An economics, investment, trading and policy blog with a focus on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). We seek the truth, avoid the mainstream and are virulently anti-neoliberalism.
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Friday, March 31, 2017
Ed Dolan — Universal Healthcare Access is Coming. Stop Fighting It and Start Figuring Out How to Make It Work.
Fairly detailed analysis of the issues involved in a transition to universal access to health care in the US.
I left this comment at Ed's site, now at yours: An angiogram (x-ray of vein or artery) costs $35 in Canada and $931 in U.S. My hip surgery cost $40,000 on average in the U.S. in 2012, to me it cost $67,000 in 2016, but in England and France it costs $11,000 or $12,000. An MRI in Japan $161, in U.S. $1,700. The first figures come from a comparative insurance report, International Federation of Health Plans, and last from book Reinventing American Health Care, E. Emmanuel. The Fed report Economic Well-Being of U.S. households shows 42% of households -- that is almost half? -- are paying down a medical health expense, and 25% incurred one in the last year, median cost $1,200, average $2,400. They also report that 44% cannot pay an emergency $400 expense in 30 days. And lastly the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) from USCensus, shows that 11 million households were dragged below the poverty level by MOOP medical out-of-pocket expenses. In 2015, the poverty rate would drop from14.3% to 10.8% without MOOP, but these high costs affect everyone. I wrote an essay at http://benL8.blogspot.com, my blog, Economics Without Greed. E.Emmanuel's book also predicts a drastic change in insurance companies. I am beginning to read The American Health Care Paracox, Bradley and Taylor, and they show that when social service spending is added to HC costs, the U.S. is about average in OECD countries. But England seems to get the best: it ranked #1 in citizen satisfaction (Commonwealth Fund) and spends the least on HC, is high in social services, and it is government owned and operated (socialized). A friend who had a child in the U.S. and another in Sweden says that follow up care in Sweden is common and prevented an eye disease with her two year old. Something that would have been lost in the U.S. Our system has unconscionable expenses ($67,000 for a hip replacement and so on). The Sanders' plan might also increase worker paychecks as the employer may transfer some of the medical health expense into the salaries of employees, says the Citizens for Tax Justice report. So, I've done some home work. But there much more to do, and it's tedious.
I left this comment at Ed's site, now at yours: An angiogram (x-ray of vein or artery) costs $35 in Canada and $931 in U.S. My hip surgery cost $40,000 on average in the U.S. in 2012, to me it cost $67,000 in 2016, but in England and France it costs $11,000 or $12,000. An MRI in Japan $161, in U.S. $1,700. The first figures come from a comparative insurance report, International Federation of Health Plans, and last from book Reinventing American Health Care, E. Emmanuel. The Fed report Economic Well-Being of U.S. households shows 42% of households -- that is almost half? -- are paying down a medical health expense, and 25% incurred one in the last year, median cost $1,200, average $2,400. They also report that 44% cannot pay an emergency $400 expense in 30 days. And lastly the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) from USCensus, shows that 11 million households were dragged below the poverty level by MOOP medical out-of-pocket expenses. In 2015, the poverty rate would drop from14.3% to 10.8% without MOOP, but these high costs affect everyone. I wrote an essay at http://benL8.blogspot.com, my blog, Economics Without Greed. E.Emmanuel's book also predicts a drastic change in insurance companies. I am beginning to read The American Health Care Paracox, Bradley and Taylor, and they show that when social service spending is added to HC costs, the U.S. is about average in OECD countries. But England seems to get the best: it ranked #1 in citizen satisfaction (Commonwealth Fund) and spends the least on HC, is high in social services, and it is government owned and operated (socialized). A friend who had a child in the U.S. and another in Sweden says that follow up care in Sweden is common and prevented an eye disease with her two year old. Something that would have been lost in the U.S. Our system has unconscionable expenses ($67,000 for a hip replacement and so on). The Sanders' plan might also increase worker paychecks as the employer may transfer some of the medical health expense into the salaries of employees, says the Citizens for Tax Justice report. So, I've done some home work. But there much more to do, and it's tedious.
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