BabeintheWoods said...
For the amount of money we spend on health care, the U.S. in the world's worst. The U.S. has the world's highest health care costs, $7,290 per person each year. This uses up 16 percent of our GDP. Norway is 2nd in health costs, $4,763 per capita that requires 8.9 percent of their GDP. And what do we get for this expensive care? We rank 36th in the world for life expectancy. Where is the money going?
Unfortunately it is not that simple. There are other factors involved besides the healthcare system and how much money we spend. For example, people in Norway, in general, have a much healthier lifestyle, better diet, less obesity, get much more exercise, etc. This profoundly effects overall health and has nothing to do with their system of healthcare.
One of the many problems with Obamacare is that it contains no tort reform. Many surveys of physicians consistently show that a quarter to a third or more of healthcare expenditures are purely to protect against lawsuits. That is a colossal waste of money. In Canada, where I am from, doctors have little fear of harassment from ambulance chasers and it keeps costs way down and improves the quality of care.
Tens of millions of people will lose their employer based healthcare coverage under Obamacare and be forced into the substandard government subsidized exchanges. They will face longer waits and less choice of providers and hospitals, etc, and that is the main reason why a large majority of Americans oppose it. To put it in terms of how it will affect us U.C.'ers, I think there is little or no chance that Mayo or Cleveland clinic or other premiere providers will accept government subsidized insurance because the reimbursement rates will be too low and there will be too many strings attached.