Except you’re a wage slave and your American Nightmare comes with a mortgage, your sizable interest payments are likely funding the retirement income of a boomer too (along with bankers too, they always get a cut)
90K is still 50% above the median income, not to mention the fact that you have twice as much as time available and using just a small amount of that can be used to cut costs significantly in other areas. It is more effectively a $150K income if we add in the median wage from the job you aren't doing.
This. I moved in a developing nation with a GDP smaller than most US states. I have access to excellent modern healthcare and facilities, get more than 5 minutes in front of my doctor, often 1/2 hour+, and my (nearly 60 years old) health insurance is less than 75 usd a month. Covers 90 percent plus, including mental health, limited dental, and optical. The healthcare sector is private / public hybrid, profitable, and growing. Hands down better in every way than the US state I left.
Dominican Republic. The medical tourism industry here is booming as well. The public sector facilities are not as nice, but you can get free care for the vast majority of basic things that a person needs, without worrying about a bill. Still, people that can usually use private clinics because the experience / comfort/convenience is much better.
What they do subsidize here is education. Anyone with the drive and family support to do so can become a doctor, but you have to do a rotation in the public medical facilities to maintain your licence, and all public hospitals are teaching hospitals, so your case will be observed by 10 to 15 students and a bunch of residents if it’s interesting.
The system seems to work well.
I should also clarify that 75 dollars is about a weeks wages here at minimum wage, so roughly equivalent to $400 in the us economy. That figure tracks for most cost of living expenses here, except luxury items which are typically more expensive here than in the USA.
lol no. Private health insurance in Germany is ~800-1000 for a 60 y.o. – public insurance might be cheaper, but you need to qualify for that when you move here by working as an employee when you're that old. Working permission will require you to work full time. So you'll end up working full time and pay ~600-1200 (based on your salary) in contributions.
I never said public healthcare is free for strangers. It’s rarely the case.
Most of the time if you are not a citizen you need to either work or pay taxes. In fact even if you are a citizen, you may not be covered if you live abroad.
It’s relatively easy to be covered as a stranger : in 99% of situations, if you just set up here seriously and not as a tourist, you’ll be covered. I count a 60yo who never contributed to the system or worked here as a tourist.
Yeah, I run a coffee /cacao farm that employs a few locals, but obviously I don’t qualify for the government insurance. My insurance is private/ un subsidized.
Except that through taxes, your coverage is not dependent on your contribution and your contribution depends on your revenue.
Typically you contribute nothing if you have no revenue and you are still as much covered as the next rich guy.
That’s a huge difference. It means that you can see a doctor or have an ambulance transport you to the hospital for an expensive emergency surgery for 0€ whoever you are. And for the expensive drugs you need after that ? That’s still 0€ with no paperwork.
But to be fair, I’m exaggerating. You may have a 1€ franchise when you see the doctor.
1/3 of US medical spending could be avoided by moving to an efficient single payer system.
But, a lost of ‘waste’ is diminishing returns where there’s some benefit to the procedures preformed. It’s easy to say paying 1 million for an extra week is a poor investment, until it’s you making that decision for a loved one.
Paying 1m/week is objectively a waste when you're refusing to pay 100k for a year, though. Healthcare is paid through insurance, so there's real meat to the loved one distinction - you're not actually making that decision for your loved ones in 99.9% of cases even in the US.
You pay for healthcare in -any- system, even a completely communist/socialist system. Healthcare costs resources which much be allocated to a greater or lesser extent.
Problem with the US system is WHOM do you pay. Ultimately, to a degree perhaps greater than almost any other nation - you're paying quite a lot to stock holders, both public and private, stock holders of insurance, stock holders of pharma companies, stock holders of pharmacy companies, stock holders of EMR software (private company, Epic), and I'm sure, many other for-profit companies. Hospitals tend to be the only technically not for profits in the equation, as well as healthcare groups, but even then these groups tend to operate in a for-profit manner in service of ambitions of regional growth
Even in China you’re looking at 6% of income. Of course taxes aren’t evenly distributed, but 90k means enough income to be worth taxing without the political power to offload the tax burden on others.
You’re misunderstanding what the issues with US healthcare are.
I’ve had significant medical issues in the US and received truly excellent care without significant out of pocket costs, the same is true for many of my friends and family. There’s a reason there’s significant medical tourism to the US and from the US. However on population wide measures like life expectancy you’re better off providing basic care for 100% of the population than world class care for 40%.
There’s also major underlying issues like decades of obesity and ignorance around ‘alternative medicine’, vaccines, etc.
That is a tenancy in common 2 bedroom apartment not a house. Shared ownership of a 100+ year old building with "leased" parking 2 blocks away. Not exactly the home ownership dream.
different strokes for different folks. I can't fucking stand hearing every breath of every neighbor in a 100yr old SF house and having to tiptoe at all times so as not to upset the other tenents
It's not that it's cheap here, not by any measure, but it's not nearly so dire as y'all want to claim.