> she will have a much higher chance of survival in the US.
Without a deep dive it looks ballpark the same, to be honest.
AU Cancer Survival Rates:
The 5-year survival for cancer in 1991–1995 was 55% and by 2016–2020, the rate had increased to 71%. Even with decreasing mortality rates and increasing survival, the number of deaths from cancer has been increasing.
US Cancer Survival Rates:
Five-year survival rates have also been increasing for an even longer period of time. The overall cancer survival rate was 49 percent in the mid-1970s. It currently sits at 68 percent
A few years back my Mum in Australia was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, given 12 months to live.
For just shy of 3 years she had radiation, chemo, trial drugs worth nearly a million a pop all in a brand new cancer Center. Because she lived a couple of hours away she got free transport to and from and free hotel. Not pay and claim it back, fully free.
She was on an enormous cocktail of drugs that dad would get at the pharmacy that raised a lot of eyebrows for the strength of the opiates among other things.
For three years they never paid a cent. They never paid a cent of health insurance, never had private cover, never had a deductible. That would all be the same if they had never worked or took a decade off to pursue some hobby.
Trust me when I say it was stressful and emotional enough without adding money or paperwork or insurance into the equation
The comparison to my friends in the US who couldn’t get a separated shoulder fixed because it was “out of network” or had to move hospitals the day after a C section because the insurance didn’t want to pay anymore is downright disgusting.
For real people living their lives the two systems are vastly different.