What Europeans think of American healthcare

[The Deadlifting Dog]

Not true. You can’t be denied care for not having insurance.

True.

A hospital has to treat you.

Also true:
The hospital gets shafted on the bill.

The government of the greatest nation on the earth has such great morals that they demand that private companies lose money so the government doesn't have to pay.

So what do the private companies do...
They are forced to raise prices on everyone else.


Healthcare should be universal in my opinion.
A private healthcare system that is paid for by the government.

We already have it for many many Americans.

Ask our local AARP members: When KelKel and Charger needed hip replacements, they went to a private doctor and Medicare paid for it.

[Fluidic Kimbo]

True.

A hospital has to treat you.

Also true:
The hospital gets shafted on the bill.

The government of the greatest nation on the earth has such great morals that they demand that private companies lose money so the government doesn't have to pay.

So what do the private companies do...
They are forced to raise prices on everyone else.

This is a non-issue in the UK & Ireland for two reasons:

(Reason 1) When a person is seriously hurt and they call 911 for an ambulance, the ambulance drives straight to the nearest public hospital. In more serious circumstances, the air ambulance (i.e. a helicopter) comes to pick them up to bring them to the biggest public hospital within about 300 miles. A public ambulance never heads to a private hospital, and I don't think the private hospitals have ambulances. But let's say someone in a mechanic's garage throws their friend in the back seat of their car... again they'd drive to a public hospital -- I've never heard of anyone driving straight to a private hospital (and I'll explain why in Reason 2).

(Reason 2) The private hospitals over here are for planned procedures, stuff like hip replacements where the entire medical team has plenty of time to prepare. If I had a car fall on me in a mechanic's garage, and if I'd lost a lot of blood and couldn't feel my feet, I'd wanna go to a big hospital with all sorts of scanners and facilities -- not a shitty little private one with one or two operating theatres.

I've never heard of a situation in the UK & Ireland where a patient shows up at a private hospital demanding treatment. I'm not sure what the doctors would do if a person showed up at a private hospital here having lost a lot of blood.