Now imagine a country where there is public healthcare, but it is blasted and underpaid so often by crony politicians because "healthcare" companies AND medics have a large pool of crony politicians to pay
this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2026
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Now imagine the lesser of two evils.
Please don‘t extrapolate from the US healthcare system to insurances in general. Insurances collect money from many so in the case something happens to an individual that individual doesn‘t need take the full financial loss. This makes a lot of sense, because it would very inefficient if everyone would save money in order to pay for a potential cancer treatment. Cancer is rare, but in aggregate it is just small amount each month.
The job of the insurance is to define that monthly amount (which is not trivial to do), collect it, store it and eventually pay it out.
On another note, unless an insurance is mandatory you can usually opt to pay yourself.
That is the job of the government. Everyone needs healthcare to one degree or another. If we're all going to be pooling money anyway it shouldn't be filtered through a for-profit system first.
On another note, unless an insurance is mandatory you can usually opt to pay yourself.
No I can't. Everything is too expensive because insurance being involved has inflated the costs.
Anything critical to the life of an individual citizen, like health and home insurance, should be publicly run. It just doesn't make sense for a private company to manage that because their profit motive is in direct opposition to the individual (i.e. they must fight claims and inflate premiums to increase revenue).
The state loses money anyway if the person is homeless or destitute so they might as well pay out. Yes there are still agents to manage funds and adjust claims and set rates but they're now operating as impartial public servants instead of antagonists.
Sounds like communism to me, son.
Health insurance is a decent solution to no universal healthcare...on paper. But the way the US executed it is poor
Yep! Japan (only other country I have experience with) has a government run health insurance. Since the interests aren't profit, the prices remain reasonable even without it
This is unironically Nixon's fault.
It's also unironically Reagan's fault, as well as both Clinton and FDR.
Prior to FDR doctors and healthcare were run completely not for profit, and part of The New Deal included privatizing hospitals. Nixon did insurance. Reagan and Clinton mostly just took the government further out of healthcare by removing regulations.
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It’s wild how much this contrasts with Australia’s Medicare, like here you can literally just walk into the ER with any issue, show them your Medicare card and get your entire treatment covered for free unless you need any private healthcare, which even then there are rebates and private healthcare competes with public so it’s also moderately affordable.
There were 2 instances where my dad needed to be in hospital for multiple days at a time, once for a broken wrist after slipping at the boat ramp after a fishing trip, and the other was a stingray attack on his leg at that same boat ramp. Both instances didn’t require a single cent exchanged, we just walked in and described the issue, and boom, after a few days he was treated to the extent he could go home and not really worry at all anymore.
Your dad should stay away from that boat ramp…
I vote it be burnt.
Boat Ramps are typically concrete. And partially submerged. Good luck!
When the US was having actual discussions of single-payer health care (i.e. the "public option" during Obama's first term), one major argument against it was "do you really want the government between you and your doctor?!"
Even though insurance companies are literally already between you and your doctor, and they exist purely to extract money from that interaction.
It's never made sense.
I don't trust the government, but I trust them a hell of a lot more than insurance companies of all people
I don't want anyone between me and my doctor. Doctors should be deciding what care I require and billing the govt for it. If the government thinks something fishy is going on, they can audit them after the fact. I need not be involved. As it stands I don't go to the doctor at all because I'm worried they'll do some test or something that wasn't actually approved by my insurance and I'll get slapped with a bill for 1000s of dollars.
It's never made sense.
It makes perfect sense for the americans who have been conditioned for literal decades to react certain ways to certain things, while being kept ignorant of nice things that exist in the rest of the world.
For instance:
Government-run anything? It is mathematically and physically impossible for it to benefit society. It will, without fail, become a corrupt dumpster fire that furthers evil in our world.
Market-based solution that leans heavily on "personal responsibility?" Well that's just great I tells ya! It lobs like the best, kindest, and most Christlike solution is to do nothing and let them fend for themselves! They will be stronger for it and will thank us!
during Obama’s first term
Lol this was just about the first thing Clinton tried to get done in 1993. It's one of the things that led to the creation of Fox News.
The old arguments were "Look how long they (the socialists) wait to get appointments and get seen!" Yep, we're there now. I have insurance, I still pay a bunch, and seeing specialists is a luxury at this point. If I have an issue, I don't even consider calling specialists, because I know it's weeks til I can get in.
Weeks lol, try months to years round these parts
And then the same party decided to get the government in there too anyways
Ahaha that's a good point. Tbh despite the nickname "Obamacare" it had slipped my mind that the ACA was the bastardized, castrated version of that whole thing.
They chopped it down to Romneycare
Yeah, I wish health insurance was just "you'll never pay more than 20k a year on medical bills" or something like that. Let me find my own damn doctor
If you have good insurance, this is absolutely what it can be. My work pays for mine, and the max out-of-pocket is $3.6k/yr. I had already hit my max, then wound up with a $4k ER visit, so it wound up being free. Unfortunately, most insurance is fucking awful unless your company is willing to pay a shitton for some very expensive plan.
You guys pay for insurance and for medical treatment?
Not everybody. Some of us just die instead.
20k a year? That would be better that what you have now? Sincerly, a non-USAian
Well, most insurance is only for emergencies, and it is priced accordingly. For example, when I drove a car, I didn't have to deal with my auto insurance plan at all while getting gas or normal maintenance. However, when I got into a few bad accidents, the car insurance was vital for continuing to have a car, and it paid towards helping me get it fixed. Car insurance is insurance against something catastrophic happening to a vital part of life in most of America, not something to use everyday, and is priced accordingly.
Health insurance here is very different from car insurance. Rather than an emergency contingency, health insurance is woven into most healthcare purchases in the U.S. Accordingly, it is very expensive, limiting, and inefficient. Due to the dynamics of the system it creates, Americans must usually pay through the nose for even everyday healthcare without insurance.
If health insurance was operated more like car insurance, except of course that a human life should never be "totaled out," the system would eventually adjust and normalize.
Here in Argentina that we have free healthcare, insurance is a signal of wealth so you get attended in the private hospital away from the common folk. And even in the private hospital everything is relatively cheap because they have to compete with the free option.
You are the product. When your liability outpaces your premium is when they decide to stop covering you.
Look at finance! They don't make anything of actual value, they just bet what's going to happen to the people that do
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Remember pryimid schemes are illegal. Because they dont sell a product.
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