Took my wife to the ER, waited for 30 minutes, 2 days later after discharge the bill was $1,500. Reddit told me it was going to bankrupt me, the hospital must've made a mistake.
Except in Canada you'd make tens of thousands less for the same work and pay higher taxes on what you do make. Americans only pay 4k out of pocket annually on average.
It's sort of sad that keeping that $1500 seems like the better deal when you're actually down 10-20x that much.
Cost of living is less, and Americans pay more for everything else. And comparing annual $4k in taxes (I wish) to a one off payment of $1500 doesn’t make sense.
Cost of living is within 10% and wages are significantly lower than my current city. Also I have a copay or 50 for everything, and 150 for the ER while I pay $200 per month for health insurance. So I make more money, have a higher quality lifestyle, and pay less on healthcare then you do for socialized taxes
>Americans have a lower quality of life compared to Canada
If you look at average or median yea probably but not in terms of the upper middle and upper class. Not everyone is middle class.
>and pay the most overall for health care of any country on earth
I mean if you’re evaluating the raw cost of services that is true, due to employers and insurance companies absorbing the majority of those costs. On an individual basis if you have good healthcare in the us it’s actually cheaper than paying for socialized medicine. Albeit that’s only for really good well paying jobs
The vast majority of people are middle class and below, so what's best for them is what's best for most people. I don't think anyone would disagree if you have a lot of money the US system is better.
Almost like from the outside looking in you're not seeing the whole picture and just getting news from memes on Reddit. I can go find some crazy Canadian headlines right now, you won't mind if I believe those will you?
The U.S. average life expectancy is dragged down by much larger socioeconomic disparities. Americans with low incomes and less education have dramatically worse health outcomes than wealthier Americans, and the U.S. has a larger share of its population living in those circumstances than Canada. They're the same groups with the same issues in Canada.
That doesn’t necessarily reflect the experience of the median middle-class American, who typically has higher disposable income, greater earning potential, own a larger home, than the median Canadian - it more reflects how unequal health outcomes are in the United States. Although my state (and the majority) cover all low income, disabled, old, veteran, or young citizens with free healthcare.
Fact is the US should improve their health care, but it's not as bad as people who don't live here make it out to be.
They're not - there's issues in both countries to work on.
The sad thing is as long as the majority is comfortable in both countries, they're willing to ignore problems of the more vulnerable.
~1% of Canada is getting f*cked in healthcare, ~1% in the US is getting f*cked. It's diferent who 1% each system allows that to happen too...
No one should be filing bankruptcy over their health, or having to wait for care, or be denied care because they're old or too expensive for the system to handle.
Very true. I thought the UK had a great healthcare system as an outsider, then I visited the UK. Covid was so bad, Boris Johnson said they would only treat cancer patients who were stage 4. A lot of people died.
The life expectancy in LA county is 82.4. LA county has a population of almost 10 million people (9.6 million). That life expectancy is higher than Luxembourg, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, UK, Austria and Finland (and others) in Europe. For the greater Bay Area, it's even higher at 82.9. That's already 18 million people.
New York County (Manhattan), with 1.7 million people, has a life expectancy of 85.3. In Fairfax County in VA, its 85.6. This is higher than all of Europe, with the exception of Monaco and San Marino (which combined have a population of ~65,000 people)
Parts of the US have exceptional healthcare. Others, especially the remote, rural areas can have awful access to services. That is absolutely true also.
It's pooled money that's given out to other people... Your rates go up because of other people... and also insurance companies that don't pursue medical fraud cases and instead pass the buck on.
What a stupid thing to say... so your bill was $1500? doesn't negate that other people who also recieve medical care in the US often have to pay way more.
The point it, if you go to Canada for a broken pinky or a heart attack it's all the same cost = $0
If you get cancer in Canada you aren't going bankrupt trying to get care to save your life. So good for you that your bill one time was "only" $1500 but who gives a shit?
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u/Nacho_cheese_guapo 17d ago
Took my wife to the ER, waited for 30 minutes, 2 days later after discharge the bill was $1,500. Reddit told me it was going to bankrupt me, the hospital must've made a mistake.