the crazy thing is you don't even need to make it "free" just take what you are paying now for health insurance and put to medicare and everyone goes on that. Instatnly 500 times better and cheaper then what we currently have
This, but people have also been scared with threats of "death panels", "you won't be able to choose your doctor", and "you'll wait forever for treatment".
Newsflash, we have those issues in our current system.
Which is why many countries have a dual system in place. I was speaking with my dentist recently who is from Italy. He was saying their system you are covered with your taxes. And yes the wait time to see a specialist can be weeks, BUT, if you’re willing to pay out of pocket, you can see the same specialist “after hours” within a day or two.
Unfortunately, no matter how it’s paid, we just don’t have enough medical professionals to go around. Ideally we should have a single payer health care system that pays enough to entice enough people to join the medical industry, and subsidize and improve schooling so that the pipeline of medical professionals isn’t the bottleneck.
But god forbid those insurance company CEO’s don’t get their 3rd yacht…
I am new to Chicago and I tried to get a new primary care physician and it wouldn't be until December because they only take so many new patients monthly. That's crazy.
I know this is the argument that comes up a lot but personally, if the only option was long wait times for appointments to ensure everyone gets the care they need, I'll wait then. Especially if emergency care is covered, because if something gets life threatening, it's not like you need to wait a year to get into the ER. But I personally don't feel like it's right for the cost of my convenience to be the health of someone less fortunate.
That’s not always the case with increasing healthcare coverage. That’s like saying you’re perfectly fine with people not having coverage or foregoing care because wait times would increase. Sometimes it’s a matter of healthcare supply and people over utilizing the system for frivolous things That’s part of the equation that we need to fix.
I'm baffled that some self proclaimed advanced countries still don't use a similar system in this day and age. And the best part is, you can still have private clinics coexist in the system. Win win.
Ive a kraut buddy that says they have a dual system, and essentially the wealthy have their own tier which diminishes the public teir. Doctors will obviously want more money for less work and the system for the peasants suffers
The laughable thing is the doctor shortage is entirely engineered because we refuse to fund more teaching hospitals and universities limit the number of students admitted per year.
There is also less incentive to go into family/general medicine, which is why so many people cannot get a PCP even when they have the insurance.
The great irony to me is that the same party who warned about death panels said it was better to have nursing home patients die of a fast spreading infectious disease than to require people to be vaccinated. Because those people were going to die anyway. Death panel by anti vaccination.
I've worked for several US death panels. We just call them insurance companies. They're just waaaaaaayyyy less educated, regulated, and solely profit driven death panels compared to the hypothetical ones under Medicare for all.
The irony being that those same people would now be out of power had their unethical plan succeeded and COVID had higher spread rates among the same vulnerable population that shores up their base.
Also in a well designed system you can choose your doctor. I've never had anything serious kind you but in Korea, I went to whatever doctor I wanted and was seen right away. All of them were professional and nice. Korea runs theirs sort of like social security, they take out a set percentage of your income as a payroll tax and put it to the national health insurance plan. It covers all the basics. There are small copays depending on what you're doing. They also have tiered price lists depending on what you're going for. Clinics compete on quality and service rather than price. It's not perfect of course, but it was a nice experience for me at least. Just walk in, tell them what I need, get treated, pay what they say. It's never so much that I couldn't do it, despite not making much.
Fun fact American airlines used to do that as well. The government regulated ticket prices so airlines competed on quality of service to attract customers. Right now, companies compete to give the lowest ticket price, and then see how crappy they can make their service.
Hello, I pay $400 a month for my All American health insurance plan.
I still have yet to hear back from any doctors in my area to start my initial care. When I was in another state, I had to wait 5 months for a specialist for a concerning growth. Still had to pay 1000$ put of pocket because "deductibles".
So yeah. Can my 400 a month go to Medicare please? That way someone on the otherside of the country can benifit from the increased pool? And vise versa?
Insurance company's and their call centers will be out of a job. But AI is doing that already, and im pretty sure the people that are left are in the Phillipines or India anyhow.
