Are there other countries where a person might be responsible for their own bills? I think there are, right? This may be a bit of a silly question, but how do the systems in those countries collect from individuals who will not otherwise pay?
The problem is that Hospitals can charge any amount they feel is correct but you cannot find that out UNTIL AFTER the service is delivered. Yes you could ask for cash prices but try doing that at a regular hospital and see how quickly you get them in a clear and concise manner.
I am not asking what happens in countries with socialized healthcare. I'm also not asking what are the flaws of private healthcare. I am only asking, supposing that there are other countries where there is private healthcare, how those countries deal with nonpayment. If there are no other such countries the question is moot but I had been led to believe that there are some.
In most cases, you pay peanuts and people get their health back so they can go back to work and live life as before.
But we can't have that in America, because half the country is convinced that would be SOCIALISM!!
If you recall from Donald Trump's presidency, one of the things he campaigned on for veterans, is the ability to choose your own healthcare, such that they wouldn't be locked into the veterans affairs medical system, which was found to be far insufficient.
This isn't an apples to apples but it's worth considering that there are examples of the alternative model not working in America either.
It also has TriCare (military & dependents, ~10M), Medicare (Aged/Disabled, 61.2M in 2020), and Medicaid (medically indigent, 68M in 2020). With around 9M in Veteran Health Administration, the US has socialized medicine for nearly 150M people out of the 330M population.
(PDF WARNING) https://www.cms.gov/Medicare-Medicaid-Coordination/Medicare-...
This lists 20% of Medicare and 15% of Medicaid enrolled are dual eligible. So that's somewhere between 10.2 and 12.2 million lower, using your numbers.
(And yes, those numbers are obviously off somewhere, since the two should match. But it's good enough and I'm not sure it's even possible to track down the actual numbers used in the given link.)
Good call. Forgot to consider dual eligibles; which drops it closer to 1/3 the population than half with socialized medicine.
My understanding is that that the veterans' choice private options would still have been payed for by the VA.
https://www.va.gov/COMMUNITYCARE/providers/index.asp https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/trumpomete...
Veterans can already do that.
> such that they wouldn't be locked into the veterans affairs medical system, which was found to be far insufficient.
They aren't locked into the VA, and whether or not the VA is sufficient depends on who you ask.
Veterans already have the choice of choosing their own healthcare or using the VA. If the VA is considered insufficient, but they're using it anyways, then that means that their other choices are even worse.
Don't be fooled. Republicans want to gut the VA as a way to cut spending so they can give the rich even more tax cuts. They will happily do this at the cost of healthcare for veterans while framing it as expanding freedom by giving them a choice that they already had.
Guess what. You get exactly what you paid for. Chronic mismanagement, apathy, deteriorating conditions, lack of resources. Need to schedule a procedure? Get into a virtual line 10000 persons long. "Oh you are in pain? I'm sorry. Thermometers are the only medication we can offer". In CIS countries, the only way to get something done is to bribe an official (to move you up the line by a 100 or so) or a private clinic (but socialism is so great! right?) If a country with socialized healthcare manages float it's healthcare services on an "average" (aka meh) level, it's only because of the private donors, private insurances, private donations, and financial aid and subsidies from US (but capitalism is so awful, right??)
Grass is always greener aka you have no idea what you are talking about
Having to pay out of pocket after paying 50%+ tax rate! Incredible!
It was annoying that they didn't want to give out narcotic painkillers, but given addiction rates here, understandable. Not a question of resources, just a different approach.
Of course, as a foreigner who was going to have to pay cash, I can't be positive that the experience would be the same for citizens on Taiwan's national plan, but the people I was staying with said I was being treated the same as they'd seen anyone else...