That’s because their negotiating power is mainly due to the size of their buying power, not special knowledge or skills. Health “insurance” is basically the lamest, most economically perverted form of collective bargaining ever.
Brokers, medical billing staff, and other middlemen serve no purpose other than increasing cost (in order for an inefficient, openly colluding private cabal to invest premiums, deny claims, and collect profit) because everybody needs access to medical treatment.
On the other side my child's healthcare is amazing and all free. We get instant access to great services.
It’s not whether the cost is socialised or not that decides how long the wait will be.
It also doesn’t help that the private system is incentivised to undermine the ‘free’ system at every turn.
If care is free, aren’t you more likely to go than if you had to pay even a minimal cost?
New Zealand has an accident compensation system which pays for accidents (though there may be a small surcharge) but not most medical events. They split the hair finer that is sane. Swallow a foreign body? Medical problem. Swallow a foreign body as say ‘it feels scratched’? Accident. Insect bite? Medical. Mosquito bite? Accident (it’s a distant memory from when I billed these things but I’m fairly confident I’m right).
It’s all to do with cause and effect, and each must be identified.
The accident compensation scheme covers a portion of wages too. Medical problems cost, not US style but not free.
By competing on ... what? Can't be price (because "free" wins). The only other option is competing on quality.
Your statement doesn't sound correct.
I already asked what the ways are; why are you replying saying there are ways?
I literally asked "In what ways?" and you are replying "handwaving There Are Ways" ...
In case you really can't imagine alternatives: what if the private system spreads lies about the non-private system? What if they use their influence to change laws and regulations to prefer their system? What if they use their influence to make others with influence treat those using the non-private system worse?
None of these are competition in the sense you're asking for, and yet they are a natural consequence of private incentives.
It's hard to compare apples to oranges but with high doctors per capita, low wait times for speciality services, long lived citizens and a far lower percentage of GDP spent on health, I wonder if there are any serious holes to poke in Italy's system when compared to the U.S. or if they simply just beat us on every metric.
https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org//sites/242e3c8c-en/1/3/2/index...
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.MED.PHYS.ZS?location...
$1500 on my HSA plan, which btw right now is returning 4.6% in a money market. How awesome is that?
Great deal. Worst pain ever.
The point is, the entire thing is broken nearly everywhere you look. I don’t know what a better alternative is, but we sure need one.
So you millage may vary.
Also, where I live there are five (?) Hospitals with ER within a ten minute drive... in suburbia. There just can't be that many people getting deathly ill sick.
I thought they do, in fact, and the bill expires if not sent out in time.
If you have a chainsaw accident and its serious, you arent going to wait 8 hours
US, and he's insured, and it's supposedly a pretty-good hospital.
I've been to the same ER within months of that, and it was empty and I was back in a room (well, cubby) within 15 minutes, with something just barely severe enough to merit an ER visit. Quick. Fucking expensive (think it was almost $3k by the time they were done sending bills, for 5 stitches and an x-ray—and that's with insurance), but quick.
It was mostly just timing and luck.
> My father's cancer treatment was not covered so the last year of his life cost him everything.
Sucks that it happens to anyone, but the final year(s) of healthcare finding a way to soak up every cent, before the end, is basically the norm here in the US. Everyone's retirement savings is just money the healthcare industry's lettings us hold temporarily.
The same dynamics play out with pension schemes. Declining birth rates play havoc with proposals that rely on a large, young employed base who's work supports a small, retired set of pensioners.
My own perspective is that healthcare is extremely limited on the provider side. Professional organizations have been limiting the supply of doctors / doctor equivalents for decades. Not to minimize the work a family medicine or general practitioner puts in, but many important health services/early interventiona can be safely and reliably provided by a nurse practitioner or physicians assistant (what a horrible name) on a much larger and affordable scale then exists today.
It's a perverted cross between escrow and welfare in which the population basically pays their own way in the long run plus supports all the people who make their living by being "administrative overhead" along the way.
There is enough (potential) money and incentive here that almost any system will be perverted eventually.
NHS is not known for speedy treatment, for instance.
It’s about ongoing oversight and a willingness and ability to cut through bullshit to fix things. That’s in short supply here and everywhere else.
The stories (first hand from relatives who use it) of blatant profiteering and abuse of the system in Medicare is mind boggling.
From what I understand (I am not a UK citizen, but me mum's mum spoke Scouse. My mother, on the other hand, spoke The Queen's English), everyone loves to hate on the NHS, but no politician in their right mind will touch it. It's a "third rail."
In the UK, it's from the voters.
In the US, it's from the Healthcare Industry.
They are allowed to spend as much as they want for votes due to their freedom of speech. Sure they can't directly vote but ever since like 2010 have a lot of human rights and I'm sure would love more. I would not be surprised if one day they could directly vote considering due to their rights. I hope though we can push back before then and change things.
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/citi...
Most of Medicare is administered by middlemen and private companies.
t. licensed broker / agency owner
Now can you make a cogent argument for why more than one federal / national union should exist? Why does Europe allow multiple unions?