Leaders endorse Ursula von der Leyen proposal as French president calls Vladimir Putin ‘an imperialist who seeks to rewrite history’

European leaders holding emergency talks in Brussels have agreed on a massive increase to defence spending, amid a drive to shore up support for Ukraine after Donald Trump halted US military aid and intelligence sharing.

But the show of unity was marred by Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, failing to endorse an EU statement on Ukraine pushing back against Trump’s Russia-friendly negotiating stance.

The 26 other EU leaders, including Orbán’s ally Robert Fico, the Slovakian prime minister, “firmly supported” the statement. “There can be no negotiations on Ukraine without Ukraine,” said the draft statement, a response to Trump’s attempt to sideline Europe and Kyiv.

  • scarabic@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    2 days ago

    I have only one correction and it’s a small one. The US spends more on healthcare but that spending isn’t all by the US government. Your main point still stands. The system sucks.

    More on this:

    In 2022, the United States spent an estimated $12,742 per person on healthcare — the highest healthcare costs per capita across similar countries.

    Healthcare spending is driven by utilization (the number of services used) and price (the amount charged per service). An increase in either of those factors can result in higher healthcare costs. Despite spending nearly twice as much on healthcare per capita, utilization rates in the United States do not differ significantly from other wealthy OECD countries. Prices, therefore, appear to be the main driver of the cost difference between the United States and other wealthy countries.

    There are many possible factors for why healthcare prices in the United States are higher than other countries, ranging from the consolidation of hospitals — leading to a lack of competition — to the inefficiencies and administrative waste that derive from the complexity of the U.S. healthcare system. In fact, the United States spends over $1,000 per person on administrative costs — almost five times more than the average of other wealthy countries and more than it spends on long-term healthcare.

    Source

    • Kecessa@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      21·
      2 days ago

      What you quoted doesn’t say what you think it does… That’s governmental spendings and then there’s private spendings over that.

      • scarabic@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 day ago

        No. Just scroll up and down that page I linked and you’ll see some charts are labeled “national spending” and some are labeled “federal spending.” Federal is government. National is everything: government and private. The US government is not pouring 20% of GDP into healthcare, and then on top of that there’s all private spending.

        • Kecessa@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          1·
          22 hours ago

          States + federal government account for closed to 50% of the total spendings, which is still more, per capita, than anywhere else that is paid via taxes and then the other ~50% people end up paying from their pockets either directly or via private insurance.

          https://www.cms.gov/data-research/statistics-trends-and-reports/national-health-expenditure-data/nhe-fact-sheet

          The end result is still the same, the US spends more than anywhere else per capita and what it spent only covers a minority, the rest is private insurance.

          • scarabic@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            20 hours ago

            I don’t mean to argue but… where does that link show that 50% of spending is government spending?

            What I see there is: Medicare 21% and Medicaid 18%, which sum to 39%.

            If we apply that 39% to this country comparison chart, the US goes to the bottom of the list.

            The real point here is that the US spends more for less. I just wouldn’t phrase it as “the US government” next time because, even if what you just said were correct, you’d be undercutting your point by half if you focused on the government.

            • Kecessa@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
              1·
              19 hours ago

              32% federal, 16% states, that’s 48% coming from taxes, two different government levels, still governmental.