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These are old numbers... America is forecast to spend 17 or 18% of GDP on healthcare this year...

molmalo 14y ago
Its not about how much money you spend, but how you spend it. USA has made the enourmous mistake of making of health a large business managed by private corporations that dont care about human life. Just money. Other countries see health as a right (luckily thats the case here in Argentina). So, most medics dont get super rich. They work for a salary, they dont get 30 or 50 grand for a surgery. But they still do their job, they work hard and they give their best (well, most of them). Because when you choose that kind of profession, its not for making lots of money, but to help people. Or at least, thats how it should be, and I'm absolutely sure that there are lots of medical doctors there that think this way, but they are just the little fishes inside a pool full with big sharks. I feel sorry for you USA, because you lost it and you wont get it back. There are lots of interests against it. There's not political will, there's not professional will (AMA anyone). Sometimes, from the outside it seems like there's not even a cultural or popular will. A few months ago I discussed this with an American friend and he was totally against universal health care. His argument was something like "why should my taxes pay for some random unemployed or most probably lazy man's health" "if he gets free health care he won't work as hard" "if i make more money why should he have the same benefits as me?" And my answer "because he's a human being too"didn't seem to help. You said it yourself, 17/18 % of the biggest gdp in the world and still cant take care of all of your people. Think about it. Just imagine what you could do with that money in a different system. Seeing this kind of things happening there I can only think about the USA, as a strange place. Home of great technological progress and sad social regress. Dont take it personal.
- davidhollander 14y ago
  > I feel sorry for you USA, because you lost it and you wont get it back. The position that the USA "lost" the policy of "health as a right" is nonsensical, because it never previously possessed it in its 236 years of existence. You might want to try a different narrative archetype.

Its not about how much money you spend, but how you spend it. USA has made the enourmous mistake of making of health a large business managed by private corporations that dont care about human life. Just money. Other countries see health as a right (luckily thats the case here in Argentina). So, most medics dont get super rich. They work for a salary, they dont get 30 or 50 grand for a surgery. But they still do their job, they work hard and they give their best (well, most of them). Because when you choose that kind of profession, its not for making lots of money, but to help people. Or at least, thats how it should be, and I'm absolutely sure that there are lots of medical doctors there that think this way, but they are just the little fishes inside a pool full with big sharks. I feel sorry for you USA, because you lost it and you wont get it back. There are lots of interests against it. There's not political will, there's not professional will (AMA anyone). Sometimes, from the outside it seems like there's not even a cultural or popular will. A few months ago I discussed this with an American friend and he was totally against universal health care. His argument was something like "why should my taxes pay for some random unemployed or most probably lazy man's health" "if he gets free health care he won't work as hard" "if i make more money why should he have the same benefits as me?" And my answer "because he's a human being too"didn't seem to help. You said it yourself, 17/18 % of the biggest gdp in the world and still cant take care of all of your people. Think about it. Just imagine what you could do with that money in a different system. Seeing this kind of things happening there I can only think about the USA, as a strange place. Home of great technological progress and sad social regress. Dont take it personal.

davidhollander 14y ago
> I feel sorry for you USA, because you lost it and you wont get it back. The position that the USA "lost" the policy of "health as a right" is nonsensical, because it never previously possessed it in its 236 years of existence. You might want to try a different narrative archetype.