this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2023
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You can become a doctor of anything useless to society. It's expensive to become a doctor of medicine in the USA. The system is broken. Where I live, these practitioners make much less and their education was paid for by the state. Their salaries are much lower.
The state is you. You're paying for their education either way, either through exorbitant salary or higher tax burden.
Yes, but their salary is lower because they have no loans to repay and they don't bill insurance companies. You see, there are three things missing here that exist in the United States that artificially make the salary higher: 1) universal corporate health care 2) student loans 3) university tuition and fees. My taxes pay for the doctors' education. When they graduate and get a job, my taxes pay their salary. My taxes also pay for all things related to health care. The result? It's all cheaper, including doctors' salaries. I don't have to pay a dime if I go to the doctor when I have a health problem. It isn't magic. It makes sense. Remove private corporations from the scene and the cost is lower. Also, make higher education available to everyone who is intellectually capable and the cost is lower. Oh yeah, where I live, you can't become a doctor just because your mom and dad have lots of money. You have to take a state-approved exam when you graduate from high school. If you score high enough you can study to become a doctor. There's a cut-off score. And this is why doctors travel from this country to the USA to work. They take advantage of the ridiculously high salary and have no student loan debt to pay back.
You do pay to go to the doctor; you simply pay in advance through taxes. Their salaries are lower partly because you paid for their education. And depending on your country your taxes may also be paying for their office space, their equipment, their retirement pensions, etc. In the end you pay for everything, whether directly or indirectly.
You keep on saying my taxes pay for health care. You keep on saying it as if I didn't know that already. When I said, "I don't have to pay a dime if I go to the doctor" I was talking about paying the doctor directly when I visit the doctor. I know it's more expensive that way than paying taxes and receiving healthcare that is universal because I'm from the United States. I had a full-time job with benefits. My employer put some money towards my health insurance and I had to contribute some money towards my health insurance, which was thousands per year. When I went to the doctor, I had to make a copayment. After my doctor's visit, I had to pay for whatever the greedy insurance company wouldn't cover. That shit got sooooooooooooooooooooo expensive. Now I live in Spain. I pay my taxes, yes. What I pay in taxes per year is far less than what I paid for healthcare in the United States and, there's a bonus: my taxes not only pay for healthcare, they pay for all kinds of fabulous public services I can use that are excellent. Another bonus: Spain offers healthcare that is superior to healthcare generally provided in the United States. In fact, Spain's healthcare system is ranked as one of the best in the world. It's one of the best, and it's so inexpensive because it's public and open. Don't get me started on medicine. Guess what I pay at the pharmacy for my prescriptions? At most, 30 cents. At least, nothing. And yeah, my taxes cover that. My taxes are far less money than what I had to spend on medicine in the United States even with insurance. So, I don't know, dude (or dudette). In my mind, you're just being argumentative because you're bored. You go ahead and pay out the butt hole for your healthcare. I'll just pay my tiny amount of taxes and get superior healthcare.
Let’s not pretend that me paying $500 two weeks ago for a CT scan which showed a small lesion in my pancreas, then $600 this week for an MRI which was inconclusive due to motion artifacts, with another $500 CT scan recommended in 6 months, all while I pay $550 per month for corporate insurance that then tells me I must pay a minimum of $7000 out of pocket (my $1200 deductible doesn’t apply to these procedures for some strange reason)(equivalent to about 1/6 to 1/7 of my annual wages) before they will pay their share, which also resets annually, while still being expected to pay around $1100 a month for housing, $300 every two weeks for groceries and $650 a month for car note, $240 for car insurance, and all this after I also put taxes that apparently are only useful for either bombing other nations, sending bombs to other nations, or purchasing ammunition for shooting black and brown people when they sneeze wrong (I do support Ukraine’s defensive War and retaking their stolen land) is in any way preferable.
Do not pretend that the American system is in any way feasible or preferable. It’s simply designed to funnel money from us poors to the wealthy.