Macron wins

Exacto-mundo. A lot of things Canadians are exceedingly proud of are of this kind. Except Tim Hortons', which is a truly mediocre donut shop and reasons for pride are completely divorced from reality.

 

Oh yeah. Canada is a bargain-basement version of US; yet, for an international student, I'd suggest Canada. Postgraduation work permit and Canadian Experience Class immigration stream are too good to pass up, and US benefits are not worth the pain of going through US immigration system. For most people; do not forget that US system is a set of programs not everyone qualifies from. It would be stupid to tell some young kid to "get in line" behind me; he doesn't qualify for the 2nd Priority GC with special recruitment process (for university faculty).

 

Must I always have a point? In this case, I was saying Senator Sanders embrace of Canada's nationalized medicine did not impress me, as he apparently also embraced the Evil Empire. What is your point? Are you suggesting President Trump is some sort of Manchurian Candidate? Around the same timeframe Mick Jagger was having his way with Canada's First lady.

 

You said it.

 

Excuse me. We don't speak that way about the spouse of the prime minister.

 

Laughing at you, as did President Trump. It's all fun and games when people are ridiculing the United States and former President Trump. Here the FACT is - allegations of a little fling we're widely reported.

 

I'm not an expert on churches but I can attest that some are beacons of light, providing shelter, food, clothes and education, assisting with finding work, rehab and counseling. Full of spirit.
I used to live near such church and support it in number of ways. Need to do more.
No the preacher is not flying his own jet. and also when I lived in LA - the missions did very similar work.

Lets not judge the US churches. There are different types and some are doing more then others.
Even when it all started the 7 churches / communities in Asia Minor were criticized.
Your critique is positive.

Keep in mind US is huge, and in some states its much easier to survive and have good quality of life.
Many relocate in quest for what their Pursuit of happiness takes or survival needs are.

As to national health care for US - if applied correctly its long overdue - It can coexist with the private and hybrid etc.
No model is perfect.

 

I am no expert on health care policy but I am currently the beneficiary of universal, mandatory, single-payer health insurance even though I am an American citizen living in New Mexico. Medicare of course. What I can't understand about Medicare is that the program insures (almost without limit) the highest risk, most expensive demographic. Old folks like me. Why do this? Why not extend the program to cover all Americans and direct the stream of insurance premiums employers and individuals pay into that single program fund? I suppose there are reasons but other than the fact that it would put highly profitable insurers out of business I have no idea what those reasons might be.

 

Ewww, Canadian passive-aggressive self-righteousness. Worth reading if you want to learn some of the things wrong with Canadians (even though the factual core is sound: in the Canadian system the ceremonial role of "First Lady" is done by other people).

 

No biggie, right? You just made my point.

OR, far more likely, the financial-medical oligopoly would find another way to fleece the customer. Which can be prevented, of course - by strict regulation; fixing other problems would extend these products to everyone - birthing a universal coverage system in a different way. I can very much live with that, though wouldn't it be more efficient to set up state-based single payers and be done with it? By extending Medicare, as Judge Nosborne suggests above?

 

That is a good question. The way the government does Medicare now is that it contracts with private insurers to offer HMO and PPO type "Medicare Advantage" managed care plans to patients. I can't do this because I am (stupidly) not retired yet and am therefore covered by an expensive and inferior HMO sponsored by my State government employer. Medicare doesn't let me abandon that plan because they don't want employers in general to shuffle off their older employees onto Medicare. But when I finally retire (in about eight months) I will move onto a Medicare PPO plan that will do a number of things for me that my current plan does not and at a cost several hundred dollars a month less than I'm paying now. (Yes, I am chewing my necktie out of rage and frustration.) So there is a competitive market for providing services even in the Medicate environment. Does it work or how well? I don't know.

 

Economists would disagree on whether a genuinely competitive market in, specifically, healthcare is even possible. For one, there's a pretty extreme information asymmetry here. More immediately, current capitalist players in the industry are used to monopolistic rents and will not go without a fight.

Ultimately though, what I want is universal coverage; single payer is just the simplest of the options. I'll certainly settle for a system with more private participation. I'm pretty sure that it will be achieved with lots of government regulations and will have a lot of features for a dogmatic libertarian to continue whining about.

 

This would require a significant hike in Medicare taxes, a tough sell. Bernie tried to do that in 2016, arguing that while your costs would go up, your benefits would go up even higher. I'm no Bernie Bro, but he was right. And no one listened.

 

Would they? Medicare overhead costs are far lower than those experienced in the private sector. Something to do with profit margins, stock prices, and the like I'm sure.

 

If you're very, very lucky, you can get on Medicaid. Depending on the state, you might not be admitted even if you were literally on the street. Also (again, depending on the state), Medicaid often doesn't cover very much. If you happen to need an expensive prescription to keep you alive... good luck with that. GoodRx can actually be cheaper when it comes to prescription coverage.

 

I'm a Hillary stan and despise Bernie. But yeah, this particular assessment of his is spot on.
Someone needs to start characterizing private insurance premiums (on employer and employee side) as "tax". Not like these are optional. I suspect US workers pay the highest healthcare "tax" in the world and get mediocre service in return. So much for "market" "efficiency".

 

That's it, at least the primary reason.

I'm long time retired. So, if you start running out of neckties before you retire let me know. I have a bunch and I never use them.

 

quote:
Health spending per person in the U.S. was $11,945 in 2020, which was over $4,000 more expensive than any other high-income nation. The average amount spent on health per person in comparable countries ($5,736) is roughly half that of the U.S.

How does health spending in the U.S. compare to other countries?
https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-spending-u-s-compare-countries-2/#:~:text=Health%20spending%20per%20person%20in,half%20that%20of%20the%20U.S.

We spend twice what most other comparable countries spend yet our results are pathetic here in the USA! How can any sane individual defend such a horrible system? The only way is from a purely selfish perspective? For example, my dear departed sister's (a Sarah Palin fanatic and would have adored Trump) response to me was she made career decisions based on getting the best healthcare coverage she could, others should do the same. Which seems pretty similar to Charles Fout's response, is it not?