Some stats

[infrogmation]

Aughts were a lost decade for U.S. economy, workers. Zero net job creation

Healthcare Spending and Life Expectancy. U.S. spends most per person but without higher life expectancy.

Comments

[jdquintette]

U.S. spends most per person but without higher life expectancy.

An actual 'fact based' healthcare debate would have been a no brainer. Simply analyze the existing systems in place in other modern industrialized nations that deliver better outcomes at lower cost to ALL of their citizens (and that's just about everybody else but us) and cherry pick the best and most efficient aspects of those systems.

Unfortnately this would involve either "excessive" regulation of the sacred Insurance Industry, or it's complete removal from the process, and this, apparently, is "politically impossible."

What's particularly frustrating for me is that I lived with a functioning, comprehensive health care system in Canada for 30 years. I received excellent care in a timely manner (including three surgeries) and I never, ever received a bill of any kind, beyond my $54 monthly premium. There were no co-pays, deductables, or caps on treatment.

That's pretty much how it works everywhere in the world but here, but apparently pulling something like that off is utterly beyond us as a nation. Instead we're expected to jump for joy about a costly, complex piece of Frankensteinian legislation that simply offers a slightly shittier version of the overpriced crap 'insurance' I'm supposed to feel 'lucky' to have through my job. I spent over $700 last month in co-pays and premiums (I had a skin lesion removed). That's almost $200 more than my YEARLY premiums in Canada.

If this is the best we can do, we're finished as a world power.