Seems that if we all lived our lives like most of those countries listed we’d all get healthier. Drive less – exercise more.. Give up our addiction to fast (unhealthy) food etc..
How about we all take responsibility for our OWN health – politicizing it is bullcrap. Oh, and how about we kill all the ambulance chasing lawyers that needlessly sue on behalf of the reckless and raise our costs also?
@Steven: it is just a line connecting the $s spent to that same country’s life expectancy (i.e., country x spends y dollars and has z life expectancy).
Because the GOP wants no changes to the health care system in this country. They are happy with the way things are right now.
Seems that if we all lived our lives like most of those countries listed we’d all get healthier.
That’s only a part of it. You could be the healthiest guy in the world but if you don’t have a job or health insurance and you slip and fall on the ice you could lose your house. Seem fair to you?
Oh, and how about we kill all the ambulance chasing lawyers that needlessly sue on behalf of the reckless and raise our costs also?
Plenty of studies have shown that tort reform would only make a very small dent in health care costs in the USA.
You can’t honestly say the GOP wants no change to the health care system.. The Supermajority of the DEM’s has not let their ideas onto the playing field. It’s been a pretty once sided situation since it’s inception.
So, you agree with me on taking personal responsibility for our own health?
And you also agree that tort reform would indeed make changes in health care costs? So, should any idea that lowers costs be included? If we are going attempt something of this magnitude – why not? Is not any savings good savings?
I just don’t see how in the world this could ever be deficit “neutral” – it’s just not possible.
I know I am not the smartest guy in the room, nor did I attend a university for my sporting ability, but if I am reading this chart correctly it reinforces my original belief that the Republican party wants us to die sooner than the communists in Switzerland.
@frank: You can’t honestly say the GOP wants no change to the health care system.
Yes I can, it’s obvious that they don’t.
The Supermajority of the DEM’s has not let their ideas onto the playing field.
That’s BS. There have been plenty of chances for the GOP to get involved in the reform plan and they have passed every time.
Let’s look at the GOP health reform plan and compare it to the Dem’s plan. Whoops, the GOP has no alternative plan. There only plan is the play the political game in the attempt of destroying the Obama administration.
Is not any savings good savings?
Let the GOP put that in their plan then. The fact is that the GOP has no plan down on paper because they are not interested in health care reform. The GOP is not interested in anything other than political rhetoric.
Jesus christ I didnt know the US per capita expenditures were so high. Im all for free markets so why dont we just contract with New Zealand to provide our national health care. (fuck the public option , I want the Kiwi option). Pretty much the same results for a hell of alot less money. Oh yeah, you right wingers failed to blame any of this on illegal immigrants. Shame on you , get with the program.
“Jesus christ I didnt know the US per capita expenditures were so high.” We need to contract the GOP’s propaganda machine to get this message out. How is it that people can think we have the best health care system in the world, and not know that we spend so much for so little??
“Seems that if we all lived our lives like most of those countries listed we’d all get healthier. Drive less – exercise more.. Give up our addiction to fast (unhealthy) food etc..”
There is some truth to that, but not as much as people think. That is, if you correct for things like rates of obesity and smoking the charts don’t look quite so bad for the US. What you’ll see then is that we are average for industrialized nations in terms of performance. But still very exceptional in terms of cost.
why is it that a friend on a recent snowboarding trip to SLC, upon breaking her wrist on the mountain, had her insurance refused by the medical facility at Park City Ski resort? She has health partners, yet the response they gave her was, sorry, we don’t accept health partners. seriously? how can this be? what has not been negotiated by this clinic/med station/whatever and the insurer? Why carry health insurance if the specific thing you are paying to be insured for isn’t covered because of a gap or glitch in the coverage system?
I’d be willing to be that many folks have better cell-phone reception in more places than they do health coverage. Were we elsewhere, say in any single-payer system, she’d have been able to get care for a broken wrist without having to shell out a couple G’s out of pocket (especially after paying a few years’ worth of premiums to pour salt on the proverbial wound).
Anybody who opposes change to the system opposes reason. Tort reform — sure, this is part of the lots of things that need to change but on a scale of priority this sits pretty low. There are fundamental issues with the “system” and there isn’t much in the way of ideas coming from the right.
Shit, the Repubs had the white house for eight years and a majority in congress for what, half that time, too? I didn’t see any health-care overhauls then… and don’t tell me it wasn’t bad then. Instead, we got a perscription drug bill that is going to cost us and our “children” (yea, what) trillions of dollars to pay for. So much for fiscal conservancy on that one, huh?
If you aren’t honest about helping do the rest of us a favor and just get out of the way. christ.
I had the same thing happen at keystone (well it was a sprained wrist and I was insured with Health Partners).. The Keystone clinic wasnt contracted with Health Partners, which means you pay out of pocket for services and then submit your invoices to Health Partners (better have a credit card unless you carry a couple of grand in cash when your travel). Health Partners will then pay with a higher coinsurance rate due to the clinic being out of network. If we had single payor we wouldnt be discussing this.
more shocking than per capitia is the per employee cost of around 11K/yr. My company pays 13K. Why does HR have to deal with this? Is there any other countries were your company provides health care insurance?
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20 Responses to “if you think this chart is awesome then vote GOP”
Where would the proposed US line fall on that graph?
What does this have to do with the GOP?
Seems that if we all lived our lives like most of those countries listed we’d all get healthier. Drive less – exercise more.. Give up our addiction to fast (unhealthy) food etc..
