I was torn when voting for the costume. I agree that Justin’s is the scariest (shout out to my electric car and solar), but Stacey’s was the most creative! Thanks, as always, for helping to make the incomprehensible more comprehensible. Happy Halloween.
Justin, I worked in Australia yonks ago, and loved it there. I think you should alternate working on American humor with opening Americans eyes and ears to Aussie slang and proclivity to make things sound like baby talk such as, “This Chrissie, let’s put on our cozzies, go down to Bondi and open our prezzies.” Extra bonus points if you can explain rhyming slang—don’t try that while hitting the Aristotle!
Triple bonus points if you can invent new rhyming slang to explain economics and Bugs Bunny!
In all seriousness, and there’s a major journal publication in this for you. I’m surprised you haven’t already written how Bugs Bunny Americans and the American government would save if we adopted Oz’s world’s most cost-effective despite huge scale and logistical disadvantages MULTI-PAYER health care system:
The Dutch, English & Canadian systems all cheat a little by underfunding high cost specialty care as their wealthier patients with cancer brain injury etc may choose to go to the US or Germany rather than wait.
I also have some personal family experience with Germany, which also—-wait for it—-has a MULTI-PAYER universal coverage system that is far cheaper than ours.
Germany, the Netherlands and Oz far outperformed single payer UK NHS & Italy during COVID and multi-payer avoids the huge, glaringly obvious issues that Medicare is going bankrupt and will require massive benefit cuts, premium increases and/or payroll tax hikes AND it pays the most for drugs of any US system AND😱 it reports to RFK and Trump.💀
The inflated health care costs in the US are essentially a regressive wealth transfer tax from W-2 and self-employed workers who aren’t tax cheats to the insurance & Pharma execs, surgeons and specialists, hospital monopolists and major shareholders in the above (30% of whom are foreigners). They are a tax that puts what, a 20% cost disadvantage between premiums, payroll taxes and the share of income taxes paying for the higher costs of federal worker, military and Veterans Administration health care and the compounded interest on the debt that difference accounts for since 1981 in particular.
If American small businesses met with German and Australian equivalent businesses and saw what their health insurance costs were, the NFIB would be demanding a switch.
Stacey...fantastic graphics!!! Thanks.
I was torn when voting for the costume. I agree that Justin’s is the scariest (shout out to my electric car and solar), but Stacey’s was the most creative! Thanks, as always, for helping to make the incomprehensible more comprehensible. Happy Halloween.
Justin, I worked in Australia yonks ago, and loved it there. I think you should alternate working on American humor with opening Americans eyes and ears to Aussie slang and proclivity to make things sound like baby talk such as, “This Chrissie, let’s put on our cozzies, go down to Bondi and open our prezzies.” Extra bonus points if you can explain rhyming slang—don’t try that while hitting the Aristotle!
Triple bonus points if you can invent new rhyming slang to explain economics and Bugs Bunny!
In all seriousness, and there’s a major journal publication in this for you. I’m surprised you haven’t already written how Bugs Bunny Americans and the American government would save if we adopted Oz’s world’s most cost-effective despite huge scale and logistical disadvantages MULTI-PAYER health care system:
https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2024/sep/mirror-mirror-2024
And the things it has in common with the Dutch MULTI-PAYER system https://www.commonwealthfund.org/blog/2011/lessons-abroad-dutch-health-care-system-part-1
The Dutch, English & Canadian systems all cheat a little by underfunding high cost specialty care as their wealthier patients with cancer brain injury etc may choose to go to the US or Germany rather than wait.
I also have some personal family experience with Germany, which also—-wait for it—-has a MULTI-PAYER universal coverage system that is far cheaper than ours.
https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2009/dec/harnessing-health-care-markets-public-interest-insights-us
Germany, the Netherlands and Oz far outperformed single payer UK NHS & Italy during COVID and multi-payer avoids the huge, glaringly obvious issues that Medicare is going bankrupt and will require massive benefit cuts, premium increases and/or payroll tax hikes AND it pays the most for drugs of any US system AND😱 it reports to RFK and Trump.💀
The Jackpod episodes of “OnPoint” are usually good and this one discusses some of those issues:https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2026/10/26/jackpod-sanders-private-health-insurance
The inflated health care costs in the US are essentially a regressive wealth transfer tax from W-2 and self-employed workers who aren’t tax cheats to the insurance & Pharma execs, surgeons and specialists, hospital monopolists and major shareholders in the above (30% of whom are foreigners). They are a tax that puts what, a 20% cost disadvantage between premiums, payroll taxes and the share of income taxes paying for the higher costs of federal worker, military and Veterans Administration health care and the compounded interest on the debt that difference accounts for since 1981 in particular.
If American small businesses met with German and Australian equivalent businesses and saw what their health insurance costs were, the NFIB would be demanding a switch.
If you’d like to collab on this, DM me!
FYI: https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2019/oct/comparing-health-insurance-reform-options-building-on-aca-to-single-payer
W?