Despite Americans paying nearly double that of other nations, the US fares poorly in list of 10 countries

The United States health system ranked dead last in an international comparison of 10 peer nations, according to a new report by the Commonwealth Fund.

In spite of Americans paying nearly double that of other countries, the system performed poorly on health equity, access to care and outcomes.

“I see the human toll of these shortcomings on a daily basis,” said Dr Joseph Betancourt, the president of the Commonwealth Fund, a foundation with a focus on healthcare research and policy.

The fund said the US would need to expand insurance coverage and make “meaningful” improvements on the amount of healthcare expenses patients pay themselves; minimize the complexity and variation in insurance plans to improve administrative efficiency; build a viable primary care and public health system; and invest in social wellbeing, rather than thrust problems of social inequity onto the health system.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Shocking. “Best health care system in the world,” my ass. “You’ll have to wait months if there’s universal healthcare.” Bitch, I have to wait months now.

    • Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      “You’ll have to wait months if there’s universal healthcare.”

      Yeah, but that healthcare is still practically guaranteed, and it won’t put you into debt

      • PlasticExistence@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Several times I’ve had to wait for months on healthcare in the US system. This is such a weak argument against a socialized system.

        • Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Literally anything I want done is a wait list here. Eye exam; schedule a time. Dentist; is it an emergency? We’ll schedule you sometime next month. Phycologist; its a theee month wait list. Primary care; see you in three months. Finding a reliable primary care has been a dead end nightmare.

          I’m not shitting on doctors or nurses. Just this whole system is bonkers. For what reason? Healthcare is not a business.

          “In capitalism everything’s a buisness.” Well get fucked.

          I’m not saying we should be reductive. There is reasons for the way we do things. I am saying though, we’ve gone too far and it’s obscuring the goal of a having a functional society.

          People need professionals to help with their health; an extremely complex field. Every person needs this. Its not an optional thing. You want a society, well a society needs people, and people need Healthcare.

          “Well I never wanted to be part of a society.” Did you enjoy the luxury that having a society provides? From plumbing to super yatchs, all of this wealth we share was made by people like you and me.

          • optissima@lemmy.ml
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            2 months ago

            There is reasons for the way we do things.

            Because a rich class keeps oppressing the poorer class, not because it’s a good way to do things.

          • iopq@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            It’s the same in Canada, socialized healthcare never solved never solved this problem. That said, I had only a four hour wait time in urgent care in the US. I had to wait eight hours in Canada for emergency care

              • iopq@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                For a blood clot I’ve had to wait like 16 hours in Canada, but that’s because for every examination and consultation you had to wait in a separate queue. Like talk to a doctor after 8 hours, get assigned to wait for a ultrasound, wait another two hours, go into the room, wait half an hour for a resident, become a test subject for half an hour, get a real doctor later, wait for them to consult me for another few hours, wait another hour for the script, etc.

                In the US at least they did everything in one shot for my first blood clot, after it my wait they did everything in one go and let me go

        • LustyArgonian@lemmy.world
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          Not only have I had to wait months, but then the doctor will argue with you and gaslight you about your fucking symptoms. Here’s a $200 bill for 5 minutes discussion and being told I am actually fine and not having the symptoms I’m having and even if I was they don’t want to do treatment because it’s too painful and difficult and so testing is pointless too since they won’t treat.

          I am TRULY TRULY fine with the day doctors lose their jobs to AI. I genuinely wish I could have an AI primary care doctor now. Or even just a veterinarian, because vets aren’t taught to gaslight their fucking patients.

    • Paddzr@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Who has ever said that? You guys have no healthcare. It’s literally a joke to anyone outside of US.

          • theilleists@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            But you have to understand, to 74 million people, the Fox News Cinematic Universe is reality. There’s regular bullshit, and then there’s bullshit so widely believed that you actually have to study the bullshit, just to be able to predict what its subscribers will do next. Like religion.

    • thesohoriots@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      My insurance bumped up the copay on primary care to make it less affordable than an urgent care visit, incentivizing us to get care with immense surcharges. But at least we can get a same-day appointment instead of waiting a month or two to see the most qualified and familiar person with our conditions. Fuck capitalism, as usual.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Get everyone to use the ERs and clinics which pay doctors less. Think there’s a reason for that?

    • apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I had my primary care doctor retire. The gigantic hospital system with which they work put all existing patients in as new patients for the incoming doctor. It has been 18 months and I’m still waiting for the new patient visit. Fighting to even get maintainance medications filled has been crazy because I keep being told “I have to see my doctor.” Circular logic abounds.

      The gigantic system makes it so I cannot directly contact the office, it is all hurry up and wait through their patient portal systems which require 24-48 hours for response time. Can’t go to the doctors office to complain without an appointment.

      This system is working optimally for someone. It is not us.

  • Bassman1805@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    My wife broke her ankle and insurance denied the entire claim for being “not medically necessary”. The “medical professional” (not doctor) who denied the claim had experience in OBGYN, not orthopedics.

    100% going to win the appeal because like, we have x-rays of the shattered bones in her leg, but seriously wtf. People seriously believe this is the ideal medical system?

