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Us gdp spent on healthcare Videos

How much does the US spend on the healthcare system?

I went on the streets of Cambridge in Central and Harvard Square to find out how much people knew of our current US health care system. The following ...

No, HappyCabbie, you're not wrong on healthcare

A response to HappyCabbie's video, "Am I wrong on Healthcare for everyone? " //www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fVU6pimdFc My maths may well be wrong, ...

User Comments

whistlingdust commented on 24 Jun 2010

To give people some perspective on the American heath system, let me say this. It is not uncommon to walk into a gas station anywhere in the south, and see an old pickle jar with a note on it that reads like this, "Stacie Jones is fighting breast cancer, her family and her church are praying for her but the costs are more than they can handle. Please help in any way you can" There is a slot in the jars lid for putting money through. That is what it's like for people here. That is the reality.

Spartacusof1996 commented on 23 Jun 2010

i strongly agree with public health care in america being from Canada and hearing the amount of opposition towards it is startling it seems that some Americans are becoming to cheap that their not realizing that the main point which is to provide health care to their follow human being, because they don't want the extra tax. I understand the arguements against it, that people "should'nt" have to pay for the needs of others but it is small in comparison to helping and possibly saving someone.

PoDuck commented on 25 Jun 2010

@DLandonCole What social contract? I don't remember opting in to any such thing. I'd like to see my signature. Taxation is forced labor no matter how you look at it. I spent my labor on making the money the government is taking from me without my permission. I would call that slavery. Then we have the problem of where everyone else's desire for my money ends and my right to and need for my money begins? What if society wants free tattoos as a right? Should I be responsible to pay?

PoDuck commented on 24 Jun 2010

@DLandonCole I was talking about taking your labor to pay my expenses. I don't know where being forced to be a doctor came into this. I am not the pessimist most people are. If given the right push, most people, at least here in the US, and I would imagine most first world countries, are extremely willing to do charitable things. I think that redistribution of wealth makes people think they have less responsibility to do such things because the government will do it for them.

PoDuck commented on 24 Jun 2010

As a libertarian, I am not a big fan of forcing people to pay for other people for anything. Would it be right for the government to force you to work for me for free because I needed the money you would make to pay to remove the lump on my back? People don't equate money to work or time, but it really is. Lower taxes increase revenue and charitable giving. It's always been the case. When those tax dollars are released, I think the US would step up with charity as usual.

John Warner commented on 23 Jun 2010

The figures may be crude but they show a significant difference between charitable giving and that is ALL charitable giving and the current expenditure on health by the US federal government. There are states that have systems of health care etc. My brain was thinking that if the person want to not have their money spent on other people's health care - then presumably he is against the insurance system as while he is healthy he is paying for other people's health care.

mjhacker commented on 18 Feb 2011

@videoenthusiast23 So many things wrong with what you just said. You can't collect SS if you haven't paid into the system. The people that need the safety net have worked and given to the system already, and were deemed in need of support. You can argue that we don't need any public safety nets and corporations should run everything... but you're strawmanning people who draw SS by asserting that they just sit there and haven't done anything to deserve it.

bryantulsa commented on 23 Jun 2010

Very good points. This shows the problem with deciding something like UHC ideologically as opposed to the consequences. A single-payer system is more efficient, cheaper, and covers more people than our market-based system. If you're just looking at the results, the choice should be easy. But it runs against libertarian and conservative principles, so libertarians and conservatives defend their principles at the expense of peoples' health.

PoDuck commented on 25 Jun 2010

@DLandonCole I have no way to gauge efficiency. What do they mean by that? Unfortunately the link doesn't give us access to the data and methods used to collect it. If they are talking about monetary efficiency, I would agree, but without a very long discussion, I doubt I could get most people to understand how it's government that has caused the problem in the first place.

PoDuck commented on 25 Jun 2010

@DLandonCole If you don't pay your taxes, you go to jail. Is jail not similar enough to chains? I am not 100% anti-taxation, but I think everyone should look at taxation first as the slavery it is. Then, people hopefully wouldn't be so quick to vote so much of other people's money for themselves. We have gotten a bit off subject though with discussion about taxes.

John Warner commented on 24 Jun 2010

@DLandonCole Okay - I was wondering why you used the GDP figure - that explains it. We know that charity does not work as it failed to provide for the industrialised european countries and that is why they opted for the safety net as they remembered the 1930s and the poverty and worry over getting ill and did not want that to happen again.

David Landon Cole commented on 25 Jun 2010

@poduck2 That's why I said 'implicit'. In fairness, it wasn't a great choice of words as I don't like social contract theory. If taxes make one a slave, you need to at least recognise that there is a difference between that kind of slavery and the one with chains and whips. Ultimately, the state is an imposition. I think it's justified.

