In Brazil an x-ray exam will cost you no more than 90 BRL, or less than 20 USD in todays rate. And this is out of the pocket, without insurance. If a 3rd world country can have affordable healthcare, why should having minor health complications be synonym to bankruptcy in the richest country in the world?
I live in one of the highest–priced areas of the US, and a simple x–ray exam costs about $200 whether you have insurance or not. The difference in price is primarily due to the higher cost of living here than in Brazil; the tech who takes the x–ray and the doctor who looks at it to diagnose the problem get paid more here than there. I should know; I got hit by a car last year and sprained my thumb when I hit the ground. The x–ray was to check that the thumb was only sprained, and not broken.
But if you go to a hospital to get the same thing you will pay 10× as much or more. You’ll also have to wait a lot longer, as anyone with a more serious complaint will get prioritized ahead of you. Both of these are reasons why people should not generally visit the hospital, unless they have a problem which is immediately life–threatening, or they are admitted to the hospital by their primary–care physician.
> why should having minor health complications be synonym to bankruptcy in the richest country in the world?
It’s not. For all of the problems that our health–care system may or may not have, people don’t go bankrupt because they needed an x–ray.
> I live in one of the highest–priced areas of the US, and a simple x–ray exam costs about $200 whether you have insurance or not. The difference in price is primarily due to the higher cost of living here than in Brazil
Well, most x-rays are free here in Australia I believe, thanks to Medicare, so that "higher cost of living" explanation seems not to be right.
There is no good reason the US can't bring down healthcare costs, but there are also some not so good reasons that some countries have very cheap healthcare.
Genuine question, how are you so confident that reducing prices from current levels wouldn't cause unintended consequences like causing innovation to stifle, hiring to become more difficult, or health infrastructure to degrade? You can point to other countries having lower prices, sure, but just like you said - there are plenty of reasons why other countries can be cheaper than in the US.
Because we have inefficiencies that are baked into the status quo. Insurers, for example, provide little value to health outcomes. Their purpose is purely financial, and there are much more simple ways to shift that money around that requires less administrative overhead, and allows prices to be set by better methods than threats by insurers, which is basically how they're set now.
That's a very fair point. I think transparency in pricing for medical services would help out a lot with cleaning up the insurance mess. Not that either of us have the answer, have you put in any thoughts on how to eliminate those inefficiencies?
