this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2026
145 points (97.4% liked)

Ask Lemmy

38228 readers
2118 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

With Daylight Savings once again coming up, it never fails for it to spark discussions about its purpose in modern times. People hate it widely while few seem to be okay with it and depending where you live, others don't even know what the deal is.

Politicians have actually put it on the docket to be voted on, but seems to have lost traction. Quite frankly, this is an issue that should be done and over with. Just end it, but please end it when we have the clocks dialed back than forward, because I wouldn't like time going faster than it already is.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Janx@piefed.social 73 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (2 children)

Private health insurance companies. Study after study has shown that Americans pay more, get worse care, and are completely at the whim of these unnecessary middlemen. What the fuck!? EVERY OTHER MODERN COUNTRY HAS SINGLE-PAYER. It's efficient, it's obvious, it works.

The United Healthcare CEO further enriched himself by denying more legitimate claims than any other company. A private company, that can decide whether you can afford to live or die. Entire families are completely bankrupted over medical bills. Every. Single. Year. In the United States of America. It's the entire reason Luigi Mangione garnered so much understanding and sympathy. (Not that it could have been him, he was at my place, we were playing Super Nintendo...)

[–] toiletobserver@lemmy.world 5 points 13 hours ago

Can confirm, he was at this guy's place.

[–] fizzle@quokk.au 0 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (2 children)

IDK about this, and I mean I honestly don't know.

I don't know what single payer means.

In Australia we have private health insurance but it's just nothing like the situation in the US. Our ~~private~~ public health care system is fine.

[–] chunes@lemmy.world 9 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

I would nip that shit in the bud if I were you guys. Private companies only want one thing and it's not to help you get better.

[–] fizzle@quokk.au 2 points 9 hours ago

That's not going to happen.

It's been this way my entire life and probably long before. Most things here work this way.

There's a public / socialised system, and then a private tier in addition. Education is the same, public funded institutions which are free up to university, or private schools as an alternative.

3 years ago my partner fell pregnant with twins, our first children. It was a complex pregnancy for a range of reasons. We had to relocate to a major city 5 hours drive away, and we were there for 3 months. The specialist team was the best of the best, and the things they did to land two happy and healthy twins was just miraculous, honestly. My partner was in intensive care for 4 days and the kids were in the premature infants ward for 2 weeks. This was all under the public health care system. We didn't pay a dime and even got reimbursed for the apartment I rented while I was there.

Since then with a young family we decided to get private health insurance. The insurer is a not-for-profit, so of course there are employees to be paid but everything paid goes towards paying benefits. There are for-profit insurers, but ofc they're competing with the not-for-profit ones which keeps it real. it's the same dynamic with the private hospitals that the private insurers are paying - yes there are private profits but the existence of the healthy public system keeps it reasonable.

[–] cdzero@lemmy.ml 2 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Single payer is the same as our version of Medicare. Odd way to phrase it though.

[–] fizzle@quokk.au 2 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

That is weird. I always thought it was weird to go to the GP and horse around where you pay $x and get $y back from medicare, more like multiple-unnecessary-payers IMO. I guess if you invented a new system now it wouldn't be so daft.

[–] cdzero@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 hours ago

Oh sorry I forgot about that bit. I meant the bulk billing style.