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The worst part, simultaneously soul crushing and apocalyptic rage inducing is that we get these outcomes after spending more per capita on healthcare than prett
by khriss 5mo ago
The worst part, simultaneously soul crushing and apocalyptic rage inducing is that we get these outcomes after spending more per capita on healthcare than pretty much any country on the planet.
- ceejayoz 5mo agoWorse, we spend more in tax dollars on it than any other country total, and then add on the private spending on top. We do the worst of both worlds. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:OECD_health_expenditure_per_capita_by_country.svg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:OECD_health_expendit... (And we’re middling in outcomes!)
- tt24 5mo agoYeah because we consume way more than other countries
- danaw 5mo agosources please
- tt24 5mo agoDon’t have any. Not concerned with whether you believe me or not
- ceejayoz 5mo agoDo we consume more, or are we running the price of everything needlessly higher with a goofy setup? Americans are not inherently three times as sick as Australians.
- tt24 5mo agoYeah they are. Americans engage in more unhealthy eating, crime, and drug use than Australians. It’s very easy for me to believe that they’re 3 times as sick.
- ceejayoz 5mo agoAustralia is very close behind the US in obesity and illicit drug use. Side note: I'm an Australian citizen, living in the States. An Australian hospital doesn't need a billing/collections department and the docs don't sit on appeals calls with insurance; when my wife broke her foot visiting, they basically didn't know how to bill her (for surgery and three days in a ward!). My son needed a badly ingrown toenail treated on a separate visit there last year; they just treated it and sent us on our way, no charge, despite his being a tourist.
- tt24 5mo agoI didn’t say obesity, I said unhealthy eating. Those aren’t the same thing. I straight up don’t believe the drug use one, we have way more fentalyl deaths than you and it’s not even close. You didn’t address crime. We have much more of it. More gun ownership and gun usage as well. I’m not quite sure what this anecdote has to do with my comment.
- ceejayoz 5mo ago> I didn’t say obesity, I said unhealthy eating. Those aren’t the same thing. Australians eat a substantially similar diet to Americans, and have similar health issues (obesity, heart disease, etc.) as a result. They are deeply related things. > I straight up don’t believe the drug use one, we have way more fentalyl deaths than you and it’s not even close. Gee, I wonder if not having healthcare (including access to things like therapy and rehab) might drive up drug death rates. > You didn’t address crime. Sure; you didn't address how it's responsible for 3x the healthcare costs.
- tptacek 5mo ago... and that money isn't going to insurers.
- psadauskas 5mo ago... nor the providers.
- tptacek 5mo agoIn fact it's overwhelmingly going to the providers. https://nationalhealthspending.org/ https://nationalhealthspending.org/
- ceejayoz 5mo agohttps://sph.brown.edu/news/2025-11-10/unitedhealthcare-optum-payments https://sph.brown.edu/news/2025-11-10/unitedhealthcare-optum... > Today, many of those practices have been bought up by large corporations, including hospitals, private-equity firms and even health-insurance companies. It’s a shift that not only has changed how money moves through the health care system, but may also be helping some insurers boost their profits, according to new research published in Health Affairs. > A study from researchers at Brown University’s Center for Advancing Health Policy through Research and the University of California Berkeley found that UnitedHealthcare, the nation’s largest health insurer, pays doctors who work for its own physician network, Optum, more than it pays independent practices for the same care.
- tptacek 5mo agoThis isn't a response to anything I just said. I really don't understand why people collapse into all this handwaving when people point out the obvious: the money in our system is going to providers, and, in particular, it's going to practitioners.
- ceejayoz 5mo agoThe insurers are buying the practices so they can eat at both sides of the trough. (And the independent practicioners are having to use a significant portion of the money they take in to… fight the insurers!)
- recursivecaveat 5mo agoA family member recently got a routine physcial blood test panel taken. The company made 3(!) separate overcharge billing errors associated with this one screening. Their doctor had to be pulled in and wasted a considerable amount of time clearing this up, doing stuff like affirming to their support that the documentation from their own front desk was accurate. Maybe for every $100 of doctor time they waste they collect $101 from patients who give up. No wonder its a black hole of money.