This one’s a few days old, but I thought it was a good read.

[…] He dismissed the “idea that the American model of private insurance is uniquely evil and engaged in acts of social violence because it denies people too much treatment,” maintaining that all insurance systems, public or private, ration care.

But as I noted in the earlier FAIR article, the Commonwealth Fund (NBC, 9/19/24) found that the US system does, in fact, stand out among other peer nations, ranking “as the worst performer among 10 developed nations in critical areas of healthcare.” Those areas the US falls short in include “preventing deaths, access (mainly because of high cost) and guaranteeing quality treatment for everyone.” The rest of the world is doing better than us on these scores, contrary to Douthat.

Americans see the systems working in the rest of the world and know that the United States could have a better healthcare regime, but that corporate and government leaders simply choose not to.

Visit us @ !fediverse_vs_disinfo@lemmy.dbzer0.com for all the latest news on the topics of astroturfing, propaganda and disinformation.

  • AlecSadler@sh.itjust.works
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    17 hours ago

    I cancelled my NYT sub and wrote, among many things, that Bret Stephens article was absolute bullshit.

    On the feedback survey I received later asking if I’d come back, I repeated myself.

    They offered a discount and I said fuck off.

    I know it’s probably whatever, but I guess part of me hopes someone actually reads them.

    • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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      1 hour ago

      I cancelled and did the same, but I still haven’t received a confirmation email that they said they would send. Im curious to see if I will have to fight with them next month, it wouldn’t shock me.

    • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
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      17 hours ago

      but I guess part of me hopes someone actually reads them.

      Unfortunately, that’s incredibly unlikely these days, unless there’s a mass exodus. Everything is automated now. They don’t give two shits about the individual, or even the subscription of thousands of individuals. It has to significantly lower their revenue for them to take notice or read any feedback.

      • Saleh@feddit.org
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        13 hours ago

        Then all the better when the mass exodus does happen, someone finally reads them and we can laugh as they had the chance to know all along.

  • adarza@lemmy.ca
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    23 hours ago

    america’s system doesn’t cover everyone, and still costs twice as much per capita.

    we could literally halve our overall health care expenditures as a nation, deny fewer services, treatments and drugs, and cover more people (everyone).

    while that extra $2.4 trillion a year no longer spent on health care profits would be one helluva booster shot for the economy.

      • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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        55 minutes ago

        How is that the message you took away after reading that paragraph? Can you connect the dots for me?

      • RvTV95XBeo@sh.itjust.works
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        19 hours ago

        Are you not paying for it with your labor now? Do you think your employer is covering the cost out of the kindness of their heart? If you stop working, will they still provide coverage?

        Or am I getting wooshed on a bad joke?

        • granolabar@kbin.melroy.org
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          10 hours ago

          It was sarcasm but it was provocative and it got people talking

          Our labour is the money lol and if there is profit it means, that we are not getting our fair share. Profit ESP in context of health care like insurance IS murder unless all preventable death are avoided and best out comes achievied.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          16 hours ago

          It’s a misunderstanding purposely spread by conservatives, (no clue if this person is just misinformed or what), but they use several lies to make people think they can’t afford to get rid of the current system. They tell them they’ll pay more taxes, without mentioning that their tax increase will be less than their current premiums; which means there’s a savings there. They also tell them their employer pays for a good chunk and if we get rid of the current system that will all be on them, which isn’t true because we can tax the corporations, and the corporations will see the same savings as people do. Finally they always use numbers that include the highest coverage in the current system, to blow the total cost way up. This hides all of the efficiency savings with the government acting as the only payment negotiator for most services and getting rid of the profit motive.

          By the time Fox News is done with people they’re sure they would go bankrupt if we tried to switch systems.

          • Saleh@feddit.org
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            13 hours ago

            Also the money is usually not collected in taxes. Social securities are seperate entities and you just pay an obligatory insurance rate, which as you said would he much lower for the Americans compared to their private insurance system.

  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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    22 hours ago

    The US has the highest preventable death rate of any developed country. Those are deaths for which there is treatment but for whatever reason the treatment was not applied.

    You can not square that with, “but every system rations care!” There’s rationing and there’s starvation diets.

    • schizo@forum.uncomfortable.business
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      19 hours ago

      It’s not JUST rationing, either.

      Some of it is the HMO stupid shit we’ve let ourselves be subject to.

      As an example, I was hospitalized with heart failure. It was great: insurance paid for everything and it was all nicely taken care of.

      Except, after leaving the hospital, I had some vision issues.

