Political Memes

But as an upshot it shackles people to their job by tying Healthcare to employment, which means you get all these nice wage slaves that can't afford to quit so you can suppress their wage, and they can't break into their own businesses without the capital from those suppressed wages, which means even less competition for you.

I see no downsides to this /s

Nah bro, it totally makes sense that IBX pays the Phillies millions of dollars for a jersey advertisement instead of investing that money into patient care. IBX totally cares because they made an ad at a local coffee shop!

Why would I pay the government to collect a pool of money to pay for other people’s medical needs?

Is the same as saying

Why would I pay for roads I will never drive on?

And those “other people” upset the racists. They view universal healthcare not as leveling the playing field, but riding mass transit. “Ew, <insert ‘lesser quality’> people.”

Everyone likes to laugh at the US, but the same forces are at work in other countries. We’re just ahead of the curve getting enshitified.

They can get the fuck right out...

In Ontario for sure, Doug Ford's buddies

And an inceeasing number of procedures and services are handed over from hospitals to for-profit entities, including nurse staffing. Canadian healtchcare is undergoing gradual privatization and that's the playbook.

(I'm sure you know that, posting for non-Canadian onlookers)

Universal healthcare with American characteristics

Mostly Ontario with Doug Ford, and maybe Alberta too.

We have that in the US too. I waited 11 months to see a dermatologist, thankfully for something that wasn't cancer. I got the bill an insurance covered $90 of the $425 bill.... We wait too, and pay more.

Mind you, the German system is one of the most expensive in the world. It's also only of middling quality in terms of outcomes compared with other wealthy nations.

But it's still less than half as expensive as whatever it is the States are doing, still has effectively universal coverage, and is actually competitive with other wealthy nations.

All because we regulated the everliving shit out of the whole process. You can't as much as fart incorrectly in the German healthcare system without having an army of bureaucrats breathing down your neck in one of three prescribed breathing rhythms, one of which only applies if you farted in a hospital. Reports will be written, filed, and sent to recipients who can only change their mailing address on one of four specific days a year and only if they announced the move four weeks in advance by sending special crafted EDIFACT files to the right people.

As much as it sucks, that bureaucracy also shuts down a lot of nonsense. Insurance networks, deductibles, most copays, and ruinous hospital bills straight up don't exist because everyone in healthcare has zero leeway to do anything in a non-prescribed manner and the prescribed manner was designed to keep as many people as possible reasonably healthy.

It's a very German approach: Massively bureaucratic, regulated to an almost comical degree, and reasonably effective.

It’s not random, it is another way to make you dependent on corporations.

Jobs give health insurance. If you lose your job then you lose your health insurance. It’s how America keeps the work force more docile and willing to put up with working conditions.

The problem is Americans view UHC as single payer.

I like the solution where you start shooting health insurance company CEOs.

If price were the only issue sure, but there are a many other problems - oh you went to the ER? Or you picked a specific hospital/surgeon for something? Too bad, this one doctor isn’t in network.

You can only have a specific version of a medication because another is ineffective or you have an allergy or adverse reaction? Well that sucks, your insurance only covers this one type.

Your doctor ordered a specific set of tests? Your insurer can decide that they’re not medically necessary and overrule your doctor.

And so on… when the required amount of regulation is so vast that it touches every part of the system because it is just that bad…. Surely universal healthcare is the better option at that point?