The United States has the highest cost of health care, according to a study of seven industrialized nations by the Commonwealth Fund. The U.S. was also dead last in quality and access to care.
As you can see, three of those countries are from Western Europe and one of them is our neighbor to the north.
"Republicans hate to talk about what the Canadians do when it talks to health care,” Ed Schultz said on Monday’s show.
"All they want to talk about is these long lines and nobody ever gets to see a doctor up there. In fact, you have to wait years to see a doctor in Canada. It's all B.S."
When the Affordable Care Act is fully implemented, 30 million Americans who cannot afford the cost of health insurance will be covered.
Republicans vow to "repeal and replace" the Affordable Care Act, but cannot answer questions about what he will replace the law with.
John Boehner has been in charge of the House for almost two years and yet there have been no committee meetings about replacing the health care law. The House has not drafted any replacement legislation protecting the uninsured.
For Republicans, health care is a privilege and if you can't afford it, you're out of luck.
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We're not leading in science or math, either.
Hey, but we do lead in military/defense spending! :} We also lead in number of our citizens in prison.
For sure not math.
How are lines not going to be longer (and the quality of individual care diminished) if 30 million more get coverage without provision to add even a single doctor?
Oh that's right... it's all BS.
Many people from the US travel to Canada and Mexico to get their prescription drugs.
@Chitown Muscle: so what do you propose? Should we expect that these 30,000,000 uninsured Americans continue to have limited or no access to healthcare just so that we can have the luxury of believing that we have the best healthcare system in the world? I supposed you just expect the uninsured remain that way indefinitely? And why not? It's no skin off your nose. People like you love to criticise anything, especially government. It's clear that the healthcare community in this country has no interest in making healthcare affordable. Otherwise, the prices would have been lowered or health insurance companies would not require under-writing. I have lived in Europe and in Canada. I've seen "socialised" medicine firsthand. There are no lines. You walk in, you see a doctor, you leave. It's that simple. Only in America do you find a contradiction of this magnitude: "We're a Christian people, but we expect our impoverished to be under-served by our healthcare establishment just so that we can feel more secure about our own healthcare." One word: Selfish.
Right even though the FDA lies and says they're unsafe to try and prevent people from going. That's what over regulation gets you. Corruption.
On citizens in prison, we lead only in percentage. China still has far and away the greatest number of individuals in prisons.
We lose again.
Go to any emergency room anywhere without insurance. You will never, not ever be refused care. This notion that people will have no access to health care without insurance is a huge load of liberal horsesh!t.
You're suggesting that you'll give up quality health care, and say to hell with innovation (because without competition there is no incentive to innovate,) for a mediocre system where everyone gets "free" or "low cost" care? This is insanity.
Got news for you, you're going to need that lower cost premium because they'll be taxing our asses six ways to sunday to make up the difference. The result is that all of us who pay taxes are actually going to be paying much more for exactly what we have right now.
Look at France and see our future. They get all kinds of free stuff over there, and their deficit is 90 percent of their GDP.
My solution would NOT be to add a few trillion more to the deficit here. That's the last thing I would propose. When are you libs going to wake up and see that we are beyond broke?
Chitown, my best friend was without health insurance. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. When he lost his job b/c he ran out of sick leave and FMLA, he also lost his health insurance. Without insurance, the hospital DID turn him away. They told him (and I was there): "This is not charity." No human should have to face that. You are paranoid and your argument that we're being taxed to death is old, tired, and has been stretched about as far as it'll go. I grew up in the UK and my family moved to Canada when I was 17. We were never "taxed to death." I never had to wait for care, nor did any of my family or friends. You are the typical loud, paranoid, delusional American. Sad to say, mate, but your country's place as the preeminent world power, bought by trillions of dollars in defence spending, is what is bankrupting the US, NOT healthcare, and NOT entitlement programs.
I dated a surgical nurse for awhile that ran 12 operating rooms. She worked for a hospital that is known nationwide. Their policy (and the policy of most hospitals) is to never turn someone away if they need treatment.
