Yeah, I sort of thought that. But the US is such a competitive place one would have thought competition would have kept prices down. What seems to be happening is the nature of health care allows it to be a 'closed shop' so they do what they like.
FYI, I'm in Australia where we have Medicare which is a universal health care scheme† supported by government taxes. It's not perfect and could always do with more money but people here love it. Tampering with it in a negative way would be electoral suicide for a government at election time.
That said, a visit to a GP is only partly paid for by the scheme (about 2/3)—that is unless the Dr 'bulk-bills' all accounts to the scheme and many don't. Bulk-billing allows a patient to walk out of a surgery without paying anything.
That long preamble lets me lead on to something you may not be aware of although many of your countrymen would be. Some years ago the government made changes to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme—which is the drug store equivalent of Medicare where drugs are heavily subsidized—because many Americans who were visiting here used to stock up on prescription medicines and take them home because the price differential between here and the US is so great. Incidentally, COVID vaccinations are also free as they're covered by the scheme.
Previously, anyone could take a scrip to any pharmacy and have it filled without ID, now one has to have one's Medicard card with one or have its number on file and the Dr's script has to match that ID.
The pondering issue for us is why doesn't the US population rise up on mass for a better deal?
_
† Some years ago I heard an American (I think it was Michael Moore) say that Roosevelt had intended to set up a similar universal health scheme but he died before he could implement it. Is there any truth in that?
FYI, I'm in Australia where we have Medicare which is a universal health care scheme† supported by government taxes. It's not perfect and could always do with more money but people here love it. Tampering with it in a negative way would be electoral suicide for a government at election time.
That said, a visit to a GP is only partly paid for by the scheme (about 2/3)—that is unless the Dr 'bulk-bills' all accounts to the scheme and many don't. Bulk-billing allows a patient to walk out of a surgery without paying anything.
That long preamble lets me lead on to something you may not be aware of although many of your countrymen would be. Some years ago the government made changes to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme—which is the drug store equivalent of Medicare where drugs are heavily subsidized—because many Americans who were visiting here used to stock up on prescription medicines and take them home because the price differential between here and the US is so great. Incidentally, COVID vaccinations are also free as they're covered by the scheme.
Previously, anyone could take a scrip to any pharmacy and have it filled without ID, now one has to have one's Medicard card with one or have its number on file and the Dr's script has to match that ID.
The pondering issue for us is why doesn't the US population rise up on mass for a better deal?
_
† Some years ago I heard an American (I think it was Michael Moore) say that Roosevelt had intended to set up a similar universal health scheme but he died before he could implement it. Is there any truth in that?