AzTeK

Here's an interesting article about a survey about healtchare systems in the USA, Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and the United Kingdom and came to the conclusion that the US does not only have the most expensive healthcare system in the world, also the most error prone of the countries tested in the survey.

I've been reading a lot about "high quality of treatment" being the justification for high prices in the US - this study pretty much states the opposite though. The US not only seems to be overpriced but also greatly overrated, in a way the price simply cannot be justified in my eyes.

U.S. Health Care Most Expensive & Most Error Prone

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Grez

I don't find that "study" very conclusive. Its basically a survey of what patients "believed" had happened. You have to understand that if a doctor looks at you wrong in the US they can be sued.

This study may be a bit better, which still states the Us as being the worst, and is from this year. France best, U.S. worst in preventable deaths - Health care - MSNBC.com

The main point in this is in preventable deaths, which should be the goal of healthcare. Those with insurance have good care, but the 47 million without insurance bring the US down, because they don't go to the doctor. This does show that there are problems with our healthcare system, but not necessarily our healthcare services. Those who pay, get good service, those who don't just don't get service on most instances.

lg11

Many Americans are not only NOT insured at all, quite a significant number is under-insured as well.

Troianii

In Austria, does anyone have a Choice?

lg11

I am privately insured additionally to the state insurance, so yes, I do.
My question is, what does it matter?

Izzibeth

Because for some reason people in the United States have a problem with being forced to pay for healthcare. Paying for school is okay, police is alright, firemen is good, roads and such get an a'okay but say "universal healthcare" and "OMG that's socialism!!!!"

For some reason many people don't understand (yet)... or maybe don't care since some people seem to consider themselves invincible... that the money they dish out for a healthcare tax could be pittance compared to the bill they get from the hospital if their (or their child's) appendix decides to burst one day (an average of $60,000.00). And it costs about $13,000.00 to have a child in a hospital nowadays in the United States. We'll go ahead and add that to the list of reasons why people are having less children. Because even giving birth will put you in the poor house.

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AzTeK

Not really. In Austria, the system builds up on a whole row of more or less independant (but public) insurance companies, whereas you can't freely choose which one you want but are sort of "assigned" to one depending on the industry you work in/where you live, etc. There are however private insurance plans that you can buy to "add on" to the public plan. Dental care, for instance, is only included to a very basic extent in the public plan (treatment for Karies, for example, but not much beyond that) - you can get private insurance to cover all of it, for instance. You can seriously beef up your insurance coverage by private means if you so wish.

It is important to point out that the Austrian system is not financed by the general taxes but that there is a percentage of your wage you pay directly towards "your" insurance company every month, so you don't really have the problem that financing of the healthcare system sort of collides with other areas such as education or the like, as could be the case in England. Employees pay 3,95% or their wage towards the healthcare insurance, while the employer contributes 3,40% of the wage he pays out to the individual. Interestingly enough, the whole contribution thing (employee + employer) caps at 3.540€ a month, which honestly doesn't make sense to me, but oh well.

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Caltex

A great deal. While one is young (Adult, and not a big risk taker), not having health care really isn't a big deal, and can be a good way to save some money. If you don't have a choice, and are forced to pay for health care, you have no freedom of choice.

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lg11

I am young. Last weekend I broke my middle finger while snowboarding. How much would I have had to pay for that in the U.S without insurance?
Everybody needs health insurance, because everybody is going to need health care at some point, even when young.

What if you are childless in the United States? Shit boy, you are paying for someone elses childs education. Id go on a riot.

AzTeK

As lg11 mentioned, which I agree with, to state that "you don't need healthcare because your young" is fallacy. It is one of the reasons why I think that it's not an all too bad idea to mandate insurance, since as you just demonstrated, there are many people who think they don't need it and when they'r lying in the hospital after a car accident and get presented the bill for it they'll only pass out again.

Also, our healthcare insurance pays for much more than just "healthcare". If, for example, you are sick for a longer amount of time (I believe anything above one week eventhough I'm not sure), the insurance steps in and pays atleast a part of your wage so the company is not burdened with having to pay for someone that's not even working.

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