A large portion of this cost is because some people don't pay, and they can run huge tabs. Meidicine is a business, and that cost has to be shifted to other patients to compensate.
In socialised systems, like Canada, physicians actually make more money because the government always pays so it's not a greed issue. The downside is that the government has limited funds, so the amount of beds, ORs, and advanced equipment is severely limited and wait lists are rediculous, ER times between 6-8 hours, chemotherapy wait lists of 8 months, surgeries 1 year + for the worst of surgeons. Alberta is the exception as they have rediculously deep pockets from oil revenue.
It's a trade off, this is a case of you get what you pay for. Free healthcare only works when the state has money to blow on quality care, I.e Texas with the Scottish Rite hospital.
You can't directly compare life expectancies with the US and places like France (which have free or near free healthcare) and conclude that it is just as good, if not better than America's. There are many confounding variables here (I.e their very short work weeks).
In socialised systems, like Canada, physicians actually make more money because the government always pays so it's not a greed issue. The downside is that the government has limited funds, so the amount of beds, ORs, and advanced equipment is severely limited and wait lists are rediculous, ER times between 6-8 hours, chemotherapy wait lists of 8 months, surgeries 1 year + for the worst of surgeons. Alberta is the exception as they have rediculously deep pockets from oil revenue.
It's a trade off, this is a case of you get what you pay for. Free healthcare only works when the state has money to blow on quality care, I.e Texas with the Scottish Rite hospital.
You can't directly compare life expectancies with the US and places like France (which have free or near free healthcare) and conclude that it is just as good, if not better than America's. There are many confounding variables here (I.e their very short work weeks).