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Comment by thatfrenchguy | Hacker News Reader

around 10 times the price of other developed countries?

I don’t know about other European countries, but an annual physical exam is not a thing here in the Netherlands. I don’t know any person who’s ever done one here, and I don’t know where to get one if I wanted. We go to the GP if we have specific complaints, not if we feel like getting some test or checkup.

Same here in Denmark, though we do have to get a physical exam when getting a driver's license.

Well, it depends. Are you getting it immediately? Because a lot of "countries" with alleged healthcare simply delay it and you have to fight a bureocracy shield and even the paid insurance sucks and tries to use the public one.

USA is terrible at healthcare for those that don't have a safety net but many countries, such as UK, are terrible for the middle income/stable job types, because you don't even have options (unless you pay a fortune) without months on end.

It's just a different type of scam.

There's definitely better implementations.

As someone living in Canada I will freely admit that it can be extremely difficult to book a complex surgery, especially if the condition is not considered life threatening - but for common medical care it's trivial to just show up at a walk-in and get treatment for free - ditto for lab tests. Regular checkups are free and usually prescheduled though not everyone has a stable GP (and it can be a bit difficult to find a GP up here - there are ways to forcefully claim a GP though).

It is not 10 times the price; you are just paying in a different manner.

Are you sure?

Doctor: € 25 (Of which you get at least half back)

Standard lab test: € 20 (Real cost is € 50 or something)

Still pretty far from € 400.

Presumably there are insurance premiums or taxes that you are ignoring.

Yeah, taxes are really high but that's not relevant in this case. The actual costs are just way lower.

US healthcare costs are too high in the US because of the broken insurance system. I don't think it needs to become a public system like Europe. I don't see anything inherently wrong with private insurance. But the system needs a reset, back to normal prices.

One of the reason costs are too high is because hospitals, doctors, labs, know that insurance will haggle down so they just overcharge a lot. That's how you end up with an ER band-aid costing $ 500.

Now calculate the difference in income taxes on 200k+. You are just paying it differently.

Doctors don’t make 200k+ in those countries either

Taxes in the US aren't actually that much lower than in other countries - and the exploitation of all your juicey tax loopholes usually requires a pretty expensive accountant not accessible to the average person.

Without taking into account compensation difference (that is also significant), almost no other developed country has such favorable tax regime (again ignoring temporary programs). Check an average FAANG salary on levelsfyi for seniors and compare how much would someone pay taxes on it in Germany.

Americans spend as much public money on healthcare as is typical in similarly wealthy countries. This is a fact; check it yourself if you don't believe me. We pay for an NHS and all we get is this lousy Medicare.

The American system brutalizes poor people because it's cruel and stupid. It doesn't save you a dime on your taxes.

They are private practice doctors, this is literally how much money they are getting paid

Is this supposed to be after insurance? Otherwise I'd pass on a 40$ physical....

I actually pass on a $400 one as well. The quality of the physical only increases with price, after all!

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