Don't tell me "well, other countries do it!" or "just like Medicare!"
You do realize that you're sounding like a flat earther, anti-vaxxor, young-earth creationist here, right?
"Convince me, but you're not allowed to use any of the common evidence points!" - IE nothing I say can convince you.
How about this? Prove that other countries that have effective universal health coverage are somehow vastly more efficient than the US government.
Sure, we can use the VA as an example. It's messed up. So aren't all the other single payer systems. They're just
less FUBAR than our system, which I view as a careful combination of the WORST aspects of public and private healthcare. Or we could use medicare, medicaid, tricare, etc... Starting to see the picture?
We and the government end up paying for all of it eventually. We're not saving any money by not providing care. If nothing else, because people eventually get sick enough that they lose their job and end up on medicaid anyways. Now, just with a much more advanced and expensive illness.
How would it save money primarily? By ending the cold-war between "insurance" companies providing health service plans(I dislike calling it insurance), and medical providers. Right now, the fight that the medical plan providers are engaged in to pay as little as they can get away with the providers to get the money they need consumes about 20% of your medical dollars. Many providers have more
billing employees than they do nurses and doctors.
I mean, I'd prefer a privatized and deregulated(largely) medical system, hell, just moving back to regular insurance and doing something such that people care about their medical bills and can exert pressure to save money would help. But I don't see that happening.
Also much of what Boomhauer said above. People calling the ambulance because they sneezed is a big problem. It's brought up locally here all the time, because people do that to circumvent the three hour wait in the emergency room (filled with an 80% population of non-emergencies). I don't believe "free" government insurance would end that. It's a cultural problem. In fact, I believe it would increase if everyone was guaranteed a free ambulance ride to cutting in front of the line and getting immediate health care.
Okay, this is a uniquely
USA problem for the most part. Why? Because in the other nations they can get an appointment with a PCM quicker, and it is actually cheaper than the emergency room.
The thing with people getting an ambulance because they sneezed is
exaggerated, and generally only used by those who aren't going to pay anyways! This creates a negative feedback because we have mandated that emergency rooms see everybody, and those costs have to be spread over those who will actually pay. Thus the sky-high charges if you can/will actually pay. The poor? Just declare bankruptcy occasionally.
The constitution is not a suicide pact. Never mind that the founding fathers were absolutely not free market capitalists - the selling point of capitalism is that it makes life better. Turning around that proposition and saying we should all endure poorer healthcare for the sake of capitalism mistakes the entire purpose of markets.
Theyre supposed to serve humans, not the other way around.
This is a very good point. Most of your posts have been very good. For every bad story about the VA, there are multiple ones about private insurance.
Amy - I agree with what you say. In the USA, the way it typically works is that you go get health care. "Your" insurance pays for it. However, who's paying your insurance? Not you, not mostly. Your work is paying for the insurance. Or maybe the government. I wouldn't be surprised if the government is paying for the healthcare of over 50% of people right now. Children, retired people, government employees, veterans, people on welfare, etc... It adds up.
Ideally, you'd go in and pay yourself. Then you'd have the incentive to conserve. But we have a lot of people who would
die if that were the case, because their medical bills are vastly higher than average. So you still need insurance. But we don't have insurance now, we have coverage plans that are the equivalent of your auto insurance covering routine maintenance of your car.
We do not have poor healthcare. We have excellent healthcare at a sometimes high price for some people. It is simple supply and demand. Everyone wants cheap healthcare and wants someone else to pay for it, but there is a limited availability of providers. You want cheaper prices for everyone? Lower the demand or increase the supply.
We have healthcare no better than nations with single payer, at something approaching 200% of the cost.
Cheaper prices for everyone? Get rid of the cruft somehow. We could save 20% merely by eliminating the fighting between providers and insurance companies.