      I had to go to my PCP, who sent me to an ophthalmologist, who sent me to an eye surgeon, who sent me to a neurologist, who sent me back to the ophthalmologist, who sent me back to the eye surgeon, who then referred me for imaging, and then scheduled and performed a surgery that fixed my shit.

      This sounds like a victory for medical science, except for one itty bitty teeny weeny little problem: it took 17 months to do that.

      Had this been something other than ‘I went cross-eyed’, and way more serious, then yes, the odds of dying in that time would probably be pretty damn high.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        18 hours ago

        Yup and that entire scheme is meant to make people drop out and not get the surgery they need.

  • Bonesince1997@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    People close to me still talk about people coming to the United States for specialized care they can’t get elsewhere, or in a timely manner. This “fact” seems to displace ANY criticism of the system. Every. Single. Time.

    • ArcticPrincess@lemmy.ml
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      13 hours ago

      In Canada, the only people I’ve heard say that sort of thing are very wealthy and can pay out of pocket for preferential treatment in America, which their wealth can’t buy them in Canada.

      That “fact” is one of the problems with US health care system, not an endorsement of it. The US gives better, faster health care to the rich (even foreigners) by neglecting others.

      Maybe you want to live in that kind of society. Not me.

    • BakerBagel@midwest.social
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      20 hours ago

      Pretty weird that none of my English family has come to America to seek medical treatment. I wonder why they would chose an NHS hospital in Manchester instead of flying to Houston for Top Quality™️ care at the Medical Center there. Very interesting how the powers that be always want to compare our healthcare system to countries with GDP half of West Virginia instead of peer states like Germany, Japan, and the UK.

      • Bonesince1997@lemmy.world
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        19 hours ago

        I hear ya. I don’t know a lot of the figures. Just that that’s what you hear people say (generally from people who have good insurance themselves mind you).

    • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
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      17 hours ago

      Sorry man, I used up all of my optimism in 2020. I’ll believe something is changing after it changes, and even then I’ll wait until it’s done, and not overthrown at 0 hour by a conservative supreme court.

      • Saleh@feddit.org
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        13 hours ago

        It took the Syrian people 14 years to free themselves from Assad. If you apply yourself you can free yourselves from predatory scammy private insurance in less time than that.

    • 𝕽𝖚𝖆𝖎𝖉𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍@midwest.social
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      21 hours ago

      They will. They’ll start saturating the news about immigrants eating cats, or about how liberals are trying to turn your kids into transvetites, or something to turn groups within the classes against each other… and it’ll work. It has before. Remember Occupy Wall Street? It started out with conservative right wingers side-by-side with lesbian feminists, and it didn’t take any effort at all before all of the infighting destroyed the movement. Since then, the blue collar vs liberal rhetoric has been amped up so much, fucking Trump got elected a second time.

      This too shall pass, and at the end, you’ll be paying premiums for no benefits because it’ll be illegal to not to.

      They mocked “Sheeple” until it was widely accepted as absurd, but Sheeple is the fundamental truth. Led as lambs to slaughter.

      • inv3r5ion@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        14 hours ago

        This is different. This is system is literally killing people. They’re not gonna be distracted by stupid shit this time. OWS people lost their houses not their lives. Healthcare people are losing their lives.

        I remember OWS, I was a part of it. My mom gets all her news from liberal MSM tv news, and despite me physically being there she believed the false TV narrative over my own. I fucking hate the media. I’ve hated them since they manufactured consent post 9/11.

        • I really hope you’re right, but I fear the only people learning from history are the powerful. They look at what happened during the French Revolution, and what success Goebbles had, and how, and which of China’s and Russia’s approaches work, and are pretty effectively executing it. Again, my most recent proof is the last presidential election (not that Kamala is some sort of leftist champion, but Democrats have been lagging in the propaganda game for decades).

          I hope you’re right, but I think you’re not. Lemmy is an echo chamber, and I like the echo, but I’m not under any illusions that it represents the majority. Luigi supporters may be noisy, but I think they’re a minority.

          • inv3r5ion@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            9 hours ago

            Lemmy is a liberal echo chamber as seen by the support for the do nothing democrats.

            They lose elections intentionally. People are fed up and don’t give a shit about government or democracy anymore. Dangerous times ahead. We’re going towards more violence.

            And our rulers are entirely responsibility for making peaceful reform impossible violence will become inevitable.

  • madthumbs@lemmy.world
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    22 hours ago

    Time to round up the conspiracy theorists and put them in FEMA camps for our safety.