Single Payer Healthcare - Effect on Medical Industry

[XenaLives]

Why America is less prepared for a pandemic than other countries

On many measures, the United States has one of the worst health systems among developed economies. A bigger share of the population lacks health insurance. We carry more medical debt. We die more often from preventable causes. The weaknesses in this system, which already puts the US behind its peers on many health outcomes, are exposed in an outbreak.

And the biggest single problem, the one most unique to the American system, is costs.

Americans face higher out-of-pocket costs for their medical care than citizens of almost any other country, and research shows people forgo care they need, including for serious conditions, because of the cost barriers. Patients here are much more likely than those in most other countries to say they had a cost-related barrier to getting medical care: 33 percent in America vs. between 7 percent (Germany) and 22 percent (Switzerland) in other developed economies. Americans are more likely to say they struggled to afford or couldn’t afford medical bills and that their insurance plan had refused to cover some of their medical claims.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/3/16/21173766/coronavirus-covid-19-us-cases-health-care-system