this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2026
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[–] farmgineer@nord.pub 1 points 1 minute ago

Japan is not technically correct. One is required to have healthcare coverage, but some people skirt the law and don't. We also pay at point of service, pay for prescriptions, etc. This is on top of paying for insurance (though your company may offer insurance that it pays some/all of). There are tax procedures once medical out-of-pocket reaches 100k JPY in a year and a way to reduce/eliminate further cost.

[–] MithranArkanere@lemmy.world 4 points 7 hours ago

I am amazed it's only 27 million. If they could, they would charge all 340 million Americans and all immigrants yet to nationalize, and give no service at all. Which is their obvious aim. Charge for being alive.

[–] Anivia@feddit.org 20 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

I mean, this is inaccurate, at least for Germany. Although health insurance is technically mandatory in Germany, there are over 50k citizens that are uninsured, not 0

[–] nexguy@lemmy.world 10 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

Interesting. How are they uninsured? If they go to get care are they turned away or have to pay more?

[–] Anivia@feddit.org 7 points 10 hours ago

https://www.aerzteblatt.de/archiv/menschen-ohne-krankenversicherung-ein-oft-uebersehenes-problem-0f03a705-055c-4855-9a36-d06040aef11f

It happens if people don't pay their health insurance for more than 3 months in a row, and yes, they will get turned away by doctors unless they are willing to pay their entire treatment cost out of pocket.

[–] ItsLucky@pawb.social 2 points 10 hours ago

As far as I understand it nost of these people are jobless, not on welfare and can't pay the amount of money the insurence wants them to pay. Oh and also above 25 years old or without parenta as otherwise you could get insurance over them.

[–] sanzky@lemmy.world 4 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

being honest a lot of those countries lack universal healthcare. And by universal I mean everyone, including migrants without papers.

[–] anon_8675309@lemmy.world 15 points 13 hours ago (7 children)

We subsidize Israel’s government through military. The money they save helps pay for them to have socialized healthcare.

That needs to be the message.

[–] mirshafie@europe.pub 6 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

That should not be the message. Socialized health care is cheaper by far than the premium-on-health model that you're using in the United States.

It's the same argument that Republicans have been using to extract concessions from Canada and Europe: "look at these freeloaders, they won't pay their fair share for defense (read: they don't buy enough American weapons) and they use the money for socialized health care, we ought to teach them a lesson."

The truth is that defense or foreign aid isn't in the same league as health care. You're giving Israel about 7 billion a year, and don't get me wrong - that's a lot and you should stop it. But you're spending 5.3 trillion on health care. Meanwhile, the record-setting defense budget for 2026 is 718 billion - and interestingly the vast majority of that budget is actually socialized health care! It's 441 billion going to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

With socialized health care, you could pay a lot less. And I hope you'd use the money for literally anything other than war.

[–] IronBird@lemmy.world 6 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

they get alot more from us than just military aid

loads and loads of tax breaks/special exceptions to make doing business with them more lucrative than anywhere else.

special exceptions that make it incredibly easy for them to tap into the wild west that is US financial markets etc.

[–] bold_atlas@lemmy.world 2 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Even their culture is an inferior knock-off of ours.

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[–] Atomic@sh.itjust.works 3 points 9 hours ago

I know this is a tough pill for americans to swallow. But lots of countries does not allow trans-athletes to compete in the women's class.

The international organisation for track and field, and also the IOK have already said that transathletes are not allowed to compete with women (for now).

Though I absolutely agree that US politicians are experts at exaggerating and trying to blow the smallest issue out of proportion for headlines.

And it's sad the American people are too uneducated to see through the charade.

I would laugh at the US, if it wasnt for the fact that people's lives are ruined forever on a daily basis.

[–] distal@lemmy.ml 15 points 15 hours ago (9 children)

This is not completely true the countries that have zeros have tons of people who are not covered. Take a look at the map on this website.

Even with single-payer healthcare, which is commonly considered optimal for understandable reasons, hospitals, clinics and other services may be privatised and or are subject to severe budget cuts.

