1677
Big one (lemmy.world)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] 100_percent_a_bot@lemmy.world 12 points 7 months ago

Isn't the military like 3% of the gdp and Healthcare somewhere around 20% in the US?

[-] Pipoca@lemmy.world 25 points 7 months ago

Keep in mind, 80% of that is private spending on insurance premiums and out of pocket expenses.

Americans spend a lot on mediocre healthcare because we have to line the pockets of insurance companies and drug companies.

[-] Aux@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago

It's funny how Germany also has private medicine, but none of US issues...

[-] Redfugee@lemmy.world 5 points 7 months ago

Germany has a public option that is the basic insurance. The private insurance is something you can opt into if you wish to forego the public option.

[-] Aux@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago

Insurance and medicine are two different things. There are no public medical services in Germany, all practices and all doctors are private.

[-] Redfugee@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago

Maybe the issue isn't private medicine. Like you said, both have private medicine but Germany doesn't have the same issues as the US. One difference is public insurance. I know there is Medicare, but that's only for older folks.

[-] Aux@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago

The difference, from what I can see across the pond, is that the medical industry in the US is a government supported cartel. No one can get into the industry to create competition and existing players can do whatever they want. The US government created a lot of regulations to prevent anyone joining the industry and completely deregulated day to day operations for established players.

[-] Redfugee@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago

Do you have do any examples of these regulations that exist in the US but not in Germany or other countries with better access to healthcare?

In terms of insurance, are you saying that Germany actually has more competition in that space compared to on the US side?

Competition can help lower prices with things like collective bargaining. It's the reason that Canada pays less for drugs, because they can negotiate prices on behalf of the whole country. However, the US has more competition and several private insurance companies, each are only able to negotiate on behalf of their relatively small groups and thus are not able to negotiate as good of prices.

Many countries outside of the US provide better access to healthcare for less and I'm not convinced it is because those systems have better competition in the ways you are suggesting, but I'd be happy to learn more.

[-] TheMongoose@kbin.social 18 points 7 months ago

And yet you'll still go into debt forever to pay for your own healthcare.

But at least basically anyone can own a gun, so yay freedom, I guess.

[-] Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Id lump benefits for veterans as part of the military.

[-] Enkrod@feddit.de 4 points 7 months ago

As well as the expenses of WIC for military families, since they don't get paid enough.

[-] AA5B@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago

You see, it’s NASA wasting our tax money 😜

[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Don't confuse government spending and GDP (like I did at first). This is the government budget, which is a fraction of the whole GDP, since taxes aren't nearly 100%.

I suspect you're both right, although it's closer to 4% of GDP IIRC.

this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2023
1677 points (97.8% liked)

Political Memes

4614 readers
2827 users here now

Welcome to politcal memes!

These are our rules:

Be civilJokes are okay, but don’t intentionally harass or disturb any member of our community. Sexism, racism and bigotry are not allowed. Good faith argumentation only. No posts discouraging people to vote or shaming people for voting.

No misinformationDon’t post any intentional misinformation. When asked by mods, provide sources for any claims you make.

Posts should be memesRandom pictures do not qualify as memes. Relevance to politics is required.

No bots, spam or self-promotionFollow instance rules, ask for your bot to be allowed on this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS