Which country actually has the best healthcare system?

[Anonymous]

Life expectancy is a pretty crude measure of looking at health care outcomes. The US is an outlier on gun deaths, traffic deaths, drug overdoses doses and such compared to our peer nations. All of those dramatically effect life expectancy as they mostly occur to the young and have nothing to do with health care availability or cost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Life expectancy is a pretty crude measure of looking at health care outcomes. The US is an outlier on gun deaths, traffic deaths, drug overdoses doses and such compared to our peer nations. All of those dramatically effect life expectancy as they mostly occur to the young and have nothing to do with health care availability or cost.

Most life expectancy statistics are reported as median, not mean/average, so what you said about outliers is essentially irrelevant.

[Anonymous]

The answer will be a small, wealthy, heterogeneous country in northern Europe which leans towards socialism. Because it's easy to be generous when you are rich, and it's hard for humans to share with the OTHERS whether the distinction is based on color, creed, language, whatever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know other countries have Mid level providers which cuts a lot of the cost. I'll give a couple examples.
Zofran is prescription only because it can interact with some heart medications. The obvious solution is to put it behind the counter and tell the pharmacist what medications you are on, then allow only a pharmacist to sell it. But no, a doctor has to get their cut.
UTI? A medical technician can easily diagnose this. A gram stain takes two minutes. If the urine shows gram-negative rods, it's almost certainly E coli and a pharmacist can prescribe the appropriate antibiotic. But no, again, in the US a doctor has to be involved, initial the lab report and get their money.

I think this is kind of related: we recently took a trip to Spain. My daughter wasn't feeling great, so she and my wife went to a pharmacy down the street from where we were staying. She described her symptoms (nothing too serious, sore throat, headache, congestion, maybe a bit of a fever). The two women working behind the counter conferred for a second (the need to confer was mostly due to the language barrier, I think), and got her a couple of things to treat the symptoms. In and out in less than 10 minutes for not very much money. My daughter was feeling much better within the hour.

This obviously isn't serious medicine, but I can't imagine what a hassle that would have been for a foreigner traveling in the United States. Most pharmacies seem to be staffed by people who have only recently been introduced to the concept of a pharmacy. Every single interaction takes 20 minutes or more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Life expectancy is a pretty crude measure of looking at health care outcomes. The US is an outlier on gun deaths, traffic deaths, drug overdoses doses and such compared to our peer nations. All of those dramatically effect life expectancy as they mostly occur to the young and have nothing to do with health care availability or cost.

The U.S. is shitty in all kinds of other ways, so you have to assume that the U.S. healthcare system is slightly less terrible than the metrics would suggest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know other countries have Mid level providers which cuts a lot of the cost. I'll give a couple examples.
Zofran is prescription only because it can interact with some heart medications. The obvious solution is to put it behind the counter and tell the pharmacist what medications you are on, then allow only a pharmacist to sell it. But no, a doctor has to get their cut.
UTI? A medical technician can easily diagnose this. A gram stain takes two minutes. If the urine shows gram-negative rods, it's almost certainly E coli and a pharmacist can prescribe the appropriate antibiotic. But no, again, in the US a doctor has to be involved, initial the lab report and get their money.

I think this is kind of related: we recently took a trip to Spain. My daughter wasn't feeling great, so she and my wife went to a pharmacy down the street from where we were staying. She described her symptoms (nothing too serious, sore throat, headache, congestion, maybe a bit of a fever). The two women working behind the counter conferred for a second (the need to confer was mostly due to the language barrier, I think), and got her a couple of things to treat the symptoms. In and out in less than 10 minutes for not very much money. My daughter was feeling much better within the hour.

This obviously isn't serious medicine, but I can't imagine what a hassle that would have been for a foreigner traveling in the United States. Most pharmacies seem to be staffed by people who have only recently been introduced to the concept of a pharmacy. Every single interaction takes 20 minutes or more.

Similar story in a remote part of a European country but with a type 1 kid who through no fault of his own found himself without insulin. We were panicking. But it was easy as could be. The pharmacy had insulin, we didn't need a prescription, and an entire month's worth cost $35. We even got a free consult with a nearby doctor to confirm that the doses were exactly the same.

I think about all the times I've been on the phone with my insurance company and pharmacy, jumping through bureaucratic hoops to refill a supply my kid can't live without because the the doctor didn't write the exact right thing on the prescription, or god forbid kid was traveling and needed to pick up monthly supply a week early...even though the diagnosis was years ago, and the dose was the same, and he will never NOT need this medicine. Absolutely absurd, this system. Just totally nonsensical.

(All that said...thank god for the medicine. Thank god.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know other countries have Mid level providers which cuts a lot of the cost. I'll give a couple examples.
Zofran is prescription only because it can interact with some heart medications. The obvious solution is to put it behind the counter and tell the pharmacist what medications you are on, then allow only a pharmacist to sell it. But no, a doctor has to get their cut.
UTI? A medical technician can easily diagnose this. A gram stain takes two minutes. If the urine shows gram-negative rods, it's almost certainly E coli and a pharmacist can prescribe the appropriate antibiotic. But no, again, in the US a doctor has to be involved, initial the lab report and get their money.

