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A comment on I had a health crisis in France. Parent comment

Re:I had a health crisis in France by WaltPurvis on Sunday November 20, 2016 @01:51PM (#13000402)
> The real problem with cost in the US healthcare system is that the majority of people have a third party payer that will cover almost anything, so they don't care whether prices are remotely fair or not.

Why then are healthcare costs significantly lower in countries where everybody has "a third party payer that will cover almost anything" (i.e., the national health system)? People in these systems also "don't care whether prices are remotely fair or not"--in many cases people don't even know what the prices might be, because they aren't charged--and yet these countries spend much less than the US for health care. Why is that?

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Re:I had a health crisis in France by maxerickson on Sunday November 20, 2016 @01:56PM (#13000432)
"a third party payer that will cover almost anything" (i.e., the national health system)

National health systems make choices about what to cover. Some of them fix prices.

edit: also, I meant stuff like 'all the expenses of a visit to the ER' rather than 'cosmetic surgery'. So the people I was talking about don't have a lot of visible expenses. If we fixed prices that would work out fine, but we don't fix prices.

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