Off topic from wages thread

What other first world country runs a healthcare system like this?

Perhaps you’d prefer to have your doctor make 80-90,000 euro a year, like they do in much of europe?

Netherlands, Ireland, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria has some of the highest paid doctors in the world. Doctors in Luxembourg make even more than US doctors which is saying something. Life expectancy in most of the EU is higher than in the USA. Don’t have to choose between dying or bankruptcy in most of the EU.

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Fair statements, and mostly true, although the question of life expectancy is cultural, not entirely medical, and invalid as an index of care and availability of care. The role of behavior, choice cultural practices and ethnic influence are significant in measuring longevity. White Americans live as long or longer than most Europeans, for example, but a quick dive into demographics shows that poor white Appalachians live longer than wealthy black Americans, but less than hispanic people of all social strata.
I mention this not to start a fight but to show that this is not a binary issue, and won’t be solved by chasing a single source of blame or single source of choice. Trying to simplify that to make an apples-to-apples comparison is disingenuous.
Everything has a cost, everything has a price, and those are two wildly different things.
Also, having had a cousin who was one of the thousands killed by the NHS waiting list for rationed care (waiting for dialysis, in his case), I’m both biased and leery. I’l admit to the bias freely.

Choice. Cost. Price. Rationed care or market price competition. Everyone has preferences.

The relative merits of different country’s healthcare systems is outside the scope of TUGBOAT WAGES.

However, the type, quality, cost , of health insurance, if any, provided by tugboat owners, or unions, is an important part of total compensation.

I think the value of insurance to a tugboat Mariner can vary from about: $zero to $100 per work day.

Health Insurance often has high $5000 deductibles and 20% copays. This is not worth much to a young single healthy Mariner. High deductible and high copay insurance can be a false sense of security and an exploding time bomb for others.

Insurance isn’t worth much to mariners 65 or over because they are on Medicare.

Insurance may not be worth much to military retirees or veterans.

Insurance is not worth anything when the wife’s employer offers better insurance.

Insurance is not worth much if it is not provided 12 months per year, including during seasonal layoffs. Insurance needs to be consistent to have value.

Come on guys, let’s keep reporting tugboat wages and benefits.

We’ve only heard about a few so far. There is much more for us to learn.

Most of the discussion on gcaptain is just bs that doesn’t really benefit us. Wage and job information is by far the most useful.

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Highest paid compared to where? German doctors make significantly less than USA peers.

Does someone know how to bifurcate this thread and move the national healthcare and doctor’s wages discussion into new new topic?

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^^ @Kennebec_Captain does.

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Best way to rid a thread of off-topic posts is for the OP to flag posts they feel are off-topic.

The high pay that travelling nurses are enjoying probably will end sooner than they expect it to.