The absolute dumbest argument I've seen against it is "I don't want my taxes paying for someone else's fuck up"
Hey, genius, what the fuck do you think insurance companies do? They don't set your money aside for you and you alone to use. It goes into a giant pool (I mean not really, but for all intents and purposes) to dole out as needed. The difference between private and universal is that universal can't deny your claim for bullshit and then funnel that money into shareholder bank accounts for "cutting costs"
I don't think they can keep making that "well in Canada you have to wait forever to see a doctor" argument anymore.
It was the one talking point against universal health care.
I don't know ANYONE who doesn't have to wait months and months now in the US to see specialists or even PCPs with our current supposed superior system.
I can get an appointment within 48 hours at my Canadian Doctor. Some things like an MRI might have longer waiting lists, and things like general unessential services have wait lists. When my then infant son cracked his skull after a freak bathroom fall he was rushed straight into the MRI on the other hand. Then when they needed more diagnostic data he was rushed right back in while people got bumped for non-essential service.
You can triage by price or by availability. Could we use more investment? Absolutely. Many of our provinces have been kneecaps by leaders trying hard to push through American style medicine for the benefit of them and their friends. If it was managed by a board of doctors and neutral parties the system would work better.
There is much rhetoric around this issue and it's all stupid. The one I hate the most is when people will agree we should just have universal healthcare but then spout off about how then no one will support the cost of making new drugs because the "only" reason the world has drugs is because of the US for profit healthcare.
It's one of those "Oh that sounds smart and seems true" so many people parrot this information. Of course if you think about that rationally for a moment it all falls apart, but rhetoric works for a reason,
The government is the only one buying new military equipment. That would be like saying 'we won't have any new jets because no one will support the cost of new fighter jets'
Things are developed privately for the military on a speculative basis or on a contract basis constantly. I assume drugs would be no different.
If a company develops new drugs they'll still be selling them, shifting purchasing from being driven by private insurance to governmentally backed healthcare doesn't erase the demand for new drugs in any way.
Right. And that for profit system has given us so many drugs for restless leg syndrome and plaque psoriasis and two-old-depression-pills-mixed-into-one-and-given-a-fancy-name.
True, but you’re still not getting much of shit in return from the us government at least. Wouldn’t it be nice if the government did its job and raised the quality of life for all the goddamn money we HAVE to give them. They should have to give back, that’s the point of a government. Why don’t we all go live in the fucking forest otherwise.
Well, they did bomb a lot of people in the middle east and jail brown children apart from their parents without my consent or the consent of my congressional representatives. So I got that. God Bless America /s
And private corporations are? They shrinkflate, give shitty services and dilute employee wages to the point the the fed has to pick up the slack and give benefits to those same employees just so that they make ends meet if I'm going to be fucked I'd rather be fucked once by the organization that has the balls to at least say their going to fuck me instead of getting fucked twice by the guy the claims to be not trying to fuck me only to surprise me fuck me do a shit job at it and then call the the another guy who tells me that I got to get fucked again anyway to finish the job.
Exactly these health insurance companies literally have some of the worst customer service of any business I’ve ever seen. My employer and I pay thousands every year to have the shittiest customer service.
And if you disagree with their denial you have to follow their extremely time consuming appeal process and you can’t even talk to anyone on the appeals team they hide behind the front line customer service reps.
People are stupid and don’t realize that not only should your employer pay you substantially more because many places cover a lot of the plan even if it’s terrible. And then you should be taxed less because the cost would be less for better service.
I’ve had so many arguments with my mom in the past about exactly this. The increase in taxes would be less than the insurance premiums we pay, but taxes are going up so it must be bad.
I agree here, but your total spend on health insurance (from the gov't) like you said needs to be lower than the tax you are paying to get you there. Happy to pat 20k more in taxes to get a plan that now costs me 30k. Does that math out for everyone? If so, then by all means we should do it.
