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Comment by seanmcdirmid | Hacker News Reader

Well, except the largest communist country has nothing like that.

The "communist" in the comment you replied to is poking fun at the common attitude among Americans towards stronger welfare systems common in other 1st world countries, like the Nordic countries for example. I feel your literal reading given the quotation marks was unjustified.

I'm sorry. It's just that I live in this communist country and get to experience the dysfunction daily. To me, communism just means ultra capatalism with censored Internet, so these jokes never make sense, even in the context of HN's rabid American-centrism.

I've seen people die without access to healthcare in the US that they would've received in real first world countries, so its hard not to see the irony when people complain about "communism" or "socialism" single payer.

The dysfunction you describe seeing and that I've seen are same coin, different sides.

In China, they always collect payment before treatment, at the hospital door, oh and that ambulance will be prepay. And that's not even getting into the red envelopes that must be given to get decent care. The Nordic systems are not communist at all, they are socialist. The use communism in this context is just ridiculous.

The USA is nowhere to being as bad as a typical communist country.

In the USA, the term "communist" is a pejorative label that has nothing to do with Communism and everything to do with McCarthyism.

> The USA is nowhere to being as bad as a typical communist country.

I agree, but we still have a long way to go to being as good as other first world countries, like Canada, England, and the Nordic systems.

Yes. But none of those countries are communist.

You've "seen" people die? Under what circumstances?

Friend of my mother's who could not receive treatment for cancer because she could not afford it (Indiana).

I'm somewhat surprised you think you live in a country (I assume you're in the US) that everyone gets care regardless of their financial circumstances.

Is there anyone in the US who actually thinks they get good medical care without being wealthy?

It's only ignorance that would make a US citizen think that it's better than the rest of the world, except third world countries.

Cancer drugs are priced at the maximum cost that the US health system will bear.

You can thank your politicians for being in the pocket of the drug companies.

I have a side hobby (ie no profit) of getting US residents (through word of mouth) treatments in India, Thailand, and Mexico that are anywhere between 1/20th and 1/80th the cost of US healthcare. Not much other choice until more Americans are outraged (versus current apathy).

Yes, I should have said all drugs. It's not just cancer drugs that are artificially expensive.

Excellent point. I have a friend of a friend who needed Hep C treatment. In the US, the twelve week course of drugs costs ~$70K USD. Getting them to India, it only cost ~$6000 ($1500 for the drug, the rest was food/hotel/transport), and they stayed in a resort while going through the treatment.

Is there anyone who thinks people in another country understand the situation better than the people who live there?

Everyone outside the UK seemed to understand the consequences of Brexit far more than the citizens of the UK themselves.

That depends on how apathetic/ignorant the residents of that country are.

If she couldn't afford insurance she could have gone on Medicaid, and Medicaid pays for chemo.

Medicaid has a budget. When the budget is exceeded, you are SOL.

I'm sorry for assuming your interpretation was intentional.

Well, USSR had it that way.

Yes (a), and so does Cuba (b) today. But that is either in the past (a), or a very small example (b).

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