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Comment by suprjami | Hacker News Reader

I'm not surprised at all. If you compare individual US states to other countries, some parts of the US south have worse healthcare systems than third-world nations. The US is by far the worst health country in the OECD.

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At the same time US government spends the most in the world on socialized healthcare.

The US government spends the most in the world on subsidizing corporations for healthcare. There is nothing "socialized" about it. The public in general gets very little of that benefit. And that holds true even if you include Medicare.

I meant only Medicare and Medicaid. The US government spends on Medicare and Medicare more then any other country on healthcare.

Don't forget the VA, but this stat always shocks people. I don't think people's brains can even hold on to it. It's important to use italics: The US government spends more on healthcare per capita than all socialized systems. The difference between life and death in the US isn't about paying lower taxes, it's purely rent-seeking; i.e. we pay once for healthcare, and we pay once again to the landlords of healthcare, directly out of our pockets.

Per capita based on those eligible? Because if so, that's not surprising, given individuals from those groups are more likely to need expensive healthcare (esp. the elderly). Whereas for countries with universal healthcare, most recipients are not likely to need to expensive treatment. If it's per capita based on total population then I agree it's crazy.

That's really only because healthcare is so absolutely insanely more expensive here.

You'd have to normalize those numbers. It doesn't mean the same thing if the US spends a billion dollars on 1 million procedures when a more civilized society can do those same million procedures for 300 million.

Between Medicare, Medicaid, and the VA, there are more Americans with socialized healthcare than Britons in the NHS.

There are also hundreds of thousands more Americans going bankrupt from healthcare costs.

If Medi-* actually worked properly that wouldn't be happening.

Also - Medicare is for the elderly, Medicaid for the poor and indigent, and the VA for current and former servicemen, neither of the three groups are good risks. You'd expect higher than average costs even in a well-run system.

Of course they do. Just look at how that entire system is set up. It’s very clearly a for profit driven industry first and foremost and a healthcare system in a very distant second place.

I don't think it's really about healthcare. It's about everything else in life, that makes people obese or driven into a life of drugs (meth, etc.). Healthcare doesn't really save you from that.

If you choose to look at drugs from a healthcare perspective, you'll find countries that have had some success....

It's not so much about the quality of healthcare as it is the price.

You could have the best hospital for free — if you are sedentary, eat poorly, and engage in risky behavior, you will die sooner.

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