A former US surgeon general says he went to the ER for dehydration and ended up with a $5,000 bill. He called the healthcare system 'broken.'

https://lemmy.world/post/12523946

A former US surgeon general says he went to the ER for dehydration and ended up with a $5,000 bill. He called the healthcare system 'broken.' - Lemmy.World

The “healthcare” system isn’t broken, it works perfectly.
You’re just mistaken about what its purpose is.

It’s one of the most beautiful examples of capitalism working as intended: When you’re hurting or dying, your demand for healthcare is unlimited, and you’re in no position to compare prices or services, so cost is determined by the maximum amount that can be squeezed out of you during your remaining lifetime.

To spell out the point here - healthcare isn’t the point of the healthcare industry under capitalism - profit is. Any healthcare delivered is going to be the bare minimum required to separate you from your money.

Most healthcare systems in the US are non-profits. To run a non-profit, you still need revenue to operate no matter where you are or what you do. They have to pay their own bills just like anyone else.

Bring on the downvotes. Then go ahead and take all of your local hospital’s funding and see what happens.

Edit: maybe people misunderstood my point? People are replying and saying that profit shouldn’t be part of healthcare. Yes, but that doesn’t solve the problem of funding. Every hospital gets money. Pick your favorite country, the hospital still gets money.

You aren’t the bastion of reason you imagine yourself to be. Read more, comment less.

Please.

Not for me, for the betterment of the human race.

Did you have an actual response to the fact that hospitals need funding?

The short answer is no. You may stop reading now as the next sentence is similar to the last one.

If it wasn’t clear to you, I’m busy dismissing your opinion as uninformed and without merit. It is clearly, objectively wrong, and the idea that you deserve a voice in this discussion with the level of information you own currently? Patently ridiculous.

Your sense of self worth would be admirable is it weren’t so misplaced.

It’s wrong that hospitals need money to operate? Bud, I got a master’s in this… which hospital are you aware of that doesn’t pay for electricity or pay its providers with money? Talk about patently ridiculous.
Just have the state pay for it?
Apologies in advance, my app doesn’t seem to want to show me what context this is in, so I might be off base in my reply, but yeah, that’s a good solution. The problem is that in the USA, if you raise taxes by .0001% people throw temper tantrums. They’d rather pay out the ass for private insurance. I know people on Lemmy don’t feel that way, but that’s how Americans are.