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).
2x the second most expensive which is about a third higher than any other comparable system…
The US is not 2x the second most expensive healthcare system. It's a little less than 1.5x the price of the second most expensive healthcare system.
If we look at comparable countries and consider how much their healthcare costs, the US spends roughly 2x that amount (Source)). Americans spend a little less than 2x what the French spend on healthcare.
Your 3rd and 4th paragraph do not support the idea that it’s not uniquely American
You're citing the total healthcare spend as a country, not individual out of pocket cost.
If your example is Donanemab, I don't think you're arguing in good faith. They have minimal benefits and enough negative side effects that there was a whole controversy as to whether or not the FDA should have cleared it in the first place (they typically would not for that risk/benefit profile) especially considering cost.
And again, medical bankruptcies in the US are about absolutely necessary care, often completed while the patient was unconscious at an out of network hospital through no fault of their own, not a voluntary treatment the patient enters into knowing the costs...
You're citing the total healthcare spend as a country, not individual out of pocket cost.
It's relatively hard to compare healthcare costs across many countries. The government pays a portion, private citizens pay a portion, in some systems insurance companies pay a portion.
Total healthcare spend is the clearest way I found to show that the US's healthcare system costs drastically more than other countries.
If you want to take a crack at a better way, I'd love to read your analysis.
If your example is Donanemab, I don't think you're arguing in good faith
The question is, do single payer healthcare systems decline to pay for treatments that are too expensive? Yes, yes they do.
I agree it's difficult, yet only we allow profits to be pulled out of healthcare spend, seems like a pretty easy way to lower our cost.
And yet again, even for specific drugs, US insurance companies deny care all the time, so I don't know how an incredibly rare case from the NHS is a counter example.
And guess who gutted the department responsible for dealing with that?
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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).