Obviously your friend needed care. Let me guess, he went to another hospital and was treated right?
That is true, our quest for empire is what bankrupted us (as in it already happened.) Health care and entitlement programs are what is going to push us off the cliff into total insolvency. I'm sure you can jet back to Canada or the UK when that happens.
And Obama care did nothing to lower the cost of health care. If anything it raised it
For example that ED or any other Obama water carrier wont tell you that under Obama care Insurance companies are required to lower their deductible and co-pay on their plans . if you know anything about health care the lower the deductible and co-pay the higher the plans cost
Most Insurance that is offered by the employers to blue collar worker wont meet the new requirement and will have their health care insurance plans raise in cost if their employers don't drop their insurance because of the raising cost
Also under Obama care Doctors will be reimbursed less for medicare and medicaid so for them to make up that loss they will have to charge more to the normally insured
Right because the system that Nixon created with the HMO's was working out so well. And in other Fox news misinformation land the south will win the war of 1812.
And what do you think Obama care is its nothing but one big HMO
And this isn't info from Fox its from the plan its self if you would read it you would see for your self every thing i just said is right there in Obama care you just don't know because ED wont tell you
And if you would turn MSNBC off and do you own research you would find out there is an already shortage of doctors 20,000 shortage and many more have said they will more then likely give up their practice or stop accepting medicare/medicaid patients because of Obama care. now you dump 30 million more into the system and guess what you will end up with long waits to see a doctor and rationed care
Oh whine me a river and call it republican plans. Good lord you tea bagged republicans just repeat the same lies and misinformation without ever saying more then it is everyone else but the GOP at fault.
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/07/romney-invested-in-a-fetus-disposal-company.html
Conflick of interest?
For someone who wasn't involved at all in the Stericycle investment, Romney's name sure shows up on a lot of Stericycle-related documents! Because back in 1999, there would have been no reason for Romney to not invest in the fetus-disposal industry. After all, abortion is legal, aborted fetuses exist, and whatever Stericycle does with them — turns them into bicycles, we're guessing? — is probably better than tossing them in a dump somewhere. Plus, Romney was a pro-choice, soon-to-be governor of Massachusetts, where the state motto is literally "Abortions: Ain't Nothin' Wrong With That!" He was probably focused more on the millions upon millions of dollars the investment would net him, and not how awkward it would make life for New Mitt. But Old Mitt had a way of being selfish like that.
TRFjr~~Stop with the gop doom and gloom. America has been better, and will in the near future, (when we get rid of the radical extremist in the gop,) return to the greatest, wealthiest, most powerful nation in the world. We have to get back to, MADE IN AMERICA, BY AMERICANS, FOR AMERICANS. If corporations want made in third world country, by slave labor, DON'T BRING YOUR WARES INTO AMERICA. WE DO NOT WANT THEM, even if you are giving them away.
So what do you propose, TRFjr? It seems like people like you will whine regardless. None of this would even be necessary if American doctors, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies would charge reasonable prices for their goods and services. Healthcare for profit is immoral. Why? Because if you cannot afford the service, you go without it. You go without the service, you get sick, maybe you even die. But the insured middle class and upper class in this country don't seem to care about that, as long as they have their insurance - they're happy. Sad.
David-4182809~~I would disagree with part of your last sentence. I would insert one word,
But the insured (GOP) middle class and upper class in this country don't seem to care about that, as long as they have their insurance - they're happy. Sad
But there are many republicans, both middle class and poor, who do not have health insurance, but hold so much hatred for Obama, they are against Obamacare, just because the evil gop elected officials and fox tell them, "Obamacare is evil." and lead them to believe only democrats refuse to work and expect government hand-outs.
David- if you want an immediate reduction in your costs- have you state put limits on medical mal practice claims. I live in a state where medical mal claims are limited to 2.1 mln. A neighboring state has no limits and permits punitive damages- the cost for our employees in the neighboring state are higher then our home state.
gobble gobble gobble..........this Ryan plans for you.........
No doubt He's.
