Healthcare US vs Europe

LafayetteBis · Sep 4, 2019

kazenatsu said: ↑

Just a thought, but won't this be unfair to people who really struggled to actually pay off their medical bill debt?
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In today's America the situation of Healthcare Insurance is this:

The percentage of people with health insurance coverage for all or part of 2016 was 91.2 percent, higher than the rate in 2015 (90.9 percent). In 2016, private health insurance coverage continued to be more prevalent than government coverage, at 67.5percent and 37.3 percent, respectively.
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The above high rates are:
*Quirks due to a very high rate of re-employment and thus coverage. Lose your job and you lose HC-insurance.
*But coverage of All Americans (by means of a public-charter and Federal funding) could reduce that amount and widen the coverage.
*And of course, there is the Very High Cost-element of privatized-insurance for healthcare coverage. Here is the comparison between the US (with privatized insurance and some government provided healthcare) and the Europe (with totally government insurance)
*From here this cost comparison:

How much does the US spend on health care?
The United States spends more on health care than any other country in the world, and a large share of that spending comes from the federal government. In 2017, the United States spent about $3.5 trillion, or 18 percent of GDP, on health expenditures – more than twice the average among developed countries.
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And here the Kaiser Foundation for international comparison:

Total health spending is a function of both price paid to providers or for drugs and the volume of services used. These charts explore prices and use of health services in the U.S. relative to comparable countries (those with both a total GDP above the median for OECD countries and a per capita GDP greater than the OECD median). While available data are limited to select services and drugs, we find that higher prices – more so than utilization – explain the United States’ high health spending relative to other high-income countries.

The U.S. has higher prices for most health care services and prescription drugs, according to available internationally comparable data. Meanwhile, utilization of several services, including physician consultations and hospital stays, is lower than in many comparable countries. Use of some services, such as C-sections and knee replacements, is higher in the U.S. than in similar countries.
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Despite having fewer office visits and shorter average hospital stays, the U.S. overall spends twice as much per person on healthcare than do comparable countries.
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These charts accompany an analysis showing how prices for health services in the U.S. have grown over time.

And where does that additional cost go? In the pockets of healthcare insurance-providers and practicing doctors. Consider GP-salaries comparable overall:

Who pays those salaries? Yes, not you but your insurance - right? But from where does the insurance-company get the money. Those employers who buy HC-insurance from private insurers. And from where do the employers get the money. From the products/service they sell AND YOU BUY!

Which means what? This from the Census Bureau here:

Highlights
• In 2017, 8.8 percent of people, or 28.5 million, did not have health insurance at any point during the year as measured by the CPS ASEC. The uninsured rate and number of uninsured in 2017 were not statistically different from 2016 (8.8 percent or 28.1 million).

• The percentage of people with health insurance coverage for all or part of 2017 was 91.2 percent, not statistically different from the rate in 2016 (91.2 percent). Between 2016 and 2017, the number of people with health insurance coverage increased by 2.3 million, up to 294.6 million.

• In 2017, private health insurance coverage continued to be more prevalent than government coverage, at 67.2 percent and 37.7 percent, respectively. Of the subtypes of health insurance coverage, employer-based insurance was the most common, covering 56.0 percent of the population for some or all of the calendar year, followed by Medicaid (19.3 percent), Medicare (17.2 percent), direct-purchase coverage (16.0 percent), and military coverage (4.8 percent).

• Between 2016 and 2017, the rate of Medicare coverage increased by 0.6 percentage points to cover 17.2 percent of people for part or all of 2017 (up from 16.7 percent in 2016).

• The military coverage rate increased by 0.2 percentage points to 4.8 percent during this time. Coverage rates for employment-based coverage, direct-purchase coverage, and Medicaid did not statistically change between 2016 and 2017.

• In 2017, the percentage of uninsured children under age 19 (5.4 percent) was not statistically different from the percentage in 2016.

• For children under age 19 in poverty, the uninsured rate (7.8 percent) was higher than for children not in poverty (4.9 percent).

• Between 2016 and 2017, the uninsured rate did not statistically change for any race or Hispanic origin group.

• In 2017, non-Hispanic Whites had the lowest uninsured rate among race and Hispanic-origin groups (6.3 percent). The uninsured rates for Blacks and Asians were 10.6 percent and 7.3 percent, respectively. Hispanics had the highest uninsured rate (16.1 percent).

• Between 2016 and 2017, the percentage of people without health insurance coverage at the time of interview decreased in three states and increased in 14 states.
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But the above says very little about Comparable Healthcare Costs amongst countries:

'Nuff said ... ?

Nonnie · Oct 30, 2019

The NHS has it's positives and negatives but at the end of the day, it's streets ahead of the American system.

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Healthcare US vs Europe

LafayetteBis Well-Known Member Past Donor

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Healthcare US vs Europe

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