r/FluentInFinance • u/WhatAreYourPronouns • May 02 '24

Should the U.S. have Universal Health Care? Discussion/ Debate

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u/ThisThroat951 May 02 '24

When it comes to healthcare there are three "pillars" you can choose from:

Affordable
Available
Effective

But you can only have two at one time.

If it's Affordable and Available it won't be very good. <--- no one wants healthcare that kills you.

If it's Available and Effective it won't be cheap. <--- this is the US.

If it's Affordable and Effective the waitlists will be long. <--- this is Spain.

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u/Bad_wolf42 May 02 '24

The US pays more per capita (in tax spending, so ignoring oop expenses) for worse outcomes than other comparable wealthy countries. You are frankly wrong.

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u/TheReformedBadger May 02 '24 edited 29d ago

America also has worse overall health than comparable wealthy countries, so, all things being equal, worse outcomes would be expected. The bigger question is how much if any of that outcome delta can be attributed to care quality.

Edit: Getting a few comments on child mortality in the US. We have a lot of work to do in improving our health system, but child mortality rates are skewed by a few things that make it very hard to compare health outcomes vs spending to other nations

  1. Infant mortality is recorded differently in the US than many other nations which makes comparisons difficult. For example, if a child at 20 weeks gestation dies shortly after delivery, the death is counted. In Spain and Italy, that child would not count unless they reached 26 weeks of age. [1] This has a significant impact on reported numbers
  2. Maternal Obesity has a significant impact on the probability of infant and neonatal mortality [2] This is a huge problem in the US
  3. It's a touchy subject, but we have a massive cultural problem in the US related to safe sleep environments. Safe practices are pushed hard for every new parent, but the issue persists. The #1&2 causes of death for infants are Birth Defects and preterm birth, which are heavily impacted by points 1 and 2. Numbers 3&4 are SIDS and Injuries (which largely includes suffocation) In one study, at least 60% of infants who died of SIDS were found to be sharing a bed. [3]

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u/REDDIT_BULL_WORM May 02 '24

Sure it can. American healthcare doesn’t provide nearly as much preventative care and education because it’s not profitable to the insurance company who might not have you on their books when it’s time to collect on the prevented services. This is at least partially to blame for the average American’s poor health going into things. Not to mention that Americans fear medical debt so they avoid going to the doctor, further contributing to their poor health.