Why is universal healthcare praised for being cheap despite taxes for said countries being significantly higher and thus the true medical cost being either as expensive or more than the US?
OK, Daniel Micheals lets do a comparison. You studied in Florida but do not list your home state so we will calculate your taxes based on there. I am in Alberta. 100,000 income for both. we could complicate this, I am married, you probably are too. Maybe kids,etc. Lets keep is simple though. Straight taxes only, no deductions.
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Florida is a low tax state so your take home is $76,941. Pretty good.
Alberta is a low tax province so my take home is $73,083.
Woo Hoo! You win. You have $4,000 (rounded up) more that I do.
But you have your contributions to your health insurance, right? How much is that? Your employer pays some of that, I am sure. Of course, you worked for that money as much as you worked for the money taken off in taxes.
According to this site: Find Affordable Health Insurance in Florida the average health insurance cost for a single person in Florida was $395 per month. A family, of course, is more. So that $4,000 is kind of gone already. In my case, that was already paid in my income taxes. I pay more in taxes and I get more for my taxes.
Now, lets compare deductibles. In Florida, the average deductible is about $4,500 and in Alberta, it is, let me add this up… right Zero.
How about CO-pays. You have them, I do not. Extra billings, same story.
You pay more than I do.
Your premise is inaccurate.
The total cost per person by country is everything that anyone spends on healthcare, government insurance, private insurance, personal outlay.
In the USA, you pay about 40% more than in Canada. Why?
1. None of the government insurance systems has to make a profit. Your health insurance premiums have about 15% pulled right off the top for profit before you see one penny’s worth of medical treatment.
2. Your health insurance company has a bunch of people to check to see if you are covered. a whole department’s worth. In Canada, they check at the doctor’s office to see if you have a health card. That means that anything except for vanity cosmetic surgery is covered, every time.
3. Your health insurance company has a bunch of lawyers to fight the lawsuits when they turn you down. If they never turn you down, there are no lawsuits so no lawyers needed.
4. In Canada, there are 13 health insurance systems (provincial or territorial). In California, about the same population, there are over 50. That means that there are 4 times as many Presidents, CEOs, boards, etc.
5. Your doctor works for several health insurance systems. He has a separate billing system for each. My doctor in Illinois had three full timers and a part time billing clerk. My doctor in Edmonton has one billing system and one billing clerk who is also the receptionist.
You pay more but you end up with more children dying (High childhood mortality), more women dying (high prenatal mortality) and people just dying earlier (lower expected lifespan) than any other first world country.