Americans are unhappy with the state of health care and insurance
Americans are unhappy with the state of health care and insurance
538's polling column about the state of health care, voters' trust in the 2024 election results and President Joe Biden's approval rating.
Summary
Polls show a majority blame insurance and pharmaceutical companies for high costs, denied claims, and access issues.
Only 44% rate U.S. health care quality as “good” or “excellent,” a 20-year low.
Support for government intervention is rising, with 62% favoring federal responsibility for universal health care.
Meanwhile, satisfaction with the Affordable Care Act has grown, with 54% approving.
Trump’s unclear health care overhaul plans are entering a polarized environment where Americans remain split on private versus government-run systems.
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We want universal healhcare. Those who "suffer" due to lack of income (due to the insurance industry collapse) after it rolls out can talk to a therapist for low to no cost.
Some of you want that. Some of us do not want that.
I want to eliminate company provided healthcare. There may be better programs for me, but if I try to look elsewhere I discover that my company pays more than $1000/month for my insurance and if I go elsewhere I lose that all. As such no other plans can compete with what I get. In turn that means my insurance reports to and cares about my company and not what I think.
You don't want universal healthcare but you agree that tying health insurance to a private company is awful.
So what's your hangup? You don't want your taxes to go up? If so, I can assure you it won't be $12000/year.
I want health insurance from a private company of MY choice. I don't want to choose my job based on what health insurance they provide. Right now nobody reports to me - there is no incentive anywhere for me.
So that still doesn't tell me why you don't want universal healthcare...
Because I believe in the free market. But what we means I'm not actually in the market and so the free market isn't serving me.
But private health insurance can coexist with universal healthcare
Maybe, but generally universal has subsidies and so private cannot compete. Or universal has limits on coverage thus making poor who really need help unable to get good care
That second sentence isn't true
Why would someone in a universal system get prikate insurance anyway
As somebody who has by now lived in 2 countries with Universal Healthcare I can answer that:
- It's for people who want faster access to non-emergency medical treatment than the public system will provide.
So if you want to not to have to wait months for specialist appointments and surgery and you can afford it, you get Healthcare Insurance. This even more so for aesthetic and run of the mill dental treatment - the Public isn't going to, for example, just put you in front of the queue to give you an implant unless it's deemed necessary because of your health, so if your concern is about your appearance you'll have to wait years or it won't even be covered.
Mind you, the whole thing is still backed by the Public Healthcare System: if during a surgery at a private hospital you have massive complications they'll generally transfer you to a Public Hospital.
Further, even in the Private everything is way cheaper because of the massive competition from the Public System, plus the Public even uses its leverage to keep the prices of more common medicine low (basically since most of the prescriptions are done by doctors in the Public System, for things were there are multiple options the most expensive stuff doesn't get prescribed unless it offers enough benefit versus the cheaper options to justify it, so for example things like Insulin are way cheaper if you get it without a prescription from a Public System doctor and free or near free if you do because the State pays most or all of the price)
Anyways, the single biggest benefit of Universal Healthcare which the "free market is the best" (in this case it isn't: in general the free market optimizes for profit, not for outcomes, and further, in this domain people will pay whatever it takes to survive and don't actually have the expertise to judge the quality of treatment and know the availability of other options, so there is no natural free market here) crowd forgets is the peace of mind and freedom Universal Healthcare gives:
- if you lose your job, you're still fine even if you have and accident or get sick
- if you want to change jobs you have total freedom as you won't be without Healthcare for you and your family in the period between jobs
- if you need or want to stop working on a regular jobs (because you want to start your own company or want to take a sabatical or want to go back to school and get a degree) you can without losing your Healthcare coverage during that period and it's going to be way cheaper than if you had to pay Health Insurance (and copays) during that time.
Private Healthcare Systems are very much prisons that keep people tied to traditional jobs,
The other reply answered your question better than I ever could so I'll leave it at that
"Subsidies", lol. USSA subsidised its private health insurance companies more, than any other in the world. Private companies are great at double-charging. That's why healthcare should be single-payer system.
Or universal has limits on coverage thus making poor who really need help unable to get good care
What do you even try to say? Let's say I break leg. In country with UHC I will:
- Be transported by ambulance
- Get x-ray
- Get surgery if needed
- Get cast
- Get stay in hospital if needed
- Get cast removed
- Go home happy and healthy
In country without UHC I will:
- Pay
- Pay
- Maybe see a doctor
- Pay
- Pay
- Pay
- Maybe get cast
- Pay
- Got sent home and pay
- Pay more
- Maybe get bone to heal, but neither be happy, nor healthy due to malnutrition
- Get cast removed for extra payment
In first example I spent about 1$ for metro ticket back home, while in second one I would be bankrupt 12 times.
What if you have a tumor that needs to be removed but the doctors determine it isn't cancer. How long do you wait?
As long as you are not willing to adopt and maintain UHC. And as long as it takes to remove that kind of tumor. Or do you really think privatizing healthcare will make those tumors disappear?
why do you give a shit about your insurance? its the hospital that matters. insurance is just a middle man and an expensive one at that. best insurance i've had is state run.
I don't want a company for which I work being in the middle of me and healthcare either.
Just one more chain, isn't it.
So what would happen if you stopped working at this place for whatever reason, or the company itself ceased to exist? Just wondering how that situation would affect things.
A big mess. I generally can pay full price to keep the current insurance but now I need to come up with that $1000 per month while I don't have a job.
I want to eliminate company provided healthcare.
That is what universal healthcare for.
You need to go back and read what I said, not make a comment that completely ignores my argument. Yes universal healthcare is for that, but there are other options that I support instead.
If tou really want go to private clinic, you still can. Even somewhere like Belarus. And private clinic there will be better than private clinic in country without UHC. Guess why.
You're rolling 16tons... And what do you get.