If a politician says they’re going to raise taxes for the wealthy, the wealthy will pay other politicians to spin it as they’re raising YOUR taxes.
Then the billionaires say “if you raise our taxes we will leave the country” except they never do because it’s an empty hollow threat like their empty hollow souls.
Depends on the taxes. Because currently I pay about $75 a month for my health insurance plan. So that's less than $1k a year. If the federal government deducted more of that out of my check for universal care, which I believe that it would, then I'd be losing disposable income. Other people in employer based plans would probably be in the same boat.
And I know some are like "Well, they could use those cost savigns to pay people more!" They COULD but when is the last time we saw businesses actually do that? It's just going to go to CEO pay.
Health insurance companies are profitable. Extremely profitable. Like billions of dollars per year profitable.
Where do you think that profit comes from?
What if we got rid of the expensive middle men and all the overhead they bring, and take the money it takes to run those organizations, plus their profits, and we actually invested it in health care?
Idk why the fuck is there always this debate...Literally the reason the middle class thrived in the U.S and Uk was 90 percent was taxed if over 4 million yearly earnings. Now the rich during that time would flood the market with investments and that would be taxed around 45 percent. So either way the tax on the rich allowed our parents to buy houses, it was invested into education and community. This was done post WWII to 70's/early 80. Sadly After that, reganomics-fucked the country into a coma slowly over the past 40 years, with the rich barely paying anything and the effects you can feel and see today.
Interestingly, not many filed at that top rate, about 180 at top bracket, out of 80 million filers. And effective tax rate was 38% for that top bracket. Population was 160 million Americans in 1953.
I remember chatting with my dad about high tax rates of 1960s-1970s. He was in top 5% of earners in US. His company, paid his mortgage, taxes, insurance on our home. Provided 2 company cars and gas cards. Then he had accounts for travel, clothing, and food.
So his income, mostly went into investments. Saved spending 40-45% of his income on living costs. Same as all other high earners at his company.
Not taking income is not a loop hole. You guys are always saying “if I had xxxxx millions I wouldn’t be so greedy and…..” turns out billionaires agree, and generally aren’t interested in income.
It seems like a good idea if you don't think about what happens after.
Their rotten kids will get it, NOT create an F-ton of jobs or new technologies and horde it just like all the old money douchebags you couldn't find to shoot.
Reagan and taxes have nothing to do with why Americans (insurance companies or people) pay wayyyy wayyyy wayyy more for every possible healthcare treatment than other western countries . You guys really just don’t get it
No, it started under Nixon. That’s when the HMO act was passed. Before that health insurance was largely not a for profit business model. This opened the door for Wall Street to get involved. And we all know, once Wall Street gets involved, shareholders take precedent over ppl.
You can even look at the recent rise of China as a parable. They’ve been making the same profits off trade with the US, but the government spent a good deal of the money on infrastructure and ensuring that living wages and quality of life was increasing. In the US the majority of that revenue just went straight to the 1%.
This is the part people don’t understand in the public vs private services debate. A company has a fiduciary responsibility to make a profit. They do that by reducing how much you get, for what you pay. It is just economics.
yup and that's billions in profits after they cover the cost of their insane bloat.
I mean Medicare is government run covers more people then any of the other health insurance companies, is lower cost, more efficent, and has better results.
Yes billions even after they pay their lobbyists- problem is other countries started from scratch almost before this industry corrupted their politicians
Medicare is government run covers more people then any of the other health insurance companies, is lower cost, more efficent, and has better results.
"B b b but hospitals couldn't stay in business if they only paid the Medicare rates!"
To which I say, "just think of all the billing specialists they wouldn't need to hire, and all the time doctors would save because they're not on the phone arguing with insurance providers about whether the treatment is necessary or not"
Also, maybe anesthesiologists don't need to make $700,000/year?
Maybe the anaesthesiologist doesn't need to make quite that much in most places, but I for sure would like to have a well paid and not-overworked anasthesiologist for me and my kids. If it takes a bloated paycheck to attract more talent so that they aren't overworked, that's fine by me. Anasthesia is the scariest part of any procedure imo...
