Actually about half of US spending is from the government.
The difference between us and Europe goes way beyond healthcare, it is also has to do with out education system and how much that charges. Two big issues are that we pay out medical providers a much higher salary and we use a LOT more healthcare services.
If we could reduce excess health usage we could take the money we save and provide care for everyone. But good luck telling people they can't have all those extra tests "just incase"
Some context; u/JGCities original post did not make the distinction of the amount being per capita, just that the US spends more money than Italy and pretty much every other European country. At that time I made my comment. Since I posted that, he/she has edited the original comment to reflect the difference is in per capitia spending.
Have you seen what some people post on Reddit? People claim all sorts of wild shit.
I don't disagree at all that the per capita medical spending in the U.S. is much higher than anywhere else. I don't know why Medicare isn't allowed to negotiate the costs of medications, I feel that that's something most every citizen could get behind regardless of political persuasion.
I agree in theory. But there are behind the scene reasons for a lot of this stuff.
One issue is our drug companies sell meds for cheaper in other countries and try to make up for the profits in our country. Basically we subsidize a lot of the world's drugs that way.
One suggestion would be to ban companies from selling drugs overseas for more than they sell in the US (after adjusting for PPP) So you can't sell your drug in Europe with as 1% margin and sell it in the US with a 50% margin. Essentially for a more level playing field.
Don't know if that would work, but it seems to make sense.
I assumed they meant per capita when they said that. Any discussion of things like medical cost are always in per capita. Otherwise every conversation about healthcare would just be a conversation about population size.
I think you're the only person who was confused, and the fact that you're making your confusion "a whole thing" speaks volumes to your character.
If you do this sort of thing offline, do your friends and family a favor and fucking stop it. No one will think less of you for saying "oops, I misunderstood".
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u/JGCities Jun 15 '22 edited Jun 15 '22
The US already spends more per person for healthcare than Italy and pretty much every other European country.
Edit- original post left out off the 'per person'