Some of us here in the USA have studied the numbers and found that we’re not worse off, especially when it comes to outcomes and patient satisfaction. We don’t have waiting lists, we don’t have shortages of specialists, and we don’t have ministers deciding who lives and who dies.

We could do things better, but going to a socialized system isn’t the way to do it. As for Europeans who think the USA is not a superpower if it doesn’t go pink, they’re entitled to their opinion and it’s no skin off my nose. I’ll “cry all the way to the bank”. That’s like throwing a 1 barrel lawnmower carburetor on a BMW engine when the mechanic says an injector needs replacing. In this case the “mechanic” is economists.

Singapore and Mexico are doing things that work. After their recent pro-market reforms, so is the Netherlands.

I didn’t want to move to the US because the health care system is simply unaffordable. Now I don’t want to live there because not only is the health care system unaffordable, there’s this whole exasperating global war on terror going on that allows the government to treat anyone it wants as a criminal. I can do without that.

Somebody needs to have the courage to clean up the obscene excesses of the US insurance system. The US life expectancy is declining [in an industrialized country!] and doctors/hospitals charge whatever they feel like. I’m not saying a doctor shouldn’t make a decent living, but there is a difference between a fee and extortion. Rest assured that the US health care system is -not- the envy of the [industrialized] world.
And if US citizens can hardly afford health care, how would someone from the third world be able to afford it?

Nag your congresswo/men -every- day about it. That’s what they’re there for. Stop spending on the military-industrial complex, which yields nothing but misery for countless people, not least US men and women in uniform [who will need health care too]. If the US can’t offer awesome health care to its citizens what business does it have calling itself a super power [and I would like to point out that I have been to the US many times and found it an awesome experience in general, I -do not- hate the US - just to pre empt that response].

go to France. I need a colo. too. Will do it for free (in some ways). It is free if you are in France but now I am working in the UK and pays about 1500$ to get both countries full coverage (special expat french insurance) that includes every things.

there is a story about an american in Paris getting treatment in France in a private like manner. 45 euros for X-ray (this is what I paid myself before getting my money back from the health service).

Loic

Japan also has a health care system that keeps costs low and the quality of services high.

Something has got to happen here in America because it’s getting really, really bad and the vast majority of people stuck in the middle can’t keep going like this.

Even if you have insurance, you pay like you’re buying something useful but you still can’t avoid getting slammed with massive deductibles, mysterious bills and charges. I hate it.

Canadians pay 2nd most in the world in age adjusted percentage of GDP terms of all OECD countries.

If you earn over 200 000$/ year in Canada, expect to pay around 30,000$ towards your health insurance. True, lower income families are highly subsidized by richer families… but our system is plagued by many (different) ailments.

Our hospitals are awarded budgets from which they must provide services. This turns the patient into a burden on the hospital (less patients equals more money for other things)… and this feeling/treatment comes across.

If current trends in BC continue, by 2020, 100% of the provincial budget would need to be allocated to health care. This obviously not happen.

We are in need of reform like everyone else.

you live in california. in california they publish these rates on the state website:

http://files.medi-cal.ca.gov/pubsdoco/rates/rateshome.asp

almost no other state has those data available, but you do. your point is valid, but you are much better off in california than most other parts of the us.

A Mexican friend of hers recommended her to go to a Mexico city doctor who had done it for her in the past. My lady called the doctor long distance, made an appointment and off we went (we had to go to á family gathering there)
She saw this doctor who passed her on to a surgeon. We went to the hospital and she was under total anesthesia, and later we were explained the results by the surgeon and given a DVD of the colonoscopy exploration.

The general doctor cost US $35.00, and the total cost for the hospital room, the anesthesist, nurse and the surgeon was just over $250.00 (about Mex 3,000.00 pesos total)

But this is not all. My lady has been suffering from diverticulitis most of her life and her mother died from it at age 51.
She has been under US doctors regimes that had not resolved many of her complaints of constant pains in the abdomen, and her constant inability to go regularly to the bathroom. They never gave her any particular diet.

The Mexican doctor solved for her all this by giving her a diet that works and was able to explain what exactly was the matter with the pain in her abdomen. She is regular now and as long as she keeps in that diet she has no more the pains she had to endure for decades.
This doctor said in the US, medicine is concerned with producing test after test, while in Mexico they use more the old style symptoms to come to an analysis of the patient.

Once I went to a doctor here in Houston, and by the time I arrived at my home and went into the Internet, there was a message selling me medicines to solve things I had just told the doctor, things that supposed to be a secret between the doctor and the patient.

I just have to laugh when people criticize the Canadian Medical system which I used for 18 years in British Columbia. It’s fantastic and works similar to here in that you can go to any doctor or hospital you want, except that because every doctor and hospital is under the same insurance company (the Universal Canadian Plan) you have more to choose from. Most are private.
The costs are much lower and there are no co-pays or deductibles.
A family of 4 today will pay about US $85.00 per month but for people whose income is low there are several scales down to zero!!

Moreover coverage is not connected to your job, it’s totally independent and you can change jobs or even lose your job and you don’t have to worry about losing your coverage. As I said if your income is low, your fees come down accordingly.

See the Michael Moore’s film SICKO for more info into other country systems.