Medical Care in the US too expensive?

[MrDawn]

Should the U.S. greatly lower the costs on medical care? Do you think it's too expensive?

The United States has one of the highest costs of healthcare in the world. In 2021, U.S. healthcare spending reached $4.3 trillion, which averages to about $12,900 per person. By comparison, the average cost of healthcare per person in other wealthy countries is only about half as much.

Why Are Americans Paying More for Healthcare?

High healthcare spending is not necessarily a bad thing, especially if it leads to better health outcomes. However, that is not the case in the United States.

www.pgpf.org

 

[Ravenfreak]

I 100% think our health care is way too expensive. I'm not really sure if there's a way for us to ever combat this though without having to increase our taxes. Whenever there is a tax increase, of course no one is happy because that's more money out of your pocket. How else could the US make healthcare more affordable though?

 

[Katrina]

I 100% think our health care is way too expensive. I'm not really sure if there's a way for us to ever combat this though without having to increase our taxes. Whenever there is a tax increase, of course no one is happy because that's more money out of your pocket. How else could the US make healthcare more affordable though?

I agree with this. The other countries who have better healthcare pricing (or none), how much do they have to suffer with taxes?

When I had my first cat scan done, it was $3,300 before insurance and even after insurance, we had to pay about half of that because of our deductibles. Who can afford that, especially when doctors want a follow up?

 

[Uncrowned Guard]

We need to revamp our insurance system. For some ungodly reason, we made insurance mandatory so everyone has to pay the big insurance companies, but no one wants to ever bring up actually requiring insurance companies to cover medical costs. The giant list of fees and the ability for a $10/hr insurance staff member to overrule a doctor's order to say that a treatment is needed or not is insane. I know that there are small cases of doctors ordering stuff for profits and deals, but the number of times people are getting diagnosed with issues and told "you can take this new medicine or you can die", but the insurance company says "no, you don't need that" and now the person paying hundreds of dollars a month for insurance needs to choose death or going poor is criminal in my book. And of course, if they cancel that insurance that isn't covering their medicine, they get a fine.

Thankfully some of the mandatory laws have been lifted, but states are still passing these laws and it still sits at the top of the list to fix insurance somehow.

 

[Katrina]

We need to revamp our insurance system. For some ungodly reason, we made insurance mandatory so everyone has to pay the big insurance companies, but no one wants to ever bring up actually requiring insurance companies to cover medical costs. The giant list of fees and the ability for a $10/hr insurance staff member to overrule a doctor's order to say that a treatment is needed or not is insane. I know that there are small cases of doctors ordering stuff for profits and deals, but the number of times people are getting diagnosed with issues and told "you can take this new medicine or you can die", but the insurance company says "no, you don't need that" and now the person paying hundreds of dollars a month for insurance needs to choose death or going poor is criminal in my book. And of course, if they cancel that insurance that isn't covering their medicine, they get a fine.

Thankfully some of the mandatory laws have been lifted, but states are still passing these laws and it still sits at the top of the list to fix insurance somehow.

Oh I hate when insurance companies get the final say over whether you get treatment or not!! I went through that when I had my last surgery and even though it wasn't emergency, it was still needed for the quality of my life, but insurance said they needed to approve it. AND their approval process could take 6-8 weeks!! Insane.

 

[MrDawn]

, but insurance said they needed to approve it. AND their approval process could take 6-8 weeks!! Insane.

I think we should leave health insurance out of it and make health care very affordable. It's absurdly unfair and overpriced in the states.