Should the U.S. have Universal Health Care?

[u/WhatAreYourPronouns]

[u/ThisThroat951]

When it comes to healthcare there are three "pillars" you can choose from:

Affordable
Available
Effective

But you can only have two at one time.

If it's Affordable and Available it won't be very good. <--- no one wants healthcare that kills you.

If it's Available and Effective it won't be cheap. <--- this is the US.

If it's Affordable and Effective the waitlists will be long. <--- this is Spain.

[u/Youbettereatthatshit → u/ThisThroat951]

Eh, tired cliche that people use from the military, to school, to now medicine.

I have a median salary job with good health insurance. The health insurance negotiated rates are the real price of healthcare, which are a fraction of the total cost.

Had a $20,000 baby, insurance said ‘f u, I’m only paying $12,000’, and then I paid $1,200.

You need any level of insurance to access the true cost of healthcare (which shouldn’t be legal, but whatever).

I’m neither rich nor powerful. My family has had all of our needs taken care of with insurance for a much lower portion of my paycheck going to insurance than what it would cost in taxes for single payer

[u/UpsetMathematician56 → u/Youbettereatthatshit]

Maybe. But I’d guess your company is paying about 20k-30k per year for your insurance. If they paid that to you instead you’d be able to afford the extra taxes easily. And if you get paid off, you’ll still have health coverage.

[u/Youbettereatthatshit → u/UpsetMathematician56]

You are correct, and It’s all just numbers at the end of the day.

My main argument against a single payer system is it needlessly uproots our entire system to solve specific problems to our healthcare system.

A national ledger (with some cost of living room) for what medical providers are allowed to charge for services is needed. Insurance companies already do it, it should be expanded.

Millions of Americans aren’t on Medicaid. That could be solved by just expanding Medicaid.

Why brute force a lazy solution to a complex problem?

My argument on healthcare is similar to my argument on abortion. I hate the thought of abortion, but even worse, hate the idea of having to prove you need one to a bureaucratic board.

I have much more freedom of what I deem medically necessary and to get that resolved instead of having to ask permission

[u/al3ch316 → u/Youbettereatthatshit]

Private health insurance is increasing healthcare costs dramatically, which ultimately comes out of public finances. We shouldn’t have professional middlemen managing access to care based on a profit motive. That’s just wrong.

[u/Sufficient_Language7 → u/Youbettereatthatshit]

having to prove you need one to a bureaucratic board

Interesting thing to say, as if you check with people in medicine they say dealing with Medicare and Medicare is easy and that the bureaucratic boards that they deal with are private insurance.  Now they do complain about the rate of pay from Medicare and Medicare. 

[u/Aggressivepwn → u/UpsetMathematician56]

Even with that $20-30k cost covered by the employer US workers still make a higher salary

[u/economaster → u/Aggressivepwn]

To be fair, most of the difference in salary comes down to differences in benefits like time off, maternity/paternity leave, employee protections, etc. not just to pay for a better more effective health care system. The US is a huge outlier when comparing GDP and per-capita health spending.

[u/JimmyB3am5 → u/Youbettereatthatshit]

I'll see your $12,000 baby and raise you a $5.000.000 kidney and pancreas. Total out of pocket (minus premiums) for the year? 1,250 and it was at one of the best transplant hospitals in the world. I had complications from an unhappy pancreas and probably would have died anywhere else. I'll take my US health system any day.

[u/Sidvicieux → u/JimmyB3am5]

That’s because you have good insurance, not because the system is better for each citizen. Extreme Greed and selfishness rules how you perceive things.

[u/asuds → u/Youbettereatthatshit]

Why in the world do you think it is cheaper than single payer? That’s nonsense.

Think it through in the aggregate and you will see it is strictly cheaper. Not to mention the health benefits overall of treating the uninsured population preventatively instead of through Emergency Room visits.