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> That’s also consistent with the pattern. 75% of Americans have either employer paid insurance or Medicare. For those people, premiums and out of pocket costs

> That’s also consistent with the pattern. 75% of Americans have either employer paid insurance or Medicare. For those people, premiums and out of pocket costs are on average less than the extra taxes they’d pay in Europe for health insurance: https://www.assembly.ca.gov/sites/assembly.ca.gov/files/Arch.. https://www.assembly.ca.gov/sites/assembly.ca.gov/files/Arch.... (page 18, showing 5.2% of household income spent on premiums and out of pocket costs). (Note that France doesn’t have free healthcare. It has a significant 30% co-insurance which is usually covered by private insurance. Non-premium out of pocket costs, which comprise 2.1% of the 5.2% above in the US, are only a little lower in the US than in France.) I grew up in the lower middle class in France, and I have what's considered great healthcare in the US. In France, I would never think twice before going to the doctor (i.e primary care) when I had a medical issue. In the US, I still think it twice even though my copay is not a big dent in my budget. And that's not counting WTF happens in the US if I loose my job.

rayiner 7y ago
> I grew up in the lower middle class in France, and I have what's considered great healthcare in the US. In France, I would never think twice before going to the doctor (i.e primary care) when I had a medical issue. In the US, I still think it twice even though my copay is not a big dent in my budget. That’s the point of co-pays, and that’s why France has them. According to the OECD statistics I posted elsewhere in this thread, per capita expenditures on non-premium out of pocket expenses (things like co-pays and deductibles) are the same in the US and France.
- thatfrenchguy 7y ago
  A doctor visit in France is 25€, the copay is usually 1€ (or 30% if you don’t have a complementary). My copay on my PCP in the US is $20. That’s not counting what happens if you do blood work, labs, if you go to an ER (where you don’t pay anything in France). There’s more than an order of magnitude between those two numbers here. You can look at your OECD statistics, or look at the experience of people who’ve actually lived there.

rayiner 7y ago

> I grew up in the lower middle class in France, and I have what's considered great healthcare in the US. In France, I would never think twice before going to the doctor (i.e primary care) when I had a medical issue. In the US, I still think it twice even though my copay is not a big dent in my budget. That’s the point of co-pays, and that’s why France has them. According to the OECD statistics I posted elsewhere in this thread, per capita expenditures on non-premium out of pocket expenses (things like co-pays and deductibles) are the same in the US and France.

thatfrenchguy 7y ago
A doctor visit in France is 25€, the copay is usually 1€ (or 30% if you don’t have a complementary). My copay on my PCP in the US is $20. That’s not counting what happens if you do blood work, labs, if you go to an ER (where you don’t pay anything in France). There’s more than an order of magnitude between those two numbers here. You can look at your OECD statistics, or look at the experience of people who’ve actually lived there.