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by jiwidi 556 days ago
I think is the unreasonable ammounts that people end up paying in US that make it crazy to understand for non US.

For me as an European, i see anything related to healthcare as core to our society. You mention food, if i dont like an apple from a vendor i can just have another fruit that is cheaper this season. I wouldn't have that choice to change meds for my current ilnesses.

Yeah sure someone has to pay for it, but do meds need a 10000x markup compared to the 2x markup on food? US is such an advanced country in terms of science and tech that is scary to think people still die due to not being able to pay their cancer treatment.
1 comments
arethuza 556 days ago
As Aneurin Bevan said:

"Illness is neither an indulgence for which people have to pay, nor an offence for which they should be penalised, but a misfortune the cost of which should be shared by the community."

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MichaelZuo 556 days ago
How does this make sense when some people intentionally do things that cause illness?

And it’s not just Americans either, for example some Japanese like to intentionally eat fugu, meat from super poisonous puffer fish prepared in a very specific way.

Surely there’s no expectation for society to pay millions to treat someone who ate the 99.99th percentile fugu slice…

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arethuza 556 days ago
Loads of people do things that might result in a visit to hospital - my wife was hospitalised after a climbing accident (with a mountain rescue team and separate helicopter based team), I've been treated for cycling accidents and because one of our cats bit me...

You can either accept the vast bureaucracy of evaluating risk and paying for each bit of treatment or the much simpler and cheaper option of paying for it in taxes and giving everyone the same level of basic care and not worrying too much about the fugu eaters...

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MichaelZuo 556 days ago
You didn’t mention the third option?

No vast bureaucracy and no payment expectation.

But more realistically since the vast bureaucracy already exists… and isn’t going away in the foreseeable future, then it makes sense to utilize it.

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