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Ask Lemmy @lemmy.world SavvyWolf @pawb.social

How much do Americans actually pay for healthcare?

Hey all, I'm British so I don't really know the ins and outs of the US healthcare system. Apologies for asking what is probably a rather simple question.

So like most of you, I see many posts and gofundmes about people having astronomically high medical bills. Most recently, someone having a $27k bill even after his death.

However, I have an American friend who is quick to point out that apparently nobody actually pays those bills. They're just some elaborate dance between insurance companies and hospitals. If you don't have insurance, the cost is lower or removed entirely. Supposedly.

So I'm just asking... How accurate is that? Consider someone without insurance, a minor physical ailment, a neurodivergent mind and no interest in fighting off harassing people for the rest of their life.

How much would such a person expect to pay, out of their own pocket, for things like check ups, x rays, meds, counselling and so on?

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  • I’ll put it this way:

    At least 68,000 Americans die every single year due to not being able to afford healthcare.

    We pay an extra $450 BILLION annually to enrich unnecessary middlemen and ALL of our politicians are being bribed (or primaried) to prevent Single Payer. You’ll hear people like Kamala and Warren talk about “access” to healthcare while they receive massive bribes from healthcare companies to pull support away from Single Payer and offer a “choice” or “access to health care”. Remember 2016 and 2020? The DNC pulled out all stops to prevent Single Payer. Remember when Bloomberg ran for office and claimed , “under my governorship, New York had less uninsured people than at any time in history” while failing to mention that he enacted steep penalties for being uninsured? That’s neoliberal gaslighting 101! Kamala loves to do it too! But yeah vote for her because she’s “one of the good guys” and certainly wasn’t one of the people that was tasked with preventing Bernie Sanders from winning the primary two cycles in a row, offering “Medicare for All who want it” so stacked with asterisks and legalese means-testing that probably like 50 people would qualify.

    Edit: In my opinion, anyone who is paid to run for office and vote against Single Payer is a murderer guilty of (or at least partly responsible for) the slow, often-painful execution of these 68,000 American citizens per year.

    I have student loans that I’d love forgiven but I don’t even mention that issue because true Single Payer (and Gaza obviously) are my moral lines in the sand that almost everyone in Congress except Rashida Tlaib has brazenly trampled.

    https://www.newsweek.com/medicare-all-would-save-450-billion-annually-while-preventing-68000-deaths-new-study-shows-1487862

    https://www.sanders.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/Fact-Sheet_Medicare-for-All-2023.pdf

    • In 2017, Harris was the first senator to co-sponsor Bernie Sanders’ bill, the Medicare for All Act of 2017. “Here, I’ll break some news,” she said that year at a town hall in Oakland, California. “I intend to co-sponsor the Medicare-for-all bill, because it’s just the right thing to do.” 15 other Democrats eventually joined her.

      That bill, if enacted, would have abolished private health insurance for all age groups (including Medicare beneficiaries) and replaced it with a government-run single-payer system to benefit “every individual who is a resident of the United States,” including undocumented immigrants.

      https://www.forbes.com/sites/johngoodman/2024/08/13/why-health-policy-problems-rarely-get-solved/?

      yeah too neolib, better to stick with Trump, he'll really get the single payer socialist healthcare going with the fascism and stuff, cause he really cares about people. /s

      • I love how you posted a quote with her politically pandering by co-sponsoring a bill that she DEMONSTRABLY doesn’t support.

        Can you explain why she is now RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT AND SINGLE PAYER ISN’T EVEN MENTIONED IN HER CAMPAIGN PLATFORM? IF SHE SUPPORTS IT SO STRONGLY, WHY DOES SHE AVOID MENTIONING IT IN HER CAMPAIGN PLATFORM? It would win her easy points but she notably DOESN’T MENTION IT DESPITE ASSHOLES LIKE YOU PRETENDING THAT SHE DOES.

        Could it because she knew that Bernie’s bill wouldn’t pass and co-sponsoring it would effectively dupe centrist pieces of shit like yourself?

        Do you sometimes forget to breathe? I’m a leftist and am very anti-Trump. I just so happen to also have intellectual honesty where I can speak my mind and I don’t have to forget my integrity like you for fear of some simple minded asshole misinterpreting my intent.

        It must be physically painful to be such a fucking sheep that you break all people down into two distinct groups: Trump supporters and Trump enemies.

        In conclusion, go fuck yourself. Don’t come crying to me when Kamala loses to a man who just survived an assasination attempt. Maybe someday the DNC can field an opponent to the GOP’s candidate that is actually a leftist.

        I know! Let’s try and push Kamala left! /s

        Edit:

        You can’t write this stuff. Guy linked an anti-Single Payer FORBES article written by healthcare investors.

        😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

        here's a hilarious quote from that article (which was clearly written by someone who is heavily invested in for-profit healthcare and is terrified of Single Payer)

        In a typical hospital operation, the patient expects a health benefit, and the doctor gets income from the surgery. Insurance companies, by contrast, have an economic interest in avoiding the cost of unnecessary surgery. The resolution of these conflicts can be time-consuming and costly. Medici, a health management firm in Austin, Texas, found a better solution. It offers patients a second opinion from a list of specialists at top academic medical centers around the country. The second opinion causes the patients to avert surgery about 30 percent of the time.

        to paraphrase: If you want even worse, amateur medical care than you already have right now in the most expensive medical system in the world, you won't have to wait as long! You can go have a student do the surgery! Win win!

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