Why an MRI costs $1,080 in America and $280 in France

[OldSchoolGamer]

The reason an MRI costs $1,080 in America and $280 in France is because in France they have already paid the other 800 in taxes and furthermore, in America you get the MRI is a few days. In France you might get that MRI next month, or maybe the month after that, depending on how emergent your condition is and what some suit decides. I would rather have my healthcare, expensive as it may be, in the hands of Medical professionals, rather than government bureaucrats.

If you are insured through an HMO here in America, your healthcare is in the hands of corporate bureaucrats.  I'm not seeing where that's an improvement over government bureaucrats.

[Callie Del Noire]

If you are insured through an HMO here in America, your healthcare is in the hands of corporate bureaucrats.  I'm not seeing where that's an improvement over government bureaucrats.

Actually it worries me more.. they exist to make a profit for their company. I know of two friends who had to take their HMOs to court or call in powerful people (like senators) to fix personal issues with their heath care companies.

[Oniya]

More on the 'WTF-ness' that is the American health care system.  Apparently, Canada does an annual review of patented medicine prices.  Guess who pays the most for scrips?  Yeah, you got it.  The average US prescription is 85% higher than the same drug in Canada, and 150% higher than the same drug in France, Switzerland, Italy, and Sweden.  That's not even getting into 'cash cows' like HIV medication: 

one drug - Atripla - costs over $25,000 per person, per year, for a course of treatment, but that a generic, FDA-approved version of the very same drug is being purchased from a competitive supplier by a US government program, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), for under $200 per patient, per year, for distribution in developing countries.

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=C8D9B29A-723F-4F29-B4E1-78C61C99A35F

[Marconi Drake]

The reason an MRI costs $1,080 in America and $280 in France is because in France they have already paid the other 800 in taxes and furthermore, in America you get the MRI is a few days. In France you might get that MRI next month, or maybe the month after that, depending on how emergent your condition is and what some suit decides. I would rather have my healthcare, expensive as it may be, in the hands of Medical professionals, rather than government bureaucrats.

That's a misconception. I live in a country with socialized medicine. And it's not perfect (it's actually a long, long way from perfect.) And you're right that there are times that people have to wait a long time for non-emergency procedures. But the decision isn't in the hands of any "suit."

I had the misfortune of needing an emergency MRI not too long ago because of an injury. I was in there within an hour. Because it was my doctor's decision. She didn't have to worry about an administrator or an insurance company trying to decide if it is was medically necessary. She, the person with the training, said "this person needs in that machine now" and it was done. Bureaucrats aren't making individual medical decisions in this country. They do at insurance companies.

And while you're right that tax dollars are picking up some of the difference in cost, it's not the full $800. Medical treatment is cheaper in these countries because of 1) economies of scale and 2) governments don't need to cut themselves a healthy profit.

[RubySlippers]

I think I came up with a way around the health care mess if someones assets are to low to demonstrate a reasonable ability to repay a medical debt and are over the charity care law limit do this:

As long as the person pays at least ten dollars on the debt the debt cannot go to collections or otherwise be acted upon until that person has the reasonable ability to repay the debt. They could take a hit to their credit and that could be notified to the appropriate parties.

This could be done at the state level and be based on income verses the debt with a two year repayment as the upper limit for calulating the ability to repay so someone earning $20k a year and single with a $5k debt could repay that in two years most likely but a person earning $10k might not so would have to pay $10 a month regardless of the size of the debt.

[Caehlim]

This stuff is scary to hear about. I live in Australia and it's almost unthinkable how much Americans have to pay for their medical care.

I pay a little extra to see the doctor, because the private G.P. I like to go to doesn't have all their bills covered by the government. However out of the $60-70 bill, the government still covers $30-$40. If I wasn't willing to do that though, I could easily go to a surgery that's a bit further away which does have it set up so that the government covers the whole cost. The wait times are a bit higher at those places, but not by too much.

If I walk down to the chemist and need to purchase any sort of medicine, the price is always very low as well because they are all subsidized. This is good for me because I'm allergic to penicillin and that raises the costs of a surprising range of medicines.

What's really scary though, is that one of our major political parties seems to want to use America as their role-model in providing medical care. (The party is named the Liberals but we don't mean the same thing as Americans do when we use that word, they are our right-wing party similar to America's republicans).