Switzerland's example of universal healthcare. Will Obamacare be just as expensive?

Conservatives live on planet bizarro.

What's funny is that last year saw a huge increase in health care costs. The Baggers blamed Obama -- but of course the health reform act hasn't kicked in yet -- it was pure old style market flaws and lack of price elasticity that resulted in the price hikes, a repudiation of our current failed system.

It must suck to be a Tea Partier.

 

Why do some liberals in this group have so much difficulty understanding ideas expressed by the English language?

This opinion piece is about the rising costs of heath care in Switzerland. It does not address the causes of rising hearth care costs in the U.S.

Are these concepts really that difficult for liberals to comprehend and understand?

By the way, the costs for U.S. health care insurance are increasing in anticipation of the new costs that will become effective when Obamacare kicks in during 2014. Nancy Pelosi has an agreement with the U.S. insurance providers to increase costs gradually over five years rather than all at once in 2014. This agreement is to avoid "sticker shock” and riots in the streets when the American public realizes how expensive Obamacare has become when it is fully implemented in 2014.

 

Great information, Professor Peabody.

Thanks for sharing!

 

Is this a joke?

There are about 100 countries with SMALLER poverty percentages than the USA who HAVE Universal Health Care!

If anything, the figures indicate that having Universal Health Care correlates with LESS poverty, rather than more.

And ONE thing is FOR SURE! The poor in the UHC countries GET GOOD HEALTH CARE instead of the mess of aid programs that sometimes work and sometimes don't in the USA.

 

Utter nonesense. The medicines and machines which are the source of high costs are made by socialists/communists or capitalists?

The article itself states that the US capitalist system is about 2500$ more expensive.

 

US healthcare is the most expensive in the world, THREE times as expensive as my cover, which is valid for every country in the world except the USA. If I add the USA, one sole country, I mulitply my premium by THREE!

And, additionally, you've 40M people who are not covered.

So who's system has imploded again?

 

This thread makes me like Switzerland much much less.

 

Multiple their population by 5 and you've the number of Americans without any cover at all...

Maths is fun ain't it!

 

I thought that the American system was already more expensive?

 

It is. UHC would make health care costs a heck of a lot cheaper, but they don't want that.
On one hand they want cheaper health care, but reject the very thing that could make that happen.

 

I thought Norway was the only country with a more expensive health care system than the US?

 

You are very mistaken, Leffe.

Here is the question you SHOULD be asking!

Why Does Health Care in the U.S. Cost So Much?

"That’s because 20 percent of patients account for 80 percent of spending, and that 20 percent is made up mostly of the chronically ill."

Even as millions aren’t getting treatments they vitally need, a leading medical journalist argues that the main culprit in the soaring cost of American health care is actually overtreatment … and all that extra care is making us very sick.

$500 BILLION: The amount that Americans spend annually on unnecessary care.

30,000: The number of Medicare recipients who die each year as a result of unneeded care.

50%: The portion of surgeries, tests, and procedures that are not backed by scientific evidence.

 

Same here. You have I.N.S. ?

 

Geat question, Ramboner.

 

Agreed!

you are very correct, DonGlock.

 

Why? Why do we have unnecessary treatments? Why the unneeded surgeries and tests?
Because a profit is made on each of those?

 

The reason we have so many unnecessary tests is the doctors do not want to be sued by unscrupulous tort lawyers.

Provide the doctor’s with protection from malpractice law suits and these unnecessary tests and the exorbitant costs to the taxpayers for these tests will go away. Replace the malpractice law suits with a review system with good doctors appointed by the state governments.

"Three years after Texas capped noneconomic damages in medical malpractice suits, plaintiffs' attorneys and the medical industry are reporting a sharp drop in med-mal lawsuits.

Voters in Texas amended the constitution in 2003 to include a $750,000 overall limit on noneconomic damages in healthcare lawsuits and a $250,000 cap on awards against doctors.

The result has been a dramatic decline in the number of medical malpractice suits filed, which in turn has forced some plaintiffs' lawyers to shutter their offices or branch into new practice areas.

Other states have taken similar steps. Thus far, 22 states have implemented caps on noneconomic damages in med-mal cases. That legislation was ruled unconstitutional in one state - New Hampshire.

The numbers in Texas tell the tale. According to the Texas Alliance for Patient Access (TAPA), a healthcare industry group that lobbied for the caps, the number of med-mal suits filed in the San Antonio, Fort Worth, Dallas and Houston areas has declined by nearly 50 percent, from 1,517 in 2002 to 715 in 2005. In the first half of this year, a total of 359 med-mal suits were filed in the four counties."

Source: http://www.allbusiness.com/services/legal-services/4086280-1.html

 

Great malpractices suits dropped. How much has health care costs dropped?

 

I must agree with you, MaxGeorgeDicksteinXXXI.

 

Obamacare isn't universal healthcare. It's not a public option. It's not socialist. It'd be nice to see a Republican on these forums one day who knew what they were actually talking about instead of the usual garbage that isn't even true.

 

The anticipated high costs of implementing Obamacare have made up for the difference!

 

You are mistaken, BDM

What in your opinion is Obamacare?

 

The Health Reform Act is a decent idea that didn't go far enough because of GOP pushback.

Obama should have promoted Medicare for Everybody, instead of this complex law. That said, it's progress, and it will bring down costs over time and hopefully pave the way for joining the civilized world with a true single payer system.

 

Why do people oppose national healthcare? Because they fear they will no longer receive the level of care they need. It's not that anyone opposes more efficient systems, it's just that there are numerous examples of the very thing people fear most, RATIONED CARE.

 

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