I think this is kind of related: we recently took a trip to Spain. My daughter wasn't feeling great, so she and my wife went to a pharmacy down the street from where we were staying. She described her symptoms (nothing too serious, sore throat, headache, congestion, maybe a bit of a fever). The two women working behind the counter conferred for a second (the need to confer was mostly due to the language barrier, I think), and got her a couple of things to treat the symptoms. In and out in less than 10 minutes for not very much money. My daughter was feeling much better within the hour.

This obviously isn't serious medicine, but I can't imagine what a hassle that would have been for a foreigner traveling in the United States. Most pharmacies seem to be staffed by people who have only recently been introduced to the concept of a pharmacy. Every single interaction takes 20 minutes or more.

Similar story in a remote part of a European country but with a type 1 kid who through no fault of his own found himself without insulin. We were panicking. But it was easy as could be. The pharmacy had insulin, we didn't need a prescription, and an entire month's worth cost $35. We even got a free consult with a nearby doctor to confirm that the doses were exactly the same.

I think about all the times I've been on the phone with my insurance company and pharmacy, jumping through bureaucratic hoops to refill a supply my kid can't live without because the the doctor didn't write the exact right thing on the prescription, or god forbid kid was traveling and needed to pick up monthly supply a week early...even though the diagnosis was years ago, and the dose was the same, and he will never NOT need this medicine. Absolutely absurd, this system. Just totally nonsensical.

(All that said...thank god for the medicine. Thank god.)

That's an even better example of how much easier things can be!

[Anonymous]

I don't think there's a single, definitive answer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think there's a single, definitive answer

This. Different approaches make different trade-offs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate these conversations that are I’ll informed and myopic. I loved in the UK for years and worked in the healthcare sector. The NHS is great for acute care. It is horrible for

Preventative care (there is not such thing as the annual physical there that we all get for free with most health insurance in the US, and women do not get annual Pap smears via NHS until the age of 25).

Also horrible for elective surgeries. Think rotator cuff, hip transplant, ent surgery. In the US these surgeries can be scheduled in 4-6 weeks. I’m the UK these are delayed by YEARS.

Also horrible for innovative medical treatments. I literally had a doctor tell me to get a specific treatment when I visited the US again bc the UK is not advanced and the treatment would not make it to the Uk for another 5 years.

Also - yes we have to pay for healthcare through deductibles copay and employee portion of healthcare premiums. But the Uk and most other Europe countries have a 40% TAX RATE. So if they think they aren’t paying for insurance they are deaf dumb and blind to the actual mechanisms of how the NHS (which is going bankrupt btw Google it) is funded.

I wish more people understood the delay in non emergent care that happens in these countries with “free” healthcare. The delayed by YEARS thing you mentioned is real and is very frustrating for people living it. My friend lives in Canada and needed knee surgery. Since it wasn’t an “emergency” he waited 2 years for his name to come up for it. Yes it was free-but it’s really a different system for healthcare and it’s not without issue.

[Anonymous]

Africa.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate these conversations that are I’ll informed and myopic. I loved in the UK for years and worked in the healthcare sector. The NHS is great for acute care. It is horrible for

Preventative care (there is not such thing as the annual physical there that we all get for free with most health insurance in the US, and women do not get annual Pap smears via NHS until the age of 25).

Also horrible for elective surgeries. Think rotator cuff, hip transplant, ent surgery. In the US these surgeries can be scheduled in 4-6 weeks. I’m the UK these are delayed by YEARS.

Also horrible for innovative medical treatments. I literally had a doctor tell me to get a specific treatment when I visited the US again bc the UK is not advanced and the treatment would not make it to the Uk for another 5 years.

Also - yes we have to pay for healthcare through deductibles copay and employee portion of healthcare premiums. But the Uk and most other Europe countries have a 40% TAX RATE. So if they think they aren’t paying for insurance they are deaf dumb and blind to the actual mechanisms of how the NHS (which is going bankrupt btw Google it) is funded.

I wish more people understood the delay in non emergent care that happens in these countries with “free” healthcare. The delayed by YEARS thing you mentioned is real and is very frustrating for people living it. My friend lives in Canada and needed knee surgery. Since it wasn’t an “emergency” he waited 2 years for his name to come up for it. Yes it was free-but it’s really a different system for healthcare and it’s not without issue.

No one making a median income from other countries would ever willingly trade their system to replace it with what Americans have.

[Anonymous]

Americans have sickcare, not healthcare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Americans have sickcare, not healthcare.

We have both. However, most don't bother with the healthcare aspect until they are sick. "Why would I go to the doctor unless I am sick? He might try to hook me on chemicals."

[Anonymous]

What med school training is there to educate physicians on how to maintain maximum health? Let’s start with nutrition.
1. What is being taught as a basic requirement?
2. How many nutritional courses are required?