2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Avg health care spend is $6,125 (working age) and $3,628 (child) but Bernie claims you only pay $466 [View all]Human101948
(3,457 posts)This entire argument about paying for healthcare is based on the idea that U.S. costs are necessarily sky high to provide good care. They are not!
The United States health care system is the most expensive in the world, but this report and prior editions consistently show the U.S. underperforms relative to other countries on most dimensions of performance. Among the 11 nations studied in this reportAustralia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United Statesthe U.S. ranks last, as it did in the 2010, 2007, 2006, and 2004 editions of Mirror, Mirror. Most troubling, the U.S. fails to achieve better health outcomes than the other countries, and as shown in the earlier editions, the U.S. is last or near last on dimensions of access, efficiency, and equity.
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2014/jun/mirror-mirror
Even Cuba with a very, very poorly funded system does better!
Figures from the World Health Organization clearly show that The United States lags behind 36 other countries in overall health system performance ranging from infant mortality, to adult mortality, to life expectancy.
20 countries in Europe and four countries in Asia have a better life expectancy than the U.S. If you are a male between the ages of 15 and 59, your chances of dying are higher in the U.S. (140 per thousand) than in Canada, 95, Costa Rica 127, Chile 134, and Cuba, 138.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/blake-fleetwood/cuba-has-better-medical-c_b_19664.html
It is not about needing more money, it's about capitalists sucking the blood out of the populace like the slimey leeches they are.