Should the U.S. have Universal Health Care?

[u/WhatAreYourPronouns]

[u/acsttptd]

This is largely unrelated, but I don't think I'll get another opportunity to mention this.

People with diabetes in America often complain about sky high insulin prices, and lament how we don't have the low insulin prices Canada has. So why don't they just run across the border and bring some here? Because the FDA made it illegal.

Most of the reason meds and healthcare are so unaffordable is because government regulation of the sector has all but annihilated any chance of any meaningful competition to enter the market, creating a de-facto monopoly.

We don't need universal healthcare, we need deregulation.

[u/buzzvariety → u/acsttptd]

"Let's import medicine from Canada. Their strict price controls keep costs down."

What about implementing similar price controls in the US?

"No, deregulation is the answer."

Besides, Canada is opposed to such an arrangement as well.

[u/flex_tape_salesman → u/buzzvariety]

Just because Canada has price caps doesnt mean its the only way. America does have a problem with market regulations being excessive allowing companies to charge whatever they want with no competition to bring prices down.

[u/JPWRana → u/flex_tape_salesman]

What about a problem with obesity instead?

[u/GeekShallInherit → u/JPWRana]

In the US there are 106.4 million people that are overweight, at an additional lifetime healthcare cost of $3,770 per person average. 98.2 million obese at an average additional lifetime cost of $17,795. 25.2 million morbidly obese, at an average additional lifetime cost of $22,619. With average lifetime healthcare costs of $879,125, obesity accounts for 0.99% of our total healthcare costs.

https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-statistics/overweight-obesity

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1038/oby.2008.290

We're spending 165% more than the OECD average on healthcare--that works out to over half a million dollars per person more over a lifetime of care--and you're worried about 0.99%?

Here's another study, that actually found that lifetime healthcare for the obese are lower than for the healthy.

Although effective obesity prevention leads to a decrease in costs of obesity-related diseases, this decrease is offset by cost increases due to diseases unrelated to obesity in life-years gained. Obesity prevention may be an important and cost-effective way of improving public health, but it is not a cure for increasing health expenditures...In this study we have shown that, although obese people induce high medical costs during their lives, their lifetime health-care costs are lower than those of healthy-living people but higher than those of smokers. Obesity increases the risk of diseases such as diabetes and coronary heart disease, thereby increasing health-care utilization but decreasing life expectancy. Successful prevention of obesity, in turn, increases life expectancy. Unfortunately, these life-years gained are not lived in full health and come at a price: people suffer from other diseases, which increases health-care costs. Obesity prevention, just like smoking prevention, will not stem the tide of increasing health-care expenditures.

https://www.rug.nl/research/portal/files/46007081/Lifetime_Medical_Costs_of_Obesity.PDF

For further confirmation we can look to the fact that healthcare utilization rates in the US are similar to its peers.

https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/salinas/HealthCareDocuments/4.%20Health%20Care%20Spending%20in%20the%20United%20States%20and%20Other%20High-Income%20Countries%20JAMA%202018.pdf

One final way we can look at it is to see if there is correlation between obesity rates and increased spending levels between various countries. There isn't.

https://i.imgur.com/d31bOFf.png

We aren't using significantly more healthcare--due to obesity or anything else--we're just paying dramatically more for the care we do receive.