David Landon Cole commented on 24 Jun 2010

@poduck2 You need to separate taxation from employment. No-one is forced to be a doctor; doctors are not forced to work for the NHS. That is qualitatively different from taxation. I'm sure that charitable giving would increase if taxes were lowered. However, what I very much doubt is that it would increase by as much.

whistlingdust commented on 25 Jun 2010

@DLandonCole Sure, but the NHS is a hell of alot better than a gas station "Please help us" pickle jar full of quarters. Anyone that thinks the UK can't teach us a few things about health care just hasn't been paying attention. Nice video btw

David Landon Cole commented on 24 Jun 2010

@poduck2 I misunderstood. I think there is at least a quantitative difference between forced labour and taxation and probably a qualitative one as there is recompense as part of the implicit social contract. I am, I'm afraid, pessimistic.

David Landon Cole commented on 24 Jun 2010

@whistlingdust Like I said, I'm not going to pretend the NHS is perfect and there are people who don't get the expensive cancer drugs and so on, but the number is a lot less than in the States and there is at least provision for everyone.

dominictemple commented on 24 Jun 2010

Well said, the problem with many americans dislike of public healthcare seems to be, from my experiance at least, idealogical. If you remove the profit motive, and the need to have massive profits at that, than healthcare can be cheaper.

David Landon Cole commented on 24 Jun 2010

@poduck2 Then why are there so many people with woefully inadequate healthcare in the US? In any case, that doesn't challenge the efficiency point. I will put a link in the video description to a relevant article.

David Landon Cole commented on 24 Jun 2010

@bryantulsa The ideology blinds people from the fairly obvious position that UHC would be cheaper for similar or better quality. Shame that people's being healthy isn't a conservative or libertarian principle.

PoDuck commented on 24 Jun 2010

@DLandonCole I think that if people were to realize that the government isn't going to change their diapers for them, the people will voluntarily build a diaper changing service for those that need it.

David Landon Cole commented on 24 Jun 2010

@johncrwarner You don't even have to go that far back - ask anyone born before '48 in the UK what it was like. The figures above are, though, little more than guesstimates.

David Landon Cole commented on 24 Jun 2010

@johncrwarner The figures I used attempt to include state-level spending on healthcare. They do, as you say, show the scale of the gap that would need to be closed.

David Landon Cole commented on 25 Jun 2010

@poduck2 I'll try to find out, but I suspect it's £/QALY. You do have YouTube... I'd love to have the debate if you make the vids...

John Warner commented on 25 Jun 2010

@DLandonCole The 1948 NHS - is a response to the 1930s - yes - both my parents were born well before 1948 so I know a lot about that.

David Landon Cole commented on 24 Jun 2010

@dominictemple I agree. I'd also add that I don't think a federal system is the way to go - makes more sense to have state systems.

David Landon Cole commented on 24 Jun 2010

@Spartacusof1996 I would agree; it's a question of how you apportion the costs and benefits most effectively.

David Landon Cole commented on 29 Aug 2010

@JoshRobertson142 I'm afraid YT has been playing up a bit lately - I can only suggest you try again later.

David Landon Cole commented on 25 Jun 2010

@whistlingdust Thanks, and I absolutely agree. I'll take the higher taxes over the pickle jar.

dustinbowls420247 commented on 01 Sep 2011

america's heath coverage is crap unless you're rich.

rtottenc commented on 24 Jun 2010

I think you are definately on the right path here.

David Landon Cole commented on 24 Jun 2010

@rtottenc Glad you agree :)

Goddess KRING Healthcare and Green Hair USA

User Comments

AIKevorkian commented on 03 Sep 2009

Hi Shannon. You have some good points about socialised medicine. I did not know prescription drugs in Deutschland are 20 TIMES CHEAPER than here. But what do I know; I've only been in Canada, USA and Mexico. But I do believe the days of Conservative predatory Capitalism in America MUST come to an end. I'll finish this in an email, because I'm running out of room here! A.I.K

trueorbetter commented on 30 Aug 2011

Two minutes into the video, and here's what I get: you want to talk about yourself. You say that you like to talk about interesting things, and with interesting people, but you just talk about yourself. You just said you're learning to love yourself more? Cripes, that's all you need. You love yourself more than anything and anyone else. Lord, this sucks.

Mark Holman commented on 20 Jan 2010

Saw youre show you dont ever have to leave youre body, you can do that with meditation and really that will help you slow down ! Look gorgeous in green that cat is youre goddess link to art and beauty .Your voice is majick!

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johnt49 commented on 05 May 2010

did you make this video in the nuthouse

Shannon Kringen commented on 27 Mar 2010

thanks

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User Comments

Ivan David commented on 19 Jul 2011

that s only a matter of efficiency and allocative efficiency. it does not matter how much we spend our how good we are at cost containment but rather what we can do with each dollar spend. we can spend a lot and have a very efficient health care system like the nhs of uk or we can spend a lot and have a very inefficient health care system like the us one unless we talk about allocative efficiency.

dawn ralphy commented on 10 Apr 2012

could it be that a lot of their hospitals, are for profit?? Ours are non-profit. No caste- society, etc...

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