Having lived in Europe 10 years (I am from south America), it is crazy that the rest of the world doesn't follow Europe's health coverage: everybody is covered, all the time, you can be covered either by public insurance (was my case) or private. There are no preconditions. Kids get covered for almost everything up until they are 18 or 21 (don't remember), drugs for adults is only 5 euro each. No matter the cost. And it just works.
By the way, Private is cheaper when you are younger, gets more expensive when you are older. So if you choose private, under very phew circumstances you can switch to Public.
In the other side, you have the US health care which is probably one of the worst in the world. Crazy.
Isn't it universally true that if you're rich your life can be much easier? With enough wealth the actual health care system does not matter much. Neither does the country in which health care services are rendered. You just pay and get things done, and maybe even take some vacation while at it. However, given that not every one of us is rich, the point is to optimize the whole thing such that the little folk can still survive and get their health issues addressed.
No that isn't universally true. There's plenty of countries (eg Cuba) with entirely state-run healthcare systems where more money won't get you better care.
What % of the US population would you think have to pay to get that "best" care?
Would a household making $250,000 have enough to pay for that best care? That would mean 2% [1] of US household. Other comment in the thread mentioned earning "6 figures" and not being able to pay.
A health system that is affordable to 2% of the population is definitely not working.
That source is from 2008. Now (https://dqydj.com/household-income-percentile-calculator/) its at 11%. And its not a binary. Anyone making six figures (nearly half of households) should be able to easily afford the best care. I'm sure there are people with spending problems who are exceptions to this.
US health care outcomes are really not great, even if you are rich. Yes, you live longer than poor people in the US, but still do worse than Europeans, even those with lower incomes [0]. All while spending much more [1]. It's a system designed to siphon money from wherever it can (individuals, governments, companies, etc.), not to provide the best health care.
If, as someone with money, you look across systems, the US is one of the best. That's the point I'm making. There's plenty of places where all the money in the world won't buy you the quality of care you can get in the US.
Quality of care available to wealthy people is an important factor in evaluating a system. In the US, there are many millions of wealthy people who the system is great for.
At ~$250k TC I get better care than I could in any of the socialized systems. Concierge care, advanced treatments if I want/need them, out of pocket max that is easily affordable, etc
European healthcare in my experience has capacity issues.
Typically hospitals are overwhelmed by the sheer amount of patients. Waiting times for procedures are incredibly long.
Where the system kind of shines is emergency care and long term illnesses, you go in and they save your life for free.
For any other kind of treatment you are generally better off turning to the private sector in Europe. You are going to have to pay depending on the country the cost might be outrageous but typically you will get access to procedures in days vs months.
Capacity issues are dependent on country. In my country (Netherlands) is it not that bad and you can easily switch Hospitals if there are queues for certain operations (that are not urgent).
Fair everywhere I have lived the system was spread thin by personell shortages, mostly driven by long hours, bad working conditions, and austerity driven budget cuts.
This depends heavily on which EU country you are: some EU countries have great and cheap healthcare, others have shit and cheap healthcare with 6+ months of waiting time and you can't find even a personal doctor in the public system (which you are forced to pay anyway for).
I would say that maybe half dozen of countries across entire Europe have this stereotypical good quality public universal healthcare. Even Germany starts experiencing bottlenecks. God have mercy on you if you need help from doctors in Poland, Romania, or Hungary. You will wait, you will be humiliated, and you will pay a lot of money multiple times. Basically you need an assistance of healthy and capable person to guide you through the corrupted system.
> Having lived in Europe 10 years (I am from south America), it is crazy that the rest of the world doesn't follow Europe's health coverage: everybody is covered, all the time,
Stop lying. It's trivial in Europe to end up without any health insurance even as a citizen, e.g. in Poland without employment and without unemployed status (the offices make it very difficult to register and keep the unemployed status).
By the way, Private is cheaper when you are younger, gets more expensive when you are older. So if you choose private, under very phew circumstances you can switch to Public.
In the other side, you have the US health care which is probably one of the worst in the world. Crazy.