https://www.politico.com/sponsored/2025/12/paying-the-price/?utm_source=native&utm_medium=homepage
Health care affordability in the U.S. has reached a boiling point. Over the past decade, prescription drug prices have risen exponentially — with some medications increasing by as much as 5,000 percent — far outpacing inflation, wage growth and, increasingly, the patience of the American people. As the gap between what drugs cost and what families can afford widens, Americans are turning to dangerous measures such as rationing or omitting needed prescriptions to offset costs.
One of the few advantages of being in a semi-one party state like Canada is that long-term changes can be made, as opposed to the competitive system in the US where one government will change what its opponents previously brought in.
ReplyDeleteIn Canada, health care went from nearly 100% private to 100% public over decades. Each change was gradual, enough to make a difference, not enough to cause outrage or pushback. Eventually, like the fabled boiled frog, we were 100% socialist and no one remembered it being otherwise.
If the US had wanted to, Bill Clinton should've reduced Medicare eligibility to 60 years old and raised the threshold for Medicaid by 10 000 in his first term. The Bush II should've moved it to 55 yo and up by another 10 000 in his first time. Obama and then Trump should've done the same and slowly, incrementally, large numbers of uninsured would've come into the public umbrella, relieving the problem.
I am a medical physicist (radiology, radiation oncology), with some experience in other countries. The USA has the best health care system in the world!
ReplyDeleteNo, it's really not.
DeleteYes, the US has some of the fanciest hospitals and most advanced technologies. However, on most metrics like value for money spent, access to service and affordability for people, it ranks near the bottom.
You may have the best rad onc machines in the world but many Americans will go bankrupt if they need treatment from them.