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Yet heavens forbid if we spent a little more trying to fix healthcare. This all is thanks to mentality of fear which has deep roots in American consciousness. A

Yet heavens forbid if we spent a little more trying to fix healthcare. This all is thanks to mentality of fear which has deep roots in American consciousness. At the nation level - what if somebody attacks us to at the family level there all kinds of crazies here let’s not let our children play outdoors in the neighborhood without supervision- it’s a fear based society.

spicyramen 6y ago
Is my understanding that we already spend more in healthcare than military. What would you like to fix specifically?
- rswail 6y ago
  The US spends substantially more on health administration than other nations. Removing that administrative burden (ie the private health insurance organizations as arbiters of health care delivery) would substantially lower the cost. As a percentage of the GDP, the health industry is a larger proportion than military production, but as a percentage of the US Federal budget, the military consumes roughly half.
  - Anon1096 6y ago
    I suspect you're only counting discretionary spending, when you should be counting all federal government spending, as important programs like Medicare are non-discretionary. Overall, the military is less than 20 percent of federal spending in the US.
  - bakuninsbart 6y ago
    Covid response was of course badly botched in the US, but look at Germany for comparison to its single-payer neighbors. A decentralised, competitive healthcare industry is worth a lot if push comes to shove. That said, I agree that the american healthcare market is predatory and has way too high margins. But they are only part of the "problem". Doctors make a lot more money in the US than almost anywhere else, and pharmaceutical companies often get more than half their global revenue from the US market alone.
- throwaway051820 6y ago
  The U.S. government spends more on healthcare than the UK government does [1], even though the latter insures all citizens and the former doesn't. The cost of universal healthcare isn't really the issue. The U.S. is spending much more and getting much less. You see the same thing with the U.S. military. The U.S. spends far more than any other nation on the military, yet look at what happened when Yemen fell apart - the Chinese military evacuated Chinese citizens, the Indian military evacuated Indian citizens, the Pakistani military evacuated Pakistani citizens, and the U.S. government told U.S. citizens that they were on their own[2]. [1] https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-42950587 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-42950587 [2] https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/04/21/washington-to-americans-stuck-in-yemen-youre-on-your-own-evacuation/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/04/21/washington-to-americans...
vl 6y ago
If you think about it, then it’s clear that in free society healthcare will capture all excess money. Essentially you can spend unlimited money on life extension, and people are genetically pre-disposed to fear death. There are some nuances, but essentially healthcare is only going to grow and will continue to be and become overly-dominant sector of US economy. Ironically, if it’s de-regulated, it will capture excess money more effeciently.
- XorNot 6y ago
  And this children is why you should go bankrupt if you get appendicitis... Every other developed country on Earth gets more down while spending half as much per person. Your system is just corrupt garbage.
  - vl 6y ago
    To your first point: it’s not true in US healthcare. To your second point: US has very low interest rates, money are cheap, nobody wants to work, thus services are expensive. To your third point: system is not corrupt, but over-regulated garbage. To your general sentiment: my point is not related to the actual cost of services.
    - XorNot 6y ago
      Your point is being made as though it's relevant to a healthcare system that exists today anywhere on the planet. It isn't. It especially isn't related to the US healthcare system, which again, costs the US government - not the US consumer who pays astronomically more then any other developed nation - about twice as much per capita as other developed nations, while providing less services to the public. Whether or not healthcare might consume all the remaining spending is irrelevant when your system manages to be twice as expensive per capita while excluding tens of millions of people from any coverage at all. An emergency appendectomy - life saving surgery - costs $15,000[1] unless you manage to find a surgeon who's in your healthcare network, available right then, and you also don't get unlucky enough that anyone in that operating theatre while you're unconscious is also in your healthcare network. [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-health-care-industry-is-letting-surgeons-behave-like-muggers/2020/01/13/f2089094-3636-11ea-bb7b-265f4554af6d_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-health-care-indu... Your system is corrupt garbage.

spicyramen 6y ago

Is my understanding that we already spend more in healthcare than military. What would you like to fix specifically?

rswail 6y ago
The US spends substantially more on health administration than other nations. Removing that administrative burden (ie the private health insurance organizations as arbiters of health care delivery) would substantially lower the cost. As a percentage of the GDP, the health industry is a larger proportion than military production, but as a percentage of the US Federal budget, the military consumes roughly half.
- Anon1096 6y ago
  I suspect you're only counting discretionary spending, when you should be counting all federal government spending, as important programs like Medicare are non-discretionary. Overall, the military is less than 20 percent of federal spending in the US.
- bakuninsbart 6y ago
  Covid response was of course badly botched in the US, but look at Germany for comparison to its single-payer neighbors. A decentralised, competitive healthcare industry is worth a lot if push comes to shove. That said, I agree that the american healthcare market is predatory and has way too high margins. But they are only part of the "problem". Doctors make a lot more money in the US than almost anywhere else, and pharmaceutical companies often get more than half their global revenue from the US market alone.
throwaway051820 6y ago
The U.S. government spends more on healthcare than the UK government does [1], even though the latter insures all citizens and the former doesn't. The cost of universal healthcare isn't really the issue. The U.S. is spending much more and getting much less. You see the same thing with the U.S. military. The U.S. spends far more than any other nation on the military, yet look at what happened when Yemen fell apart - the Chinese military evacuated Chinese citizens, the Indian military evacuated Indian citizens, the Pakistani military evacuated Pakistani citizens, and the U.S. government told U.S. citizens that they were on their own[2]. [1] https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-42950587 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-42950587 [2] https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/04/21/washington-to-americans-stuck-in-yemen-youre-on-your-own-evacuation/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/04/21/washington-to-americans...

vl 6y ago

If you think about it, then it’s clear that in free society healthcare will capture all excess money. Essentially you can spend unlimited money on life extension, and people are genetically pre-disposed to fear death. There are some nuances, but essentially healthcare is only going to grow and will continue to be and become overly-dominant sector of US economy. Ironically, if it’s de-regulated, it will capture excess money more effeciently.

XorNot 6y ago
And this children is why you should go bankrupt if you get appendicitis... Every other developed country on Earth gets more down while spending half as much per person. Your system is just corrupt garbage.
- vl 6y ago
  To your first point: it’s not true in US healthcare. To your second point: US has very low interest rates, money are cheap, nobody wants to work, thus services are expensive. To your third point: system is not corrupt, but over-regulated garbage. To your general sentiment: my point is not related to the actual cost of services.
  - XorNot 6y ago
    Your point is being made as though it's relevant to a healthcare system that exists today anywhere on the planet. It isn't. It especially isn't related to the US healthcare system, which again, costs the US government - not the US consumer who pays astronomically more then any other developed nation - about twice as much per capita as other developed nations, while providing less services to the public. Whether or not healthcare might consume all the remaining spending is irrelevant when your system manages to be twice as expensive per capita while excluding tens of millions of people from any coverage at all. An emergency appendectomy - life saving surgery - costs $15,000[1] unless you manage to find a surgeon who's in your healthcare network, available right then, and you also don't get unlucky enough that anyone in that operating theatre while you're unconscious is also in your healthcare network. [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-health-care-industry-is-letting-surgeons-behave-like-muggers/2020/01/13/f2089094-3636-11ea-bb7b-265f4554af6d_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-health-care-indu... Your system is corrupt garbage.