It saddens me that in the 21st century in the richest country in the world people having babies and being diagnosed with cancer have to worry about treatment and money, the last thing they should be thinking about.
What a sad state of affairs.
What a sad state of affairs.
I tried to find a source but couldn't, it's too old, all the matches I got where about the new spin-off. I remember seeing it mostly on TV and TV magazine (critics of the series). Just to be clear, it wasn't a full documentary about the US system :) just a note to explain that the US doesn't have universal health care and that people without insurance were in deep shit.
I would not have bought the premise of that show 15 years ago. Absolutely not. It would have seemed beyond far-fetched.
But not anymore, sadly. I can totally believe it now. Makes me wonder if I need to re-evaluate some of my biggest choices in life.
Walt could have gotten coverage from his former company, they made him an offer that he refused. He preferred to kill people and sell drugs instead, because he liked it.
The point was we are VERY rich and could afford to not have our citizens stress about healthcare.
Oh no? I'm in top 0.2% in income in the world, and I'm sure there are people here doing far better than I am. How about you?
California is also, like, 75 times bigger than Vermont in pretty much every metric, so I'm not sure why you seem so surprised by such an implication.
The point of the "richest country in the world" remark is that the U.S. could very well afford to be the most progressive modern society if it chose to do so. Instead, it opts to sink money in failed fighter projects and nebulous "terrorist"-hunting surveillance and drone strike programs.
I think per-capita GDP is clearly a better metric, putting the US around 10th, but total GDP isn't an awful one for broad strokes.
US households alone hold $85 to $90 trillion.
This is from 2010, US assets have massively rebounded since then, likely pushing this figure even higher.
"Some 39 percent of the world’s wealth belongs to Americans, while Western Europe accounts for another 31 percent."
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/americas-domina...
EDIT: I can see my karma for this comment is swinging around wildly. Consider the following:
* You are (based on the typical HN audience) probably young now, most likely healthy. You will eventually get older, and will likely have medical issues eventually.
* I argue that healthcare is not something to be earned, but something you are entitled to as a human being. No one should ever die from health reasons due to not having enough money. If its too expensive to do this (which is clearly false, as other countries are able to do so with less money than we spend in the US), we use R&D spending to ruthlessly drive down the cost.
* I came to this point of view over time. I am a healthy young male. I've known people who have died because they couldn't afford healthcare. I've known someone who worked as a prostitute to pay for her SOs cancer treatment. My mother would not have been able to afford a surgery to mediate her degenerative disc disease in her spine without the affordable care act.
I am not arguing for the elimination of the tech startup scene in order to have universal healthcare. I'm arguing for the transition to single payer and the streamlining of healthcare deliver in the US to lower costs AND ensure coverage for everyone.
We're a first world developed country, and its about time like we acted like one.
Of course, there are other things that are not so good for businesses in various European countries, but I'd chalk up the health care system as a win for small companies and entrepreneurs.
Insanity.
[1] http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.PCAP?order=wbapi_...
umm.... so what? we should sacrifice the health of a nation of hundreds of millions of folks so a few hundred thousand get to work at 'homegrown tech giants'? w00t!