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[–] Tobberone@feddit.nu 2 points 9 hours ago

Not laughing. Crying

[–] Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world 5 points 12 hours ago

Republicans for the most part don't care what anyone else thinks of them. They are full of the certain knowledge that they are the center of the universe and nothing outside that rotting circle matters.

[–] TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com 50 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

27 million with no coverage, the rest with extremely poor coverage.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 20 points 20 hours ago

also theres a "limbo" in between medicaid and decent insurance, too much income for eligible medicaid insurance and not enough for decent insurance(enough where you do pay out the behind for emergencies, surgeries and hospitals, the largest cost)

[–] 3abas@lemmy.world 12 points 19 hours ago

What? Paying a mortgage payment monthly for the privilege of having a $10,000 deductible isn't good enough?

[–] unitedwithme@lemmy.today 74 points 22 hours ago (6 children)

Go into debt?! How so?

We only spend $700+/mo ($8,400 annual) for our family of 4, with $4500 deductibles per person and a family max out of pocket of $15,000... Is that not affordable for everyone?

/s in case it wasn't abundantly clear...

[–] ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.zip 18 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (1 children)

I had a max out of network out of pocket of $5k and insurance told me after my surgery that it didn't count because they didn't have a contract with where I went. So basically they needed to be in network to count towards out of network? $28k later they said they miscalculated and I owed another $14k I told them I'm living in a different country now so try and get it and they dropped the extra amount

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 2 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

$28k later they said they miscalculated and I owed another $14k

Who did? The insurance or the healthcare provider? Cause why the fuck would the insurance company tell you that you owe them money after they didn't cover the healthcare expenses that you were paying for a plan for them to cover?

[–] ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.zip 4 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

So this is a bit of a complicated thing that I admittedly still don't fully understand and I did word it a bit wrong. I paid a bunch of money to the hospital/surgery, insurance reimbursed them, hospital reimbursed me, insurance said woopsies we reimbursed too much, the hospital paid back that amount to insurance, then the hospital asked me for money. I told insurance and the hospital tough fucking titties they better figure it out because they're not getting that money back.

I was originally told I would pay the hospital, then I would hit my out of network out of pocket max, the hospital would be reimbursed the full amount after my max, then the hospital would reimburse me. I got fucked from both sides and eventually their woopsie was my "I have enough money to fight you but nobody wants that because even if you win you have to get it from me across the world" so they folded

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 hour ago

Damn, that's fucked up. There are scams that work the exact same way. They'll write you a check then tell you to pay it back.

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[–] otter@lemmy.ca 23 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

As a Canadian, I do want to point out that it's not enough to be above the united states, considering how their bar is dropping lower and lower.

I am very thankful for our existing healthcare system, and I want to see people protect it against the american inspired groups that are trying to privatize parts of it.

There are also areas where we were originally SUPPOSED to have coverage based on the original plan decades ago (ex. pharmaceuticals, homecare, dental), but those phases never got implemented.

[–] nikt@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

As an also-Canadian I’ll chime in here to say that there are definitely people in this country without health insurance coverage. If you’re here as a non-resident, you typically don’t have government insurance and are subject to out-of-pocket billing. I believe there are about half a million people in Ontario in this situation, not sure about other provinces.

I know the OP was supposed to be rhetorical, and I agree that the American healthcare is an embarrassment — but the reality of healthcare administration is complicated, and I’m not sure dumbing it down like this is all that helpful.

[–] meat@lemmy.blahaj.zone 28 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

And how many millions more Americans effectively have no access due to poverty and high copays?

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[–] fiat_lux@lemmy.zip 18 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

I see more of the world watching in horror than I see laughing.

[–] EggInDisguise@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 21 hours ago (3 children)

Plenty are laughing and cheering at all the suffering because we "deserve it"

You see it plenty in comments here on lemmy.

[–] Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus 6 points 18 hours ago

I think about a third of the US does not actively deserve it. The rest is either actively fucking with lives in other countries or accept it as either inevitable or as "cost of doing business", with no intention to change anything. Did you know there is a national census about the percentage of people in the US who can get rekt in my view and the view of many others? It's called "presidential elections".

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[–] betanumerus@lemmy.ca 1 points 11 hours ago

These aren't any republicans, these are the rich ones with not enough imagination to think of anything but other people's sexual preferences.

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