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Re:When Medical Debt Collectors Decide Who Gets Arrested by ex3xu on Saturday October 19, 2019 @08:01PM (#21301473)
Ironically, North Korea has a national health service and free universal health care for all its citizens. [0]

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_North_Korea#Heal...

Re:When Medical Debt Collectors Decide Who Gets Arrested by refurb on Saturday October 19, 2019 @08:22PM (#21301558)
Yes, but not sure to many Americans would be better off with the free heath care North Korea offers.
Re:When Medical Debt Collectors Decide Who Gets Arrested by black_puppydog on Saturday October 19, 2019 @08:55PM (#21301667)
actually, maybe read the linked paragraphs. from what I understand "many Americans" have basically no access to healthcare whatsoever (think homeless people for example) so your statement might not hold as tightly as you'd like...
Re:When Medical Debt Collectors Decide Who Gets Arrested by WillPostForFood on Saturday October 19, 2019 @10:53PM (#21302076)
Pretty much anyone homeless is going be eligible for Medicaid. Problem for them is navigating the system to get care.
Re:When Medical Debt Collectors Decide Who Gets Arrested by black_puppydog on Sunday October 20, 2019 @10:31AM (#21304370)
The administrational/bureaucracy seems to generally be a problem with the US healthcare system, even for more affluent people. But for homeless people it needs to be close to zero. For moral reasons (it would and does effectively prevent them from being treated like the humans they are) but also for efficiency reasons. If there's clearly no money to be had from someone, minimize your handling losses by giving them what they legally deserve without making it a lot of work for everyone.
Re:When Medical Debt Collectors Decide Who Gets Arrested by dragonwriter on Sunday October 20, 2019 @10:40AM (#21304431)
> minimize your handling losses by giving them what they legally deserve without making it a lot of work for everyone.

The problem necessitating bureaucracy in a separate system for the poor on top of the US’s mostly-private-pay health care system is identifying who is eligible and what they legally deserve.

Re:When Medical Debt Collectors Decide Who Gets Arrested by black_puppydog on Monday October 21, 2019 @01:59AM (#21309663)
Other countries define "what they legally deserve" that pretty much as "what makes sense, medically"...
Re:When Medical Debt Collectors Decide Who Gets Arrested by dragonwriter on Monday October 21, 2019 @09:14AM (#21311866)
The part that requires bureaucracy for Medicaid is making sure the recipient is legally entitled to Medicaid at all (and, if they are, that they still don't have other insurance which should be paying ahead of Medicaid.)

That’s where having a separate system for the medically indigent in a mostly prvate-pay system becomes much more burdensome, per covered person, than a universal coverage system without private insurance.

Re:When Medical Debt Collectors Decide Who Gets Arrested by roenxi on Saturday October 19, 2019 @09:33PM (#21301796)
Propaganda from the North Koreans is worse than no evidence. We don't know what is going on there as it is absurdly unlikely that the NK government are providing honest statistics or allowing anyone to check what is happening.

Cross-country comparisons are dicey at the best of times because a whole stack of basic cultural assumptions are violated. Unless there is a thriving medical tourism trade to NK it is unlikely that any American would benefit from copying North Korea.

There is a long list of about about 150 countries that they could look to before even brushing against the idea of looking to North Korea for good ideas.