(1) It’s expensive (2) Everybody has to pay (3) The government’s gotta run it
But there are plenty of countries with functioning healthcare systems that are private? The Swiss, for instance. Moreover depending on what counts as "government’s gotta run it" (paying for it? administering it? actually providing care?) you can argue that the German or even Canadian systems aren't government run, at least to some degree.
America has had multiple attempts at solutions for healthcare over the years, each started with good intent and then waylaid by various causes to produce what we have right now.
A sibling comment mentions political compromise to pass the ACA, as an example of this.
Another example is that HMOs were started with inherent goodness, but got “corrupted” (in my mind) by profit seeking.
To directly answer your question: a core tenet of the Republican tent is minimal government involvement in day to day lives of the citizenry. Ergo, the Swiss system won’t work because it involves a lot of bureaucracy. Republicans link bureaucracy to cost, and feel this is not an appropriate use of tax payers dollars.
The holes in this political doctrine are not part of my answer here fwiw. Please no “but…” comments to that end :)
The difference now is the republicans have changed, and nuanced issues are just not welcome on the platform of a party following a cult of personality.
"There are people not good enough for health care and helping them would violate this natural order".
Basically what Obamacare was originally intended to be before they had to compromise to get it passed.
You all need to think about what’s going to happen to you when you can’t move anymore. Will you have enough money? Triple it. Maybe 6x it. Only the rich will be able to live healthy unless you’re diligent about your own health or strike it rich in an IPO.
https://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/our-research/dependency-and-dep...
https://www.cato.org/cato-journal/spring/summer-2018/demogra...
https://www.cato.org/commentary/clear-eyed-look-our-demograp...
This is why life necessities are often treated as a public responsibility. Health care is one of the few that is treated as a luxury.
There seems to be very little talk about making medical education cheaper and more accessible. Why wouldn't it be cheaper if we had more MDs and nurses? What if we made it easier to become an MD ?
The insurance system is a cartel and they are greedy. However the regulations (upheld by the government) enable it.
The insurance system is a profit seeking institution, that functions as intended. Why dont you talk about that BURNING aspect?
In places with Catholics, you usually get the bishops advocating for the local Catholic hospital system.
It turns out the real world is a big complicated messy place and there's rarely a simple answer like "delete government!"
I'm not sure there's any realistic way to enhance the availability of specialists. You can't 'stub' your way through providing the care of a skilled gastroenterologist by substitution with a NP, though PAs in specialty care are becoming common.
That they're nonsensically broken out as a separate insurance category is intrinsically linked to the problems the article describes
(3) isn't correct either. It needs to be regulated in some way. Government doesn't have to run it. I think it should be treated more like a utility
That's basically impossible. You will only know if you made the right choice once you are actually starting to use the insurance.
As to OP, the simplest solution is to move out of the US early enough or become “poor” enough and be in a wealthy blue state by the time you get to this predicament.
My father has a neurodegenerative disorder and we've struggled to find a place that will provide consistent care. My mother, a retired nurse, is the one who tends to do a significant amount of the work to feed, clean, and otherwise care for him despite paying over $10k/month. It's infuriating.
In short, build an efficiency apartment on family property for an alone-living relative. Family can better provide support; the relative's residence goes back into the housing supply.
The municipality provides usual construction inspections but doesn't prevent the construction for non-pragmatic reasons.
ref: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=h_&q=zoning+to+allow+ADU%2C+in-law...
Insurance companies have to make money, but that's not that good of a deal, and the payout isn't that high ($73k annually) considering you won't be doing much else.
jqpabc123•4h ago
Insurance is the only industry where customers are the enemy.
toomuchtodo•2h ago
zackmorris•1h ago
So every area of our lives that feels like it doesn't work like it used to - cost of living, healthcare, education, antitrust enforcement, journalism, accountability at the highest levels - represents a segment of the economy which has been corrupted.
Through this lens, socioeconomic policies start to make sense. For example, if your goal is to skim a fraction of the income from everyone in an economy and redirect those funds to specific goals/organizations/individuals, you could put tariffs on common goods and pass the funds collected on to companies granted large government contracts. Then the largest companies like GM and Ford see their profits reduced or even show a loss, while Grok and Palantir have all the money they need for mass surveillance.
Explanations for regulatory capture aren't normally this reductive, but wealth inequality has reached such monumental proportions that the simplest answer tends to be the right one when the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many.
wwweston•2h ago
The more immediate/pressing your need for risk coverage, the worse it is for them to sell it to you. The less you need it, the better it is for them to sell it to you and the worse for you to buy it.
Pretty different than ice cream or cars or housing. Too many people just think “oh corporate greed” without thinking about the underlying economics (partly because of how us culture pretends markets are magic).
pyuser583•2h ago
In the past, insurance companies (think: liability, fire, life, shipping) responded to a claim by hiring a lawyer and negotiating down. Like most contracts.
So states began creating insurance commissions, which serve as law firms that defend consumers from insurance companies. In practice, their existence forces insurance companies to pay what they are owed.
We need insurance commissions for health insurance. If there is a reason why the policy shouldn't pay (services received after policy expired, for example), the insurance commission has to sign off.
This is how normal insurance works. Health insurance, of course, is not normal insurance.
mixmastamyk•1h ago
Workaccount2•2h ago
Healthcare is a triangle. There are three players. You, Insurance, and Doctor.
All three are adversaries and allies in different ways.
Synthetic7346•1h ago
frankharv•15m ago
Family at first but USE PROFESSIONALS. Due to scummy ins company wanting docs.
How is that health care? Babysitting is now health care???
We need a better way to deal with dementia. Not health care.
A literal babysitter to make sure they eat and don't run into the street.
I don't see dementia as sickness. Brain illness maybe.
So we have to warehouse these feeble folk. That is the problem.
We need a more humane way rather than Doctor K's method..
What about the poor old guys girlfriend?
SoftTalker•1h ago
thepryz•1h ago
tiahura•1h ago
There’s a reason companies got away from offering these policies, they were losing money on them.
SoftTalker•1h ago