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Possibly true, though too many separate studies and surveys show the inadequacies of American healthcare for me to dismiss them all. When I last lived in the USA my ACA premium (self-employed, two adults) started at $1,150/mo with $12,000 combined annual deductible, plus a co-pay. I struggled to find doctors who would accept the insurance, and in the US you need a primary care physician to refer to specialists, get diagnostics, etc. After two years of that my premium got raised to $1,450/mo with $14k deductible — prohibitive for me and I will guess most middle-class people. Quality of care fairly poor — doctors and labs missed a critical cardiac condition twice. I live in Thailand now, where I can walk in to a hospital without a referral, get the tests I need immediately, and pay out of pocket because prices come to 1/5th or less than US prices. Thai hospitals found two urgent conditions missed in the US. I have a catastrophic policy that costs $210/mo for me and my wife, with $500/yr deductible. In a poor developing country that, incidentally, has a lot of immigrants, legal and illegal. Thailand has socialized health care for citizens. Very cheap but not the best quality of care. If you remove automobile and motorbike collisions (bad in Thailand) the medical outcomes and life expectancies match the US, on average. Your mileage varies. In the US you can get treatment for some things in the ER. You cannot walk in and get a colonoscopy, or cardiac imaging, which may not seem urgent in the moment but can save your life nevertheless. I prefer not to wait for the heart attack or tumor I may survive if I can get to an ER in time. My father had the same largely genetic conditions and died without insurance, unable to get diagnostic care where he lived. |