I love it whom. these righties come over to this blog expecting someone to take their uhhhhh information seriously.
must of been a real big loose cannon they shot them out of on the 4th.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htZN-Is7N7o&feature=fvwrel&NR=1
well it's tooooooooo ez for them to see TM. goin to have fox play it over and over and over and maybe they might start to understand on the right.
or maybe they just have a fetish with Ryan's eyes?
You folks don't have to worry about anyone taking your goofiness seriously...
All true but you needn't look further than the fact that anytime the government gets involved in something, costs increase.
Look at the price of a college education since the Department of Education started handing out money for college.
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/06/obamacare-supreme-court-regular-americans
1) Insurance companies can no longer impose lifetime coverage limits on your insurance. Never again will you face the risk of getting really sick and then, a few months in, having your insurer tell you, "Sorry, you've 'run out' of coverage." Almost everyone I've met knows someone who had insurance but got really, really sick (or had a kid get really sick) and ran into a lifetime cap.
2) If you don't know someone who has run into a lifetime cap, you probably know someone who has run into an annual cap. The use of these will be sharply limited. (They'll be eliminated entirely in 2014.)
3) Insurers can no longer tell kids with preexisting conditions that they'll insure them "except for" the preexisting condition. That's called preexisting condition exclusion, and it's out the window.
4) A special, temporary program will help adults with preexisting conditions get coverage. It expires in 2014, when the health insurance exchanges—basically big "pools" of businesses and individuals—come on-line. That's when all insurers will have to cover everyone, preexisting condition or not.
5) Insurance companies can't drop you when you get sick, either—this plan means the end of "rescissions."
6) You can stay on your parents' insurance until you're 26.
7) Seniors get $250 towards closing the "doughnut hole" in their prescription drug coverage. Currently, prescription drug coverage ends once you've spent $2,700 on drugs and it doesn't kick in again until you've spent nearly $6,200. James Ridgeway wrote about the problems with the doughnut hole for Mother Jones in the September/October 2008 issue. Eventually, the health care reform bill will close the donut hole entirely. The AARP has more on immediate health care benefits for seniors. Next year (i.e., in nine months), 50 percent of the doughnut hole will be covered.
8) Medicare's preventive benefits now come with a free visit with your primary care doctor every year to plan out your prevention services. And there are no more co-pays for preventative services in Medicare.
9) This is a big one: Small businesses get big tax credits—up to 50 percent of premium costs—for offering health insurance to their workers.
10) Insurers with unusually high administrative costs have to offer rebates to their customers, and every insurance company has to reveal how much it spends on overhead.
UPDATE: Here's one more big benefit we've found out about since the ACA passed:
when the passed medicare/Medicaid in the sixties the said it would only cost 9 million dollars in 10 years but it ended costing 96 million in those 10 years
So when they said Obama care will only cost 2 trillion in 10 years expect it to be 20 trillion
@ thankful mom
i want you to count how many times free was used in your post
didn't your parents teach you nothing is ever for free someone will have to pay for it
and according to numerous studies by many economist 75% of the cost of Obama care falls onto the middle class
So, again, TRFjr, what do you propose? Those of us who are already paying through the nose for medical services and prescriptions should just suck it up? Yes, insuring a nation of 300,000,000 people will be expensive. But what's the alternative? As long as the healthcare industry continues to demand its pound of flesh and then some, healthcare services will remain sky high. Want to be angry with someone? Be angry at the doctors, nurses, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and anyone else who's making their fortune by standing on the backs of the sick, the dying, and the elderly. Stop demonising government. The only thing that people like you accomplish is you make difficult transitions nearly unbearable with your nay saying.
Why don't you stop touting the government as the Robin Hood that's going to solve all of our problems. The fact is, everything the government possesses has been forcibly taken from someone against their will.
That is theft plain and simple and once again there is a huge difference between treating everyone equally and making everyone equal.
It's out the window in favor of an astronomical out of pocket annual deductible for anything related to said condition. So they can't exclude pre-existing conditions anymore. They just charge you ten times as much deductible for any and all services related to it.