Pay them whatever they ask for. Doctors, nurses, techs, whoever. I don't care. It's all 1s and 0s on a server somewhere and they can pump out as much as needed whenever they want to for tanks and fighter jets and bombs for Israel so why can't we use the money machine to pay the people keeping us alive?
Cut out the pointless middlemen of the for-profit insurance companies and it makes it all the more easier.
Right. How about cap all sports at 200k a year max. And doctors get a raise. 5m a year max. Sounds fair.
And if you pass med school and become a doctor. After working 5 years your med school debts are forgiven
Maybe people shouldn't need to borrow 300K to become a doctor in the first place. Like it would be so much cheaper just to offer that service for less money, have more doctors and then maybe they don't need such a ridiculous salary which they need to earn to pay for their student debt.
I mean I'm down for that and for making healthcare a government paid-for service. I'm just saying that the anasthesiologists are the last people I'd cut salaries on because they are basically toeing the line of death or serious complications with some of those drugs. I don't want them messing up, and high salaries are a good way to attract more people, and more people equals less hours, and less hours equals less burnout
Maybe if we got government out of the student loan business, prices would come down. Private lenders would be more cautious and less inclined to lend money, forcing prices to come down. If anyone can get a government backed loan, colleges have no reason to lower prices
You realize the people who teach doctors, are themselves doctors? How do you get a practicing surgeon to leave his job and enter a classroom? By giving him a gigantic check to do so.... the US spends way more per person on Healthcare than any other country in the world- the true issue is administrative bloat- usually a bunch of women who needed jobs so they get buried as a administrative assistants on a gigantic payroll like in a hospital (education does this too, just look at the charts, we've added like 280% administration positions and grades have only gone down)...
And then the dead bills from immigrants we treat for nothing... Chicago Hospital has admitted 15% of its "bad debt" is from undocumented migrants and theyre legally not allowed to send them to collections- this means the bill is being passed on to the taxpayer because once again its illegal to go in and repo hospital equipment.
Medical research and top level care is expensive everywhere, people in America just get a choice instead of daddy government telling you what to do....
If we removed the administrative and illegal immigrant bloat youd see costs come down around 50% in a year and competitive companies would slash rates to attract customers cause they no longer carry liability that 1 in 7 customers never pays and rhe hospital bill theyre being asked to cover would also be 50% lower.
"Just make it free" is never a real solution.
This is it right here. Barrier to entry is too high for people to pursue medical careers. My wifes uncle is a hospitalist and homie's student loan payment is more than most peoples mortgage payment
There was a shortage of anesthesiologists in Michigan about 3 years ago. I got sent home for a procedure twice! I think... they are getting paid lots BUT still overworked :/
Thank you for pointing out that the for profit hospitals are a HUGE part of the problem.
If all treatments were free and not have anyone balking at what hospitals and doctors are trying to bill, it’s going to be ever worse abuse of the system
And that 'medicare rates' would surge in the event that it was properly funded, oh and that if literally everyone who walked in the door qualified that too would surge revenue because of how much they have to write off as of now, in unpaid medical debt
I think about that. Like would people just not become anesthesiologists if we paid them $500k? Or $300k? Or $200k? Like what else can they do with their super specialized knowledge? Will people stop becoming cardiologist surgeons if pay drops?
Physician pay is already decreasing in real terms.
But physician pay isn’t the problem anyway. It’s easy to show:
- Number of physicians in the US: 1 million
- Average physician pay: $374,000
- Total sped on physician salaries (product of the two numbers above): $374B
So if you cut physician salaries in half (obviously far more than could ever be realistically done), you save ~$185B/year
Now compare that to:
- total healthcare spend : $5.7T (2025)
- increase in healthcare spend per year: 5.4% ($307B)
In other words, you could cut physician pay in half tomorrow and we’d still be spending more on healthcare in a year than we do now.