    • Ms. ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.ml
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      I’m on appeal #3 right now with my insurance for something they told me would be 100% covered. I’m getting my doctor in on it to do a peer to peer. He sounded so fed up with everything he was like “it’s probably some retired pediatrician who doesn’t know anything about what you need” when talking about who he’d need to talk with. If this one doesn’t work then I’m on to the “threaten to sue” stage which I’m not excited about. The whole thing is a mess and the process and money that’s gone into it would have easily bankrupted or put me homeless at most previous times in my life

      • Bassman1805@lemmy.world
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        I’m not a lawyer, but a piece of legal advice I’ve seen repeated many times is “Never threaten to sue. Just sue.”

        As soon as you threaten to sue, you’ll never be able to talk to anybody except the legal team, and they’ll do nothing to help your case.

    • LustyArgonian@lemmy.world
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      It’s honestly infuriating that these companies are essentially diagnosing and treating patients without doctor-patient relationship (required by federal law). And like LITERALLY determining and dictating treatment. That’s illegal if ANYONE else does it. Even if your own medical provider doesn’t see you per new condition, that can be considered a violation of that law. And these insurance guys have never seen us in real life.

      I also think that it’s a really strangely allowed violation of HIPPA. Why should everyone at the insurance company, or ANYONE at an insurance company, have the right to my medical information? Why are they able to communicate with my doctor’s office? I absolutely hate the privacy aspect of insurance so much.

  • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Some people achieve some sadistic satisfaction from denying poor people health care, even if it cost extra to themselves!?
    In USA there is a sentiment that looks like they are trying to exterminate the poor, by letting them suffer and die, instead of trying to build a better more humane society for all.

    • PriorityMotif@lemmy.world
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      There’s a lot of miserable fucks out there due to a mix of leaded gas fumes, childhood trauma, and religious/political brainwashing.

    • undergroundoverground@lemmy.world
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      To me, its much more that the rich don’t want to pay for the healthcare of the people who earn all of their money for them, rather than active sadism.

      More, devoid of empathy and not really seeing them as fellow humans, deserving of basic rights like not dying of poverty. Especially if it costs them money.

      • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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        I disagree, when they prevent a system that benefit all including themselves, they are actively acting like sadists who want to see the suffering of those who cannot afford to pay.

        • undergroundoverground@lemmy.world
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          Each to their own but, to me, rich people would make far more, personally, with the American system. I 100% get how you came to your conclusion though. I’m not saying sadism wouldn’t make sense or anything.

  • jpreston2005@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    The U.S. health care system is a failure because of the continued existence of health insurance companies over the more streamlined approach of Medicare for All.

    Also this graph is hilarious, albeit depressing.

    • Hapankaali@lemmy.world
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      Actually, many of those countries don’t have systems similar to Medicare for All. Netherlands, supposedly second in this list, has a mostly privatized system with mandatory insurance, so does Switzerland. France and Germany have semi-public and private health insurance companies. The US has bigger (and different) problems than merely the existence of health insurance companies.

      • LustyArgonian@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Not really true about Netherlands:

        The Netherlands has a dual-level system. All primary and curative care (i.e. the family doctor service and hospitals and clinics) is financed from private mandatory insurance. Long term care for the elderly, the dying, the long term mentally ill etc. is covered by social insurance funded from earmarked taxation under the provisions of the Algemene Wet Bijzondere Ziektekosten, which came into effect in 1968. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_the_Netherlands#:~:text=Health insurance in the Netherlands,long-term nursing and care.

        See the social insurance aspect? The largest financial burden to the Healthcare system is usually a person’s last 5 years of life, so they’ve socialized the expensive parts of healthcare and privatized the cheaper stuff.

        For Switzerland:

        The insured person pays the insurance premium for the basic plan. If a premium is too high compared to the person’s income, the government gives the insured person a cash subsidy to help pay for the premium.[8]

        This isn’t something done in every US state, to be clear. In some states it’s very hard to access healthcare if you can’t afford the premium. This lack of coverage often creates a heavier burden on healthcare systems because people are uninsured.

        • Hapankaali@lemmy.world
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          The Wlz (which replaced the AWBZ) covers only a minority of total health care costs. Expenses were €29 bln in 2023. “Mostly privatized” is accurate.

          Both the Netherlands and Switzerland have universal health care systems and negligible rates of lack of insurance. My point is just that private health insurance isn’t the (only) problem, as these counterexamples show.

  • Resand@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    No no no, that’s simply wrong.

    US healthcare system is the best in the world, at doing what it’s designed to do. Issue here is that they’re measuring it on care provide vs cost, while the US system is optimized for profits.

    If they instead ranked the results by which system generated the most private profits the US would be first.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      The line I’ve heard is

      best in the world for those who can afford it

      But medicine is still an industry that benefits from economy of scale. It still benefits from public sector R&D. It still benefits from robust safety regulations and enforcement of best practices.

      We’ve been chipping away at all of that. Hell, we’re straight up closing hospitals and clinics all over the country, purely because so few of them are economically viable when pitted against a ruthless private insurance market.

      If they instead ranked the results by which system generated the most private profits

      There are sectors that bring in big profits, but they’re extracting those profits from the sectors that deliver the medicine.

      The snake is eating it’s own tail. This isn’t a long term strategy for profit. Every quarterly cycle leans harder on Medicaid and Medicare as the private systems fail.