re: WSJ: The U.K.’s Healthcare System Is in Crisis; 500 die every week due to treatment delays

The Australian system isn’t much to crow about (at least it wasn’t 20 years ago). You have your government insurance for everybody, but you could also get private insurance for the crap the government insurance didn’t cover. When I left Oz back in ‘05 more and more doctors were going private insurance only because the government was screwing them. It’s all great and honky dory for the first ten years or so when it’s fully funded, but over time as the money runs out (or is stolen), the system dies from a thousand cuts. Eventually you’re reduced to seeing Dr. Nick Rivera in a Winnebago.

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incredibly generous and affordable

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we get it Damone, you like your free stuff.

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Between the cuts and the insurance companies down tiering providers who are not in their medicaid programs I had enough and got out of private practice

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Cash only practices are still as lucrative as ever.

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Im complaining about insurance companies making decisions instead of doctors. About large companies valuing profit over peoples health.

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Then go to a doctor that isn’t retail healthcare. You’ll pay more, but you get more personal care. But at least cheaper healthcare presents the option for people who can’t afford personal healthcare to have immediate access to healthcare

In public healthcare, everyone waits weeks or months to see a doctor, days to get a hospital bed, etc. And no one has control over their quality of care - you just get whatever is available first. Good doctors aren’t rewarded for their capabilities, so they move to other countries or high potential students go to other careers

And someone always pays for your healthcare, public or private. A lot of people just want rich people to pay for their healthcare so they can buy iPhones and go out to eat and buy cars they can’t afford

Do they die suddenly?

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Luckily no one in the US ever experiences any treatment delays or loses out on any medical treatment due to our incredibly generous and affordable health insurance system.

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You guys got your Obamacare that you said was going to fix all that. What happened?

It's amazing how anytime someone points out the benefits of socialism they grab the example from a small insular predominately white european country

"Look at Finland! Their free healthcare/12 months of maternity leave/6 hour work day works great for them! Why not here??????"

It’s not in decline, it’s on track to reach the desired goal of elimination of the have nots .

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In public healthcare, everyone waits weeks or months to see a doctor, days to get a hospital bed, etc. And no one has control over their quality of care - you just get whatever is available first. Good doctors aren’t rewarded for their capabilities, so they move to other countries or high potential students go to other careers

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This is painting with such a broad brush that anyone familiar with healthcare outside America in more than one country would find asurd.

The idea of conflating the UK with, say, Canada and Switzerland and just labeling it all "Public Healthcare" vs American healthcare is absurd.

Countries are often VASTLY different in the ways in which they structure their healthcare systems(and their comparative waiting times with it). UK is actually an outlier in that they are pretty much the only truly public system from caregivers to insurance and at almost every level. Very little is privatized(though conservatives have attempted to slash budgets and privatize more and more of it with various degrees of issues). And that uniqueness is because of WWII. Where out of necessity the military took over all of healthcare due to the war effort and once the war was over the country decided that it would be impossible to unravel everything. While collectively deciding to guarantee to all their citizens birth to death comprehensive care within that system.

But most countries are some combo of private/public, some with single-payer(Canada), some with private insurers(Switzerland), some with combinations(Germany), most all deliver care through private enterprises though.

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You clearly have no idea about the state of hospitals these days. They are falling apart.

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Because government and health insurance companies (huge government lobbying influence) are in it so thick.