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#8 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-01-10
And since then I have asked the question, ~do we want for-profit healthcare to make those life decisions for us?
Probably because you are asking the wrong questions, based on the wrong premise, despite living in a state which has Insurance Capital of the World.
Contrary to most people thinking that "other developed countries" have a "free and universal" healthcare, in reality none of them are either "free" and "universal" - people who say that either don't know that they are paying for it, how and how much they are paying for it, or that the "right" to something doesn't guarantee [timely] access to it.
People dreaming of "free all-you-can-eat" healthcare in "other countries" have never lived, worked or "experienced" healthcare systems there or don't realize that many of them are going broke and costs keep going up - because "not-for-profit" model (IOW, losing money on product/service) is generally not sustainable, unless subsidized by other sources.
Also, you conflate ["for-profit"] medical insurance [industry] with ["for-profit"] healthcare [sector] - "solving" (or destroying) private insurance won't provide cheaper, better or faster healthcare.
Most people in the US are insured through their employers and are satisfied with their insurance choices, despite "free and universal" proponents using occasional anecdotal "issues" to rage about "for-profit" healthcare system.
www.nytimes.com - Most Americans Say They Have Good Health Insurance, Polls Show | Less than 1 percent of likely voters ranked health care as their top issue. - NYT, 2024-12-13
I remember, a notable silence from the GOP supporters here.
... And besides the wrong questions, you are also asking the wrong people.
Before fork-lifting national healthcare, why not ask some "laboratories of democracy" - states - to implement the "one-size-fits-all all-you-can-eat free and universal healthcare [insurance?]" and show these no-good "greedy, for-profit" insurance companies and the people how government can get it done "faster, cheaper, better"?
Apparently, some tried and failed to find a version of government-provided "healthcare/insurance" - like "Single-payer" or "Medicare for All" - which guaranteed the "right" to healthcare but wouldn't bankrupt the state, e.g.:
www.latimes.com - Single-payer healthcare meets its fate again in the face of California's massive budget deficit - LAT, 2024-05-16
en.wikipedia.org - Vermont health care reform
cohealthinitiative.org - What's going on with universal health care in Colorado? - 2019-02-16
|------- "An insurance card doesn't necessarily guarantee you access either" ... Vermont, a state that spent years working on a single-payer health care system, serves as a cautionary tale. ... Likewise, the cost of Amendment 69 was estimated at $36 billion per year, more than the entire state budget. -------|
www.vox.com - Colorado single-payer initiative failure - 2017-09-14
|------- ... voters rejected ... single-payer system by... 79 percent to 21 percent -------|
Try understanding why these failed... before trying to "fix" something that actually works and people like. "Grass is always greener..."
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