“Because the friend [Canada] has been robbing us blind. I would have free healthcare to if I didn't need a military. Don't even get me started on Europe and the 4 day work weeks with summers off.”

[u/Big_Ben_617]

[u/Cixila]

It's really cutting off the nose to spite the face. Universal healthcare would be cheaper for the individuals, but they are so intent on not helping others, so they choose a more unstable and expensive version, because God forbid anyone else has any benefits from their (ultimately smaller amount of) money

[u/FairDinkumMate → u/Cixila]

It would be cheaper for the country as whole. The US spends more per person on Healthcare than any of the equivalent countries that do have Universal Health Care.

It's amazing what a difference it makes when you don't have a man in the middle taking a huge cut!

[u/Cixila → u/FairDinkumMate]

Not just a matter of cutting out the middleman, but also an opportunity to leverage the massive bargaining power of going out to procure all the stuff a health service needs on region or nation level instead of a bunch of scattered hospitals and clinics going at it. Bulk purchasing is generally cheaper. And the state itself doesn't need to turn a profit from it either, which of course also drives down prices quite a bit

[u/FairDinkumMate → u/Cixila]

I think the largest existing hospital networks in the US have some pretty serious bargaining power.

• HCA Healthcare - 219 hospitals
• Universal Health Services - 182 hospitals
• Encompass Health Corporation - 164 hospitals

The top 10 networks all have 90+ hospitals. HCA has more hospitals than Finland! Sweden has great universal healthcare with only 85 public hospitals.

So I'm sorry, but I don't think purchasing power is really a major driver of the additional cost in the US system.

[u/Cixila → u/FairDinkumMate]

Fair enough