The US Health system is flawed and not value for money
The lack of free healthcare in the United States made the Coronavirus pandemic much worse than it would have otherwise been. Countries with free healthcare for their citizens have dealt with Covid-19 better.
Healthcare
USA
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The Argument
Health outcomes compared to money spent: The U.S. devotes more of its national income to healthcare relative to other OECD countries (e.g. in the UK people contribute £4,000 pa on their healthcare compared with £10,000 in the USA) [1] with hundreds of thousands Americans per year declaring bankruptcy due to health care bills. [1]
Three times the world average of this is on administrative costs. Despite the amount spent, the USA is amongst the very worst of wealthy nations on a succession of health measures including average life expectancy,[2] where the US sits with South America, well below the UK, Western Europe, NZ, Australia and Canada.[3]
The contrast with the amount spent on health makes the US even more of an outlier.[4]
Counter arguments
Premises
Rejecting the premises
References
- https://time.com/5708811/american-broken-health-care-british/
- https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/14/coronavirus-hospital-workers-present-sharply-different-pictures-of-preparedness/
- https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy
- https://ourworldindata.org/the-link-between-life-expectancy-and-health-spending-us-focus