US for-profit healthcare system still ranks dead last


The US for-profit healthcare system is a disaster for everyone except the executives and stock-holders. Here’s yet another confirmation:

“A report out Thursday shows that the United States’ for-profit healthcare system still ranks dead last among peer nations on key metrics, including access to care and health outcomes such as life expectancy at birth.

 

“The new analysis from the Commonwealth Fund is the latest indictment of a corporate-dominated system that leaves tens of millions of people uninsured or underinsured and unable to afford life-saving medications without rationing doses or going into debt.

 

“Despite spending a lot on healthcare, the United States is not meeting one of the principal obligations of a nation: to protect the health and welfare of its residents,” the report states. “Most of the countries we compared are providing this protection, even though each can learn a good deal from its peers. The U.S., in failing this ultimate test of a successful nation, remains an outlier.”

Americans pay ca. twice as much as other industrialized nations, have more uninsured citizens and have the most avoidable deaths. And yet, Medicare Advantage, which is a rip-off for taxpayers *and* for policy-holders, now covers more than half of the Medicare-eligible population.

What do the presidential candidates have to say about this? Trump has “the concepts of a plan.” Harris supports both the ACA and private healthcare options. And VP candidate Vance wants to roll back protections for people with pre-existing conditions (formerly known as medical histories). 

 

https://www.juancole.com/2024/09/profit-healthcare-system.html

 

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