[petesergeant]

Earned Income Tax Credit, Supplemental Security Income, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the Child Care and Development Fund, housing assistance, Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program, Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants and Children

[macintux]

Those safety nets have huge gaps. The government doesn't want to be accused of harboring freeloaders (or, perhaps more accurately, a significant chunk of the population would rather people be homeless than a few "welfare queens" be permitted to cheat the system), so many who are genuinely in need can't get it.

[petesergeant]

That’s true of most rich countries. The big difference between the US and most rich countries is universal healthcare.

[tough]

Life and death kinda difference innit

[petesergeant]

Wikipedia suggests 0.01% of the US population dies each year (30-40,000) due to lack of health insurance. I’m sure the real number is at least double.

[Ozzie_osman]

That is a very, very big difference.

[petesergeant]

It is, although it disproportionately affects people who are poor but not broke. If you’re truly broke, there’s Medicaid, if you’re old there’s Medicare, 4% by some form of military healthcare, many people covered by their employers, and so on. 90% of Americans are insured.

As a Britisher, obviously I’m in favour of universal healthcare, and I think the US system would benefit from it. But let’s not pretend it’s perfect there either

[usefulcat]

> 90% of Americans are insured

I'm one of those 90%. My health insurance (family of 4) costs more than my house payment, and the annual deductible is over $6000 (for one person). Either the premiums or my deductible goes up every year. In terms of total cost (monthly premiums plus annual deductible) it's also pretty much the least expensive plan that I can get.

It's not that health care here is bad, it's that it's ridiculously expensive compared to most other places in the world.

[petesergeant]

> It's not that health care here is bad, it's that it's ridiculously expensive compared to most other places in the world.

Sure, but the average American also gets paid $20k more than the average Brit, on average.

[autoexec]

> f you’re truly broke, there’s Medicaid

Which you still might not qualify for, and may not get even if you do qualify for it (https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/apr/15/john-ol...)

> 90% of Americans are insured.

Which doesn't prevent nearly 40% of americans from being forced to put off needed medical care because of the expense they're still subjected to. (https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/20/americans-put-off-health-car...) Medical debt is the leading cause of bankruptcy.

[petesergeant]

Again, with the caveat that I much prefer the British system...

> nearly 40% of americans from being forced to put off needed medical care

Hard to interpret UK NHS waiting-time figures, especially given the political weight given to them, but these[0][1] paint a picture of 6 month to >1 year waiting times.

0: https://www.boa.ac.uk/resource/boa-statement-on-nhs-app-show...

1: https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/news-and-events/media-centre/press-...

> Medical debt is the leading cause of bankruptcy

Medical debt for non-elective treatment feels barbaric, although digging into the figures (2m personal bankruptcies a year, 60% medical) gives 0.3% of the US population declaring medical bankruptcy a year, possibly going up to 1% if you do fancier maths involving households vs people.

[adventured]

The US in fact has a gigantic welfare state support system. The US spends more of its GDP on social welfare than either Canada or Australia, and we spend it poorly unfortunately (our return on investment is not great, we spend too much for too weak of results, as with healthcare).

To add to your list: housing, healthcare, food programs exist at the local + state + federal levels. The US state government system is huge unto itself, like having an entire other federal government nearly.

There are thousands of government support programs between the state + federal levels of government.

People outside of the US are almost entirely ignorant of how large the government systems in the US are. They're not as big as in France or Denmark obviously, they are still sizable compared to the median peer nation (on a GDP % basis).

[PaulDavisThe1st]

Mostly because the help is provided too late.

We do some stuff (often not the right stuff) to prop up people struggling as adults. We do very little, relatively speaking, to enhance people's childhoods (or even just ensure that it's OK).

[rajamaka]

Also all the non governmental safety nets. Food banks, charities, mutual aid networks, shelters and religious orgs.