[serichsen]

From my german perspective, every assumption in this article looks quite gross and barbaric.

Here, everyone is insured. If you break your arm, you get it fixed. If you get cancer, you get therapy. If you get the flu, you get a prescription. The overall cost is paid by the entire population, through the insurance system.

For what is the alternative? Maybe the overall monetary cost would be lower if everyone had to watch the price, but you would pay for it in human lives and suffering, when people have to decide between dying of illness or dying of hunger, or between lifelong pain or clothes for their children.

[tomohawk]

From my American perspective, the national health systems of other countries have their own barbarities. There is a reason why so many people from other countries come to the US for health care.

When I was looking to have a very serious health problem taken care of, I heavily researched getting the procedure done anywhere in the world. It was pretty obvious that all the best places to have it done were in the US. The facility we went to had quite a few patients from other countries - and we're not talking 3rd world countries. Many of these patients had already had care in their own country, where the care was botched or insufficient. They were coming to the US to get it done right. On their own dime.

Not sure how Germany is, but average wait time for an MRI in Canada is over 10 weeks.

https://www.fraserinstitute.org/studies/waiting-your-turn-wa...

In the US you can go right into an MRI on the same day. This is key to getting an appropriate standard of care.

In Canada, average wait time for an ultrasound is 4 weeks. Our pets get better care in the US. I really don't see how people tolerate such things.

[qubex]

In northern Italy‘ve gone ”right into” an MRI with the public health system twice (once when I had a migraine aurea of incredible intensity with visual hallucinations and disorientation) and another time when I had smashed up my ankle so badly they needed to figure out the effect on the soft tissues after a bunch of X-rays in the broken bones. There’s a lot of myths about queues and waiting times (in my experience at least). When I was in the UK (of which I am also a citizen) while studying in very early 2000s I had slightly longer waiting times for specialist visits (allergy specialist, and then a dermatologist) but certainly not the kind of waiting times I hear tossed around now (on the order of a couple of weeks, tops).

[GFischer]

Well, actually, at least the reason why the very rich nationals from my country elect to have surgery in the U.S. is because the very best doctors are there - possibly because they're extremely well remunerated there, and the best research is done in the U.S. as well.

I wonder if the insurance we're talking about covers the kind of procedure people from other countries do in the U.S.

I absolutely trust medical professionals in my country and I believe we have some of the very best healthcare in the world - way better than in the U.S. - wait time for an MRI is same-day if needed (same as you say for the U.S.), surgery is 13 days and the cost is maybe 30 dollars for the ticket. No deductibles, no hidden costs. Zero people became bankrupt due to medical emergencies in my country (plenty of other causes like high taxes, but nothing directly medical-related).

But if I had the millions and I had to have open-heart surgery I would possibly choose the Cleveland Clinic, and similarly for other very serious health problems, the equivalent top clinic.

[FLGMwt]

As an American working in healthcare tech: it is absolutely barbaric.

We have the most expensive medicine in the world, but it's all treatment, not prevention and both only for those who can afford it.