bko 8y ago
Re 1:
In regards to health care, US public spending on health care is similar to that of other western countries, although it does spend more on private. Make of that what you will but saying that the US doesn't spend on public healthcare is just incorrect.
> While the U.S. has similar public spending, its private sector spending is triple that of comparable countries [0]
Same is true about public eduction
> In 2014, the United States spent $12,300 per full-time-equivalent (FTE) student on elementary and secondary education, which was 29 percent higher than the OECD average of $9,600. At the postsecondary level, the United States spent $29,700 per FTE student, which was 81 percent higher than the OECD average of $16,400. [1]
Private prisons house a small portion of California inmates:
> The California State Prison System is administered by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Division of Adult Institutions, which had 136,000 inmates as of 2014. The state of California also relies on private and leased prisons. The number of California prisoners in private out of state facilities is around 8,763 and 4,170 are housed in leased facilities within the state. [2]
[0] https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart/u-s-similar-public-spending-private-sector-spending-triple-comparable-countries/#item-start https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart/u-s-similar-public...
[1] https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cmd.asp https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cmd.asp
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisons_in_California https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisons_in_California
- icedchocolate 8y agoRe: Healthcare, that’s not true. The US spends more on health care per capita than many systems with free healthcare (Australia, UK, Canada). You pay the most and receive the least. Like the previous commenter, I am increasingly surprised that this system is still supported, instead of one that costs less and provides more (e.g. the fact that states bargain with drug companies individually, rather than federally, means you pay much more for drugs).
- bko 8y ago> I am increasingly surprised that this system is still supported, instead of one that costs less and provides more So you're for decreasing the amount of public spending on health care in the US?
- verytrivial 8y agoThe point is the correlation between spend and value to the citizenry has become detached in the US. The market is working great if you consider the value produced and extracted in dollar terms because that's what markets are good at. But is this what the citizenry want or deserve?
- athenot 8y agoMaking healthcare more expensive doesn't make it better. As an example, the price of Clopidogrel (Plavix), developped in France is sold 5x more expensive in the US than in France. Do patients in the US experience better outcomes by paying more? No, it's the same drug. "Providing more" for healthcare, means better overall health, fewer avoidable deaths and longer life expectancy.
- jjeaff 8y agoPresumably, the makers of Plavix had an estimate of what they could sell the drug for in the US. It's possible it would not have been a viable investment if they weren't able to sell it for 5x in the US. This never bringing it to market.
- athenot 8y agoNo because in order to be reimbursed by the French insurance, they must argue their development costs in order to make their case for pricing at which the government will reimburse the drug. Otherwise it is not covered by insurance (which is rare). So anything sold oversees is pure profit (minus marketing / lobbying).
- jimbokun 8y ago"I am increasingly surprised that this system is still supported" It is NOT supported, at least not by the citizens of the United States. It is supported by the corporations, lobbyists, and outright purchased politicians of the United States. The simple answer to most of these questions about "why doesn't the United States..." is because we no longer have a functioning democracy. See Citizens United, electoral college, gerrymandering, 2 Senators for states with populations smaller than an average city, social media engineering by foreign actors, Mitch McConnell blatantly ignoring the Constitution with no repercussions...
- fxj 8y agoPrison population rate (per 100,000 of national population) U.S. 655 Switzerland 81 Japan 41 http://www.prisonstudies.org/ http://www.prisonstudies.org/
- bko 8y agoRead my comment again. I didn't say anything about the overall prison population, just that private prisons have a very small share of overall US prisoners (especially in California, the state mentioned in the article). So I'm skeptical that privatization is somehow driving the prison policy.
- maxerickson 8y agoPublic prisons contract with a lot of private services, so it's harder to analyze than just looking at the privately managed populations.