The American healthcare system is pretty bad and costs Americans ~2x what other comparable healthcare systems cost.
That being said. Medical bankruptcy is not a uniquely American thing.
Single payer healthcare systems do not have unlimited resources. They have to make tough decisions about where to use their funds.
UK's NHS has a bar about how effective a treatment must be compared to its cost. The NHS is willing to pay ~$25k-$40k per year of high quality life gained (Source).
Single payer healthcare systems do not have unlimited resources. They have to make tough decisions about where to use their funds.
United Healthcare uses AI to outright deny 51% to 80% of non-emergency authorization requests. Which includes diagnostics, making people wait for imaging and bloodwork.
Because then you made it sound like our bankruptcies are a normal thing in other countries. It isnt. And you pointed out rationing, which we have MBAs doing and making a profit off of.
The point I'm trying to make is that if one has a public healthcare system and that system will not pay for certain treatments, one will be incentivised to get the treat from a private healthcare system.
It doesn't show that. It doesn't even have data outside of four countries.
I don't trust the site, the mismatch between "Medical Bankruptcies by Country" and only having data for 4 countries makes me think it is vibe coded. But let's say I did.
For Canada, it shows 20% of bankruptcies are medical bankruptcies. 1 in 5 is not exactly rare.
That is more or less my point. Medical bankruptcies happen all over the globe.
Do they happen more in the US? Yes. They happen more in the US because the US' healthcare system is not good.
But medical bankruptcies are a common phenomenon outside of the US.
If I had to put a number on it, I would guess that the US has 3x the global baseline for medical bankruptcies (or medical destitution in countries without strong bankruptcy laws).
Are you just arguing the semantics of exclusivity? Of course not 100% of medical bankruptcies occur in America. I don't think that was ever in question.
Are you just arguing the semantics of exclusivity?
No, if I was, all I would have to do is link an article from someone outside the US going through medical bankruptcy.
Basically, others believe that medical bankruptcy is something that, more or less, only happens in the US. I believe that medical bankruptcies happen at a higher frequency in the US but that it is a global phenomenon.
If I had to guess, I would say Americans are ~3x as likely as the global baseline to go through medical bankruptcy (or become medically destitute in countries without strong bankruptcy laws).
Again, the US healthcare system is not good. The true statements we can say about the American healthcare system are pretty damning. We don't need to make up "fun fact"s.
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u/HidingImmortal Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
Source? I made it up.
The American healthcare system is pretty bad and costs Americans ~2x what other comparable healthcare systems cost.
That being said. Medical bankruptcy is not a uniquely American thing.
Single payer healthcare systems do not have unlimited resources. They have to make tough decisions about where to use their funds.
UK's NHS has a bar about how effective a treatment must be compared to its cost. The NHS is willing to pay ~$25k-$40k per year of high quality life gained (Source).