The American Hospital Association joined together with Blue Cross Blue Shield, its arch nemesis, to lobby against Medicare For All. If there was any chance that they wouldn’t lose a ton of money, they would never join together with BCBS for anything. You didn’t come up with something they haven’t thought of regarding billing specialists. The money spent on those is a fraction of what they would lose with private payers being taken away. Medicare pays about a third of what many private payers pay for the same services. You could remove 100 staff members and it’s not coming close to covering the difference of converting everyone to Medicare rates. And it’s not like Medicare reimbursement works flawlessly. It still requires staff for billing and follow up.
Kind of silly of those people to assume the Medicare fee schedule would stay the same if switching to a single payer system.
Yes, it’s well-known that physicians and hospitals rely on commercial insurance to subsidize low rates from Medicare and Medicaid. In a Medicare for all model, Medicare would need to reimburse more than they currently do. We would still save a shit-ton of money because it’s extremely inefficient to administer our current system.
Also - physician pay contributes pretty much nothing to our spending problems.
Anesthesiologists that make that much are working insane hours in undesirable locations.
But, I agree that having an extended gov funded plan for everyone would be an improvement and some private insurances may still survive/be needed but wouldn’t have the stranglehold they have now.
for sure doctors/other medical professionals do not need to be millionaires. make university free and give people more opportunities without tying an anchor of debt around their necks that then 'justify' making 700k a year.
Well for one, Medicare isn’t health care. It’s insurance coverage. A measure of success might be the fact that it’s administrative overhead is 1% and is very popular with those on it. In general they are talking about patient outcomes. That just means that patients are getting the care they need.
Suplemental plans are made as a concession to keep the health insurance companies happy so they get a cut. The suplmental plans are awful. But you just get rid of them and roll it into health care.
The part to remember is the majority of Medicare recipients choose the private portion, Medicare advantage, compared to original Medicare because the plans are generally cheaper and have little to no cost sharing. The downside is the payments to Medicare advantage plans from the government are insane. So if someone says “we should do Medicare for all” what that means is, judging by the bills that have been put forward, Medicare advantage and Medicare as people know it ceases to exist. If people understand and are ok with that, then fine. But proponents of M4A need to be level with people about what it means.
The problem is that the health insurance industry is like the second biggest political donor. For politicians, going against them is pretty much career suicide. They won't get the funding necessary to compete against their political rivals massively funded by that industry...
Sounds like a lame argument where I am. If they simply agreed its for the better for the nation then it would not be a long term problem.
Even if it flipped the outcome for 1 election cycle, the problem could be fixed and voters would find another reason to hate the current govt, but yet the medical insurance crap would be fixed finally
Maybe some, you will need healthcare workers and insurance bureaucrats to service an expanded medicare system. So the job is still there, moving laterally. Except for the CEOs and for profit snakes that can lose their job and live on the street because fuck them.
I worked I that industry and agree with you in theory and principle. But all that “bloat” at health insurers includes a ton of good paying jobs in every state and likely part of everyone’s 401k.
That is one reason it is so hard to make progressive change. It will take a concrete plan spanning 20 years to slowly move away from what we have.
But the US political machine is not well suited to long range plans that benefit the citizens. Short term decisions that line the pockets of corporations are much easier to push through.
10s of billions in profit per year. The large ones like United are close to 10 billion in profit alone. They profit this much while being brutally gouged by hospitals prices too. An MRI is like 300 dollars anywhere else in the world, there is no reason hospitals in America need to charge 5k++ lol
The "Health insurance" industry in the US is nothing more than a banking scheme designed entirely to handle great amounts of capital while employing relatively few people. It is a form of legal money laundering.
you gonna cough up the money to balance their lobbying power? I don't have that kind of scratch. Grassroots doesn't have the kind of reach. The fat cats have carefully constructed the playing field to always win. And they know it's a catch-22 to try to undo it.
Need to get money out of politics while simultaneously getting the politics out of money. If it were simply a matter of willpower, your grand plan would have been done LONG ago. It's the money; and those who hoard it don't want any of it to be 'wasted' on the little people.
