I see alot of the proposed solutions to the US healthcare system boil down to some form of "Medicare for all". I think a single payer system would be great and I am all for it.
That said, I doubt it would solve all the problems in the US healthcare system at this point. It seems to me the biggest one is that providers, i.e. doctors, hospitals and drug companies all bill way too much. I think it is just politically less palatable though to go after doctors than after a big anonymous insurance company.
I do remember when I had an appendix operation a few years ago and was billed $50,000 for it, including some gems such as $4,400/night just for the hospital room and $50 for 2 tylenol that the Walgreens down the road would sell you for $5 a 24-pack.
I know several doctor acquaintances making >$1m and even $2m a year - I know they get together regularly where they actually discuss techniques to bill their patients the most money. One dermatologist discovered that removing 2 skin lesions on the same day was a bad idea - he got paid about 50% less for the 2nd one that way. Sending the patient home and telling him to come back next week for the 2nd one would however double the bill. So that's what he does! More patient inconvenience and added expense - but who cares?
Everything in American society is done the way it is done because it's making someone very, very rich.
Healthcare. Education. Defence. Incarceration. Taxes. Bank Transfers. Telco. Roads. Infrastructure.
Patient convenience, Overall society happiness - whatever you want to talk about. It's a money machine. And the money is more important than the people.
I live in Canada and the government pays for healthcare but (or maybe 'therefore') the providers do all sorts of sleazy things to get more money like schedule separate billable in-person appointments for an STD test and the reading of the negative result of said test.
That said, I doubt it would solve all the problems in the US healthcare system at this point. It seems to me the biggest one is that providers, i.e. doctors, hospitals and drug companies all bill way too much. I think it is just politically less palatable though to go after doctors than after a big anonymous insurance company.
I do remember when I had an appendix operation a few years ago and was billed $50,000 for it, including some gems such as $4,400/night just for the hospital room and $50 for 2 tylenol that the Walgreens down the road would sell you for $5 a 24-pack.
I know several doctor acquaintances making >$1m and even $2m a year - I know they get together regularly where they actually discuss techniques to bill their patients the most money. One dermatologist discovered that removing 2 skin lesions on the same day was a bad idea - he got paid about 50% less for the 2nd one that way. Sending the patient home and telling him to come back next week for the 2nd one would however double the bill. So that's what he does! More patient inconvenience and added expense - but who cares?