Cost of giving birth:🇬🇧 $2.3K🇫🇷 $2.5K🇩🇪 $2.5K🇨🇦 $3.2K🇦🇺 $5.3K...🇺🇸 $10.8KInfant mortality rate (per 1K):🇦🇺 3.3🇩🇪 3.3🇫🇷 3.8🇬🇧 3.9🇨🇦 4.5...🇺🇸 5.8Maternal mortality rate (per 100K):🇦🇺 5.5🇨🇦 7.3🇫🇷 7.8🇩🇪 9🇬🇧 9.2...🇺🇸 26.4— Public Citizen (@Public_Citizen) December 2, 2019
When you remove white women, the maternal mortality rate skyrockets - including all women actually makes it look better (while still being horrific) for the US. But hey, we have "the best" health care, especially for women
True. Plus it’s the lack of prenatal care that drives both mortality rates, not the cost of delivery.
I wonder if our relatively brief maternal leave has something to do with that too. Many women work very late into their pregnancies, because they have to. Basically a different type of lack of prenatal care.
One of my husband's colleagues had to return to adjunct-ing three weeks after a f*cking c-section. Everyone is like "but we have FMLA." Here's a fun fact. Nearly half of all American workers DO NOT QUALIFY for FMLA. You must have worked for your employer for at least a year, at at least 50% time, and your employer must employ at least 50 people within 75 miles of your job site. Never mind how f*cking pathetic 12 weeks of leave is when you have a damn newborn.
You could move to the Netherlands if you can do something we need. We're hindered in economic growth by lack of people to do quality jobs.
Ok, I apologize for posting a Tweet, but the video shows how people in civilized countries react when they're told how exceptional our healthcare system is: Ambulance call out? $2,500. Childbirth? $30,000. Our NHS is not for sale, @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/q9z4r6Ni6g— PoliticsJOE (@PoliticsJOE_UK) December 3, 2019 As a disclaimer, I think that if you have decent employer provided insurance (big if), you are sheltered from most of those costs, since your insurer will pay for most of it and you will only be hit with the co-payments.
Throw in the fact that FMLA only requires unpaid leave, too. Last year, my mom was diagnosed with cancer and was going to have surgery. I looked into FMLA just for a week so I could help out where needed. Once I learned it was unpaid, I said nope and used a week of time off. Compared to most in the US, I'm lucky to have a generous amount of time off. Sooner the US addresses the workaholic and "Be grateful you work here" culture, the better.
Yeah, my European colleagues can't believe that most working Americans get 2 weeks off per year. My company is more generous with 3 to start and more after you've been here for a while, but it's much of the same reaction as the UK video above: "What?! The US is a rich country! Why can't they have "normal" [anything]?" In Belgium I got an extra month's pay deposited in my bank account at the end of the year. I went to payroll to tell them they made a mistake, but they said that it was the "13th month." An extra month's pay just for the hell of it! Plus, I got 6 weeks of vacation time, even for an entry-level job.
The FMLA doesn't provide anything, really, but republicans wouldn't go along with it. It was a BFD when Clinton signed it into law - one of the first things he did.
Possibly. There are other options, even as transition. Shorter work weeks, better pay (so you don't need a second or third job - how American), better retirement checks, more vacation time. Also, you could restrict the automation of certain jobs, even if they can completely be done by robots. We have to aim for an European style economy. Without running the numbers, I do think that increasing the minimum wage to a livable wage, and granting better retirement benefits.
Is called aginaldos in Latin America (well in Mexico), it is to help people shop for the Christian holidays at the end of the year.
In Colombia there used to be two, half a check in June and a full check in December, called Primas. We have gone the American way since the 1990s and few people get them nowadays.
Those two ideas actually complement each other, with UBI people could afford to work fewer hours and the slack could be picked up by some of those extra people. At least assuming that slack needs to be picked up, I think a lot of full time jobs could easily be accomplished in much less. Case in point, me sitting here at work posting on BigSoccer....
I don't think UBI is a good solution long term. There's a report out there that says funding existing social programs would be better. Raising wages would help, too. Though every CEO would faint at that suggestion. Every time I see the suggestion it just sounds too good to be true. Too many variables. And do not get me started on working fewer hours. That's a US cultural issue unto itself. If you know anyone who works in public accounting, you'll know they put in some stupid hours. I stopped working overtime when I realized things weren't getting done as much as I thought. There;s been studies showing that working excessive hours doesn't work, either. If I have a short day ahead, I'm more productive. If I have a full day, I stretch things out when needed.
Yeah I'm a little skeptical of how well reports can analyze UBI because it's such a radically different way of doing things that would have extremely complex effects. I do recall that recently some country (Finland maybe?) experimented with it short term and it seemed very successful, but I haven't seen much to convince me one way or the other. But one advantage to me of doing things this way is you could potentially cut a lot of social programs partially or entirely since this would be accomplishing the same goal, and thus eliminate a lot of needless bureaucracy. A little similar to a single payer healthcare system eliminating the bureaucracy of the insurance system.
And even if you keep it to the last millennium Latinos would have a heck of a time sorting things out.