How about we all take responsibility for our OWN health – politicizing it is bullcrap. Oh, and how about we kill all the ambulance chasing lawyers that needlessly sue on behalf of the reckless and raise our costs also?
What does the horizontal axis represent?
@Steven: it is just a line connecting the $s spent to that same country’s life expectancy (i.e., country x spends y dollars and has z life expectancy).
@frank: What does this have to do with the GOP?
Because the GOP wants no changes to the health care system in this country. They are happy with the way things are right now.
Seems that if we all lived our lives like most of those countries listed we’d all get healthier.
That’s only a part of it. You could be the healthiest guy in the world but if you don’t have a job or health insurance and you slip and fall on the ice you could lose your house. Seem fair to you?
Oh, and how about we kill all the ambulance chasing lawyers that needlessly sue on behalf of the reckless and raise our costs also?
Plenty of studies have shown that tort reform would only make a very small dent in health care costs in the USA.
@Smithers:
@Smithers:
You can’t honestly say the GOP wants no change to the health care system.. The Supermajority of the DEM’s has not let their ideas onto the playing field. It’s been a pretty once sided situation since it’s inception.
So, you agree with me on taking personal responsibility for our own health?
And you also agree that tort reform would indeed make changes in health care costs? So, should any idea that lowers costs be included? If we are going attempt something of this magnitude – why not? Is not any savings good savings?
I just don’t see how in the world this could ever be deficit “neutral” – it’s just not possible.
I know I am not the smartest guy in the room, nor did I attend a university for my sporting ability, but if I am reading this chart correctly it reinforces my original belief that the Republican party wants us to die sooner than the communists in Switzerland.
How about that Mexican health care plan!
@frank: You can’t honestly say the GOP wants no change to the health care system.
Yes I can, it’s obvious that they don’t.
The Supermajority of the DEM’s has not let their ideas onto the playing field.
That’s BS. There have been plenty of chances for the GOP to get involved in the reform plan and they have passed every time.
Let’s look at the GOP health reform plan and compare it to the Dem’s plan. Whoops, the GOP has no alternative plan. There only plan is the play the political game in the attempt of destroying the Obama administration.
Is not any savings good savings?
Let the GOP put that in their plan then. The fact is that the GOP has no plan down on paper because they are not interested in health care reform. The GOP is not interested in anything other than political rhetoric.
Jesus christ I didnt know the US per capita expenditures were so high. Im all for free markets so why dont we just contract with New Zealand to provide our national health care. (fuck the public option , I want the Kiwi option). Pretty much the same results for a hell of alot less money. Oh yeah, you right wingers failed to blame any of this on illegal immigrants. Shame on you , get with the program.
“Jesus christ I didnt know the US per capita expenditures were so high.” We need to contract the GOP’s propaganda machine to get this message out. How is it that people can think we have the best health care system in the world, and not know that we spend so much for so little??
“Seems that if we all lived our lives like most of those countries listed we’d all get healthier. Drive less – exercise more.. Give up our addiction to fast (unhealthy) food etc..”
There is some truth to that, but not as much as people think. That is, if you correct for things like rates of obesity and smoking the charts don’t look quite so bad for the US. What you’ll see then is that we are average for industrialized nations in terms of performance. But still very exceptional in terms of cost.
why is it that a friend on a recent snowboarding trip to SLC, upon breaking her wrist on the mountain, had her insurance refused by the medical facility at Park City Ski resort? She has health partners, yet the response they gave her was, sorry, we don’t accept health partners. seriously? how can this be? what has not been negotiated by this clinic/med station/whatever and the insurer? Why carry health insurance if the specific thing you are paying to be insured for isn’t covered because of a gap or glitch in the coverage system?
I’d be willing to be that many folks have better cell-phone reception in more places than they do health coverage. Were we elsewhere, say in any single-payer system, she’d have been able to get care for a broken wrist without having to shell out a couple G’s out of pocket (especially after paying a few years’ worth of premiums to pour salt on the proverbial wound).
Anybody who opposes change to the system opposes reason. Tort reform — sure, this is part of the lots of things that need to change but on a scale of priority this sits pretty low. There are fundamental issues with the “system” and there isn’t much in the way of ideas coming from the right.
Shit, the Repubs had the white house for eight years and a majority in congress for what, half that time, too? I didn’t see any health-care overhauls then… and don’t tell me it wasn’t bad then. Instead, we got a perscription drug bill that is going to cost us and our “children” (yea, what) trillions of dollars to pay for. So much for fiscal conservancy on that one, huh?
If you aren’t honest about helping do the rest of us a favor and just get out of the way. christ.
I had the same thing happen at keystone (well it was a sprained wrist and I was insured with Health Partners).. The Keystone clinic wasnt contracted with Health Partners, which means you pay out of pocket for services and then submit your invoices to Health Partners (better have a credit card unless you carry a couple of grand in cash when your travel). Health Partners will then pay with a higher coinsurance rate due to the clinic being out of network. If we had single payor we wouldnt be discussing this.
Here’s some reading material:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/172239-healthcare- reform-two-extremes-neither-focusing-on-health?sou rce=hp_wc
good article Dube’
more shocking than per capitia is the per employee cost of around 11K/yr. My company pays 13K. Why does HR have to deal with this? Is there any other countries were your company provides health care insurance?
Dube’
So if you can’t afford to pay than you just die?
@jim r:
Did you read the article?
@montyp
I did read the article, did you?