Chitown, get some therapy. You're paranoid and you're embarrassing not only yourself, but the rest of America.
Thanks for the advice doctor but everything I've said in this thread is the truth.
Sorry but that too was going good until the republicans decided to fix it. When you elect people who say government can''t do anything why do you not see that when the GOP say it they will go out of their way to ensure government doesn't work then blame everyone but themselves for the failures. Funny thing is at the same time you claim government works great for the military, hello military is government run. Good lord just unable to connect dots.
I love that hate big gov stuff. where would Texas be without all them contractors down thar?
want to bet they Texas take the medicaid expansion after the election?
Yeah, and Texas has about 13 or 15 military installations. They love that government money coming into their state. But the state of Texas has one of the highest percentages of un-insured citizens. All of the military has good health insurance, so most of the civilians have no health insurance.
Thankful Mom is correct in her posts about ACA. Expanding universal coverage is the only known and proven way of bringing down/controlling the costs of health care. The reason all of those countries listed above have better public outcomes for their health care systems at one-half the cost is universal coverage. Universal coverage allows medical conditions to be caught early or prevented reducing high cost specialist care or prolonged hospitalization. If the United States had a Medicare for all public option for all Americans with emphasis on a family care provider in a clinic setting our costs would rapidly fall into line with the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Germany, and the Netherlands.
Conservatives never like to point out the fact that all of us pay $1100 extra for every family policy for each of those uninsured Americans who go to the ER or require hospitalization. I agree that nothing is free. We need to get rid of free loaders who do not have health insurance by having a mandate with penalties that will make nearly everyone get health insurance. This key idea is the reason that the Affordable Care Act will work in reducing cost. The insurance exchanges will help get more affordable coverage for all Americans. Some states may wish to pursue a state run single payer/Medicare system while others may not like this approach. Once this insurance exchanges are up and running more tweaks and fixes will have to be put into place. But for 30 million Americans the ACA will be a godsend. Maybe America can start catching up with the rest of the industrialized world where healthcare is a right for all who live in that country as it should be here.
Rex, Mom- what do you think about mandating insurance or fining them if they don't buy it?
Rex- as I understand it the minimum mandate penalty/tax is only $35 a month- that can't even come close to creating any incentive to purchase a health insurance policy-
That's about what they took out of my check every two weeks for my insurance at work. And I had a pretty good policy.
MJB- you had a good company- the actual cost to your company was at least $1000 a month
that chart says a lot about the implication of republicans misdirected focus on healthcare. They need to get and embrace the truth of the state of our national health and honestly fix it in the interests of those really hurting.
so why is spending more on health care than other countries a bad thing?
ST54~ You LIKE spending more for healthcare? You have got to be kidding.
ok so let's cut it back so the quality of care, nature of treatments go down- the point is this chart proves nothing- it may be in those other countries that you can not get the same level of treatment, quality of care etc-
Several of the countries listed have real limits on medical mal practice claims (e.g. Canada) which could go a long way to explaining the variation in health care costs
That chart says a lot, it's the difference between quality health care and rationed health care. End of story.
LOL yeah right and in other Reagan land fantasies you are going to be the one who gets a golden goose egg.
The quality of care in the countries listed above is in many ways better than in the U.S. The family care provider in the U.K., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand all make their systems preventive in nature. The Western Europeans and Scandinavian countries also have universal health care systems. Each of these countries have their own way of providing universal care. Conservatives in the U.S. fail to understand why universal medical care in a clinic setting is so critically important. More technology and better pharmaceuticals are important but they pale in comparison to the family care provider in a clinic.
Costs get contained, specialist treatment is kept to the truly needed cases, and preventive medicine is emphasized. A single payer system that provides universal coverage for all citizens will get per capita spending down to Canadian/U.K. levels here in America. Until we get everyone covered in a Medicare for all public option expect our costs to keep rising. The ACA will make a big difference. But,I think in the end we will need to expand it to some sort of Medicare for all public option or a single payer system run at the state level.