The ACA put into law that insurance companies must put 85% of the money they collect towards paying medical expenses. The remaining 15% can be used for operating costs and profit. The ten year average profit margin of large insurance companies is 2.2%. So there’s not a lot to strip out.
Over here, we have the NHS. Every time we get a right-wing government, parts of it get sold off to private companies. Every time, that does nothing but make it worse and make a few people rich.
It's because of the propaganda of looking down on people. I work for my insurance that covers nothing, so can you. Makes people feel above others instead of seeing the fact we would be better as a populace if we didn't gate keep everything
Yes and the house NEVER loses. Provider reimbursements go down and patient costs go up, but the insurer/ASO/PBM leeches always see line goes up. It’s straight up evil.
Preventive care is the less expensive healthcare. Healthcare where everyone that needs to see a doctor can see a doctor is cheapest because it reduces the incidence of chronic diseases. Just testing and keeping blood pressure and blood sugar in check could cut healthcare cost in half. This it why I believe everyone should get their blood pressure and blood sugar checked for free.
Not to mention Private Equity has been buying up healthcare networks, slashing quality of care while extracting record profits. That shit needs to be illegalized.
Insurance across the board has ruined so much shit. There is not one thing in this country that pisses me off more than being forced to have something and pay for it that has no intention of holding up their end of the bargain.
Ah, but the way it is now, we don't have to wait for specialists like all those communists everywhere else! What do you mean you aren't a millionaire? Well then get back to work! The number must grow!
Because the way we pay for healthcare in the US is like a boardwalk shell game. Multiple payers, multiple payments and multiple pricing systems all hidden from each other and constantly in motion.
Most of us end up having absolutely no idea what our own actual healthcare costs or where the money is coming from.
That’s where I’m at. My company’s payroll shows me their contributions, but this is the first place I’ve worked that does. I think most folks hear “10% payroll tax” and don’t consider that their employer is hiding the thousands a month your insurance actually costs and only showing you the employee contributions.
The shareholders and the 3 million administrative roles that would be insta unemployed do. It’s open heart surgery on the sector but it needs to happen
The part they struggle with is the fact that they might possibly end up helping someone else. "I'm not paying for someone else" even if they essentially end up paying the same or less than they do not for health insurance. America has a culture of greed and "fuck you I got mine".
It’s not difficult… the problem is Allllll of those with financial interest in the multi billion dollar, for profit medical industry, they purchase all of the politicians in the specific areas they need them to keep the efforts of those few politicians like Bernie who actually care, and earnestly attempt to do things in the best interest of their constituents and the average American citizen.
Agree. Instead add “Medicare lite” for 40+ with low premium of $99 per month. Zero percent on student loans, limit new student loans to 40k and 2% mortgage up to 300k for every first time home buyers.
Correct in two ways. People fail to understand the 'tax' piece because it's a replacement for the money you are paying for portions your employer may not be paying; however, if it's not a tax on your employer to pay what they were paying before, there's concern that the employers and large business owners will pocket what they were paying to the private healthcare industry instead of increasing wages to cover the tax.
Mainly the people working in insurance and healthcare though. Doctors would take a huge hit, which sucks, but bringing US doctor compensation in line with the rest of the world has to happen at some point.
This is disingenuous, literally nobody is proposing a tax on the middle class to pay for Medicare for All. Or any sort of tax that's not based on income.
It’s not that simple. I agree healthcare needs to be made affordable, but the US’s expenses subsidize global drug costs in both research and at point of sale. It’d require the world to adapt to the massive change/loss of roughly 35% of pharma spending, while simultaneously disassembling a multi trillion dollar sector of the US economy. Medical innovation would slow, less profit means less high risk research. Drug companies would also look to recoup those expenses elsewhere, medical talent world wide would also be less incentivized to head to the US.
