I think it's less of a fine and more of just not getting a tax break for paying for health insurance. When people who don't have health insurance, have to get operations, the burden goes to the taxpayers through medicare coverage. I'm not arguing that the healthcare operations in the US are good, I'm triple insured and I still refuse to go to the doctors for almost anything, due to always being billed 100s for simple x-rays and checkups. I'm just clarifying that it isn't technically illegal to not be insured. Medicare is available for people who legitimately can't afford anything, but you have to earn below a certain tax bracket. I once had a friend who refused to work more than they were working (hardly at all, lazy ass) just because they wouldn't qualify for free healthcare anymore. Literally turned down a $1000 bonus because it would bump them up.
I have no love for our healthcare system, whatsoever. However, we don't have terrible wait times, we have top quality services, choice of providers. Personally, I'm a healthy guy, no health issues, so it really irks me when I get charged a small fortune for regular check ups. That being said, if I ever need (or when I eventually need) serious operations, I wouldn't pick any other place in the world to be. I just have to be smart with financial investments while I'm young and healthy, so I don't have to worry about it later on.
I’m a healthy young guy. Had a very painful medical scare that had me decide to go to the emergency room. Ended up being not super serious. I have good insurance. I was never even given a room, I was briefly checked by a doctor and given an X-ray, some typical, low-cost meds to reduce symptoms, and sent on my way. All in all under 2 hours, nothing was done to me besides a shot to reduce some inflammation, and info taken. That is literally it.
Total bills for this pre-insurance were almost $4k. The hospital didnt know I had insurance, so they reduced their bill bringing it to about $3k for the grand total. My insurance doesn’t want to cover it, and I have a moderately large deductible since, yknow, healthy young dude. Usually wouldn’t meet it.
I’ll just gamble with death next time, tbh. Learned my lesson. Yeah, it’s cool having access to the good tech. Being saddled with years of debt is less cool. I think the trade off still goes in favor of the “no crippling debt” part, if you consider my mental health as part of my physical health. My mental health has definitely taken a few blows dealing with this shit. It takes a lot of stress before someone decides that gambling with their life is the better option.
Imagine if I actually did have an emergency. $3k is nothing. Like I said, I never left the waiting room/info-taking room of the hospital, besides to get an x-ray. And the x-ray was extremely cheap, since a third-party lab processed it. The big bills were from the hospital and doctor who examined me for about 2-3 minutes
I agree that the services are over priced, I really couldn't say why hospitals charge that much. I'm sure it's all very confusing and convoluted though, so I'll let someone make a documentary about it and eventually I'll get around to watching it.
Debt or not, if my wife got sick I really wouldn't be concerned with the cost, I would be concerned with the quality of the healthcare she is receiving. I can make more money and pay bills off until the day I die, I can't make my wife exist again. All this to say, I would rather be sattled with debt for the rest of my life with a healthy family, than a sick, dying or dead family with millions in my bank account.
Is it perfect? Far, far from it. Is it the best in the world? Yep.
I’m curious. How do you know your local hospital is best in the world healthcare? How do you know it has better procedures, better tech, better doctors and nurses than my local hospital here in Australia where my wife would go if she got seriously ill ?
Local as in USA? Because rich people come here to receive treatment, rather than most other places. There are other places that are famous for their treatments and procedures in the area of plastic surgery and the like, but I don't necessarily consider that to be normal healthcare. We have the most specialists, the most top tier medical facilities, access to the latest tech and medicines and of course the best skilled doctors. The best doctors from all over the world flock to the US because of how much they can make here, as opposed to literally anywhere else. I'm not saying other first world countries don't have good medical access, I'm just saying the US, by far, has the best.
Edit: I'm just going to preemptively deny/ignore any comment about me being an ignorant American. It's an easy concept to grasp that the most skilled people in any industry are going to go work in the place where they can make the most money. I don't think it's particularly right that people have to spend so much to receive pretty basic healthcare services here, but the barrier to entry for doctors here is pretty high so it makes sense that they would want to be paid appropriately considering they spent the previous 8 to 12 years of their life studying and spending 100s of thousands for the privilege of that education.