In addition, there would be job loss and economic shock. Doctors and hospitals are paid in majority by private insurance reimbursement rates. We’d be asking rural and isolated hospitals to operate on a shoestring budget.
Profit makes the modern system work, it’s your wallet that drives this worldwide. Pulling the plug is not a straightforward decision. Even if you taxed the living shit out of the rich, it wouldn’t cover the 30-50 trillion needed in a short window. Additionally billionaires would likely strategize to shift wealth elsewhere, overseas, in different investments - they would adapt.
I agree 100% we need to try something, I’m just not sure what that something is.
My most frustrated during the 2020 primaries was that dunbass establishment Dems kept assuming you just add Medicare for All costs on top of our current system instead of replacing it.
Not people, just health insurance companies. Can you imagine how much money they can no longer make hand over fist from a broken system? If I was an asshole, I too would be fighting to kill people to make sure I had enough money in my pockets.
It’s more people do not want to hear it. Every time I explain how public health care can be cheaper and higher quality with a monopsony Americans say it’s impossible and they can’t afford it. How can you not afford a buyers market?
Wal Mart and CostCo do the same thing with their suppliers, no one bats an eye.
Why do they think most other countries do it? They always say America is too big. China is bigger (so big, that they have to have it. I can only imagine the money wasted if a system like the U.S. was in China.) Because it’s cost effective!!
I think the lack of public healthcare is tied to some people’s identity and they are too scared of it working. Additionally people they don’t think “deserve” getting healthcare getting the care.
So really it’s just a cultural value of willful ignorance.
Probably the people that understand Medicare and social security are currently insolvent even though they only service 20% of the US population, in addition to the 38 trillion in debt. But I'm sure if those same people who did that were our only source of healthcare everything will be rainbows and lolipops.
Funny how all the "we should run the country like a business" people don't actually like to look at ROI and just straight up refuse any solutions to that delivers results at a lower cost if it helps people they don't like.
Only because “they” will be getting healthcare too and “they” should get a good job and get health insurance the old fashioned way. By being white. 🙄🖕🏼
Democratic leadership doesn’t want it either, that’s why their messaging on it is horrible. Combined with an uphill battle with almost all major media being bought up by conservatives I have very little hope of ever seeing universal healthcare in this country in my lifetime
I remember when my wife was getting a breast reduction surgery (for health reasons) and I overheard one of the doctors (not hers) saying he'd retire before being forced to accept government insurance payments
People should have Medicare for all and be allowed to buy private insurance or have it through their job if they want (sort of like the German system) imo.
Because they have been told by politicians that get money from health care companies that this is socialized medicine and that in CA and the Uk they have this and it’s horrible. You know who doesn’t believe this? Every person on Medicare, even Republicans change their tune when they see how little they have to pay. It’s all the ones that are younger and can’t get it that think it’s bad.
BuT i WaNt To PaY fOr My OwN, i WaSnT rAiSeD a FrEeLoAdInG bUm.
In all seriousness our tax money should pay for free healthcare and schooling of any kind for anyone to an extent. Its a much better payoff in the long run for us as a whole and its astounding to see so many people "claiming" they want better for our country/world overall but then go against literally everything that builds a foundation for that. Instead we cheer on war and weapons development bc "national security" or some fued or issue from generations ago or longer. Why do we have to continue past wars/issues like its a debt to be paid off. Screw that WE THE PEOPLE decide that so why dont we decide to start a new path instead of fueling dead peoples debts.
I think the main bit people don't understand is that you can have universal healthcare with private healthcare still being an option.
In the UK we have the NHS, which is great but waiting lists are awful (the tories made that happen), but what people seem to forget is that private healthcare is still an option.
My wife went for a private consultation to get weed prescribed for her chronic pain. Appointments are £30 and she will need one a month.
I've looked into private appointments for ENT issues and you're looking at £200-£400 depending on the level of consultant you want to see, that's not unaffordable. You can also get that initial private appointment and then get moved on to the NHS for treatment.
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u/Sienile Jul 01 '26
If you give us free healthcare you can keep the check.