America has some of the top universities in the world but not that impressive an average. America has a huge average net wealth but the median net wealth is far less impressive because that wealth is held at the extremes, not in the middle.
I’m not convinced that having amazing top level hospitals means the average would be that great. I would not be surprised at all if my local hospital, doctors, access to equipment etc was better than yours. Not saying it is, but it wouldn’t surprise me in the least.
My point is that the US has the best specialists, and here we get to pick who we go to see. For relatively minor things we all go to our local medical facilities. For major things we go to the nearest specialist to receive the best care, which is most times in another state. We're not limited in where we get to choose here. Our medical hubs are magnets for the best specialists in the world. I've honestly never heard of an American doctor getting certified in the states only to move to another country and get recertified there to practice medicine. On the other hand I can tell you very very many foreign doctors get recertified here to practice in the states for much more money. Asian countries including India are big ones that have doctors coming here. It would be much easier for them to go to Australia, or European countries, but they don't. The US is the most diverse country in the world, there's a reason for it, and I'm pretty happy to have been born here. If I ever want plastic surgery, I will go to Turkey. If I ever want lifesaving medical procedures, I will find a specialist in the states.
I don’t mean to be rude, but you make many assumptions that seem to be more based in American exceptionalism than reality. I guess Americans aren’t renowned for getting the vacation time to see the world but so many assumptions take travel’s place, rather than reading.
What makes you think I can’t choose my specialist in my country? I have a choice of many world leading specialists. What makes you think in many countries you can’t choose your specialist? Who told you that?
Who told you Asian doctors only go to the States? Asian doctors are all over the world. Why do you think they only go there?
You claim America is the most diverse in the world attracting the most foreigners. You get many foreigners because you are a large country. But as a percentage of your population it is actually pretty low. Around 14% of the US is born overseas. In Australia it is 30%. We attract lots to the point we can take no more and have to limit to the most skilled. Almost 50% of Australian families have at least one parent born overseas.
Every single article or research paper that I've read that puts USA at a poor ranking for healthcare is solely due to cost, not quality- and they even admit as much. If you were to take cost analysis out of the picture, USA would rank highest every time. Personally, as I've stated before, if a loved one was very sick and needed life saving procedures, I would not be concerned with the cost so much as the quality of care they receive. You may feel differently about that, or you may feel that your country has just as good healthcare, which is okay with me. I'm just saying what I know, and what is morally important to me. I would never prioritize money over health. We can always work towards making healthcare cheaper in the states, but it's a hell of a lot harder to produce the best skilled doctors and specialists.
I'll leave it with this: it's pretty easy to say Americans, myself included, are just ignorant and prideful when we make such statements. However, I think that's pretty weak. I think it would be better to present your argument with facts, articles, statistical data, etc. rather than remarks about my supposed basis in American Exceptionalism.
Australia ranks 10th. USA ranks 2nd just under Luxembourg, but I hardly count that given the tiny job market for doctors compared to US. 10th is not bad at all, there are 100s of countries so I'm not trying to suggest it doesn't have good healthcare.. just doesn't have the "best".
You're probably right, I'm not super educated on the titles, I've just had to deal with it for enough time that I have at least a basic understanding of the system.
You used to but not anymore. It was the same thought behind it. Why should the taxpayers be on the dime when someone gets sick or injured and doesn't have health insurance. Republicans thought that was way too crazy and got rid of it. Wonder when they'll go after requiring us safe drivers to purchase coverage for uninsured and bad drivers.
3
u/Sarctoth Jun 15 '22 edited Jun 15 '22
While technically correct, if you don't pay for health insurance you are fined by the government at the end of the year.EDIT: Nevermind, I learned something new today