comment: >
  
  To a Republican, is this really bad news? 
  The entire game plan for them seems to be be "push some people down and hope people confuse that for their own situation improving." 
  If you can't afford healthcare, a Republican gets to pat himself on the back for winning at capitalism, and to them, that's worth more than your life.
context: And a whole bunch of conservative meaniehead jerks are trying to get Canada doing the same shit. By intentionally fucking up our public Healthcare.
  Fuck "starve the beast" libertarianism >
  
  It's a huge talking point for conservative Americans to say that, while our healthcare system is too expensive, the one in Canada is somehow killing people. Nevermind the fact that Canadians are just by the books healthier than Americans. >
  
  Well, in Canada our life expectancy is higher, we have a much lower infant mortality rate, and nobody has to fear going bankrupt over medical bills, but our system isn’t perfect.  Unless your condition is life-threatening, you’re probably going to be waiting awhile for treatment.  I remember around 2008 or so, the GOP were trying to claim that Canada had ”death panels”, where a small group of people decide if a person would live or die.  This has never been true, it’s a horrific, inhuman idea, and the GOP are loathsome scumbags for trying to scare people into voting against their own best interest like that. >
  
  In the US they have those too: it's the small group of people deciding that insulin shouldn't be paid for by tax dollars, for instance >
  
  In the US we also often have to wait for non-life threatening conditions. It's taken me weeks or months to be seen for different issues. After all, private healthcare providers make more profit by keeping staffing to an absolute bare minimum, and (especially in smaller cities) you rarely have real "competition"/choice between providers. >
  
  I need a prescription refilled for my asthma inhaler - my asthma since getting Covid has gone from 1-3 attacks per year, so pretty minor, to having 7 in 4 months.   
  I called my GP in November and was told since they hadn’t seen in me in a year, (wonder why) they couldn’t refill my prescription until they had and the next available appointment was March.
  So I’m paying waaaay more and still have to wait just as long, if not longer than someone in Canada.
  (I did finally get to see the doctor, last week, because I kept calling to check for cancellations) >
  
  Do telehealth/video visit. Tell them you just need your prescription refilled for your inhaler. Done. 
  Even if your insurance doesn't cover it, you can usually find something for $25-40 and you can do it almost immediately. I have the option through my insurance app, but YMMV. >
  
  I've done that for some things! >
  
  
  Compared with other high-income peers, the US has the shortest life expectancy at birth, the highest rate of avoidable deaths, the highest rate of newborn deaths, the highest rate of maternal deaths, the highest rate of adults with multiple chronic conditions, and the highest rate of obesity, the new analysis found.
  
  All while the US spends almost twice as much % of GDP on health services and fails to provide any health care coverage to tens of millions of its citizens.
  The US has the most inequitable and least efficient health care system in the world, by far.
  Why? What aspect of its history lead the USA to become so exceptional? >
  
  
  What aspect of its history lead the USA to become so exceptional?
  
  Capitalism baby... pure capitalism. >
  
  Europe has capitalism. Yet, they manage to provide healthcare to all citizens without the threat of bankruptcy. >
  
  But here in Europe, we don't think socialism is automatically bad, or that socialism and communism are synonymous. >
  
  There's definitely a difference in rhetoric. Many conservative Americans automatically attach the label "socialism" to anything government. Even when it's not socialism.
  Most don't even know what socialism is. They just heard from their parents and grandparents that it's apparently bad. >
  
  Lately "socialism" also applies to corporations deciding not to host hatred on their platforms or being more inclusive. "Socialism" literally means "thing I don't like" to conservatives. >
  
  “Born into this: into hospitals which are so expensive that it’s cheaper to die”- Charles Bukowski >
  
  You seen the prices funeral homes charge you for dying? That grift is lobbied just as hard >
  
  Just because we're bereaved, that doesn't make us saps. >
  
  Is there a Ralph’s around here? >
  
  The day after the ACA was passed, about 14 years ago, all we ever heard from the Republiscums in D.C. was that they were going to "repeal & replace it with something cheaper & better".
  14 years.
  In 14 years they've produced absolutely nothing.
  The Repubs had the house for Obama's last 6 years. The Repubs had the White House, house & senate for 2 years under Trump and still had 2  of them his last 2 years.
  What have they offered us??
  Absolutely nothing >
  
  To be fair, they did earnestly attempt the repeal part. John McCain's iconic thumbs down vote stopped that though. >
  
  And a surprise SCOTUS decision. I think (some) conservatives know they have nothing better and will suffer if they simply repeal. >
  
  Was that decision before or after Amy Cony Barrett? >
  
  Show us a graph with the inverse relationship between shite healthcare and enormous profits. >
  
  My hometown had two hospitals, one bought the other and closed it. Moved the E.R. To a separate building with doctors offices. They will not send long term patients to the main building because they’d have to eat the ambulance cost so now patients have to pay for an ambulance transfer to the larger city and take all the risks of death if they are in that state. >
  
  In Sweden the hospitals are financed by each region, and a few years back there was a new drug against a rare condition that was the difference between being able to live and work and being disabled.
  The challenge for the hospital is it cost an obscene amount of money and if the region was unlucky with several people with this condition that would be a hard hit in the budget.
  … so the national government stepped in to socialise the costs in these extreme case.
  There’s a lot of problems with Swedens health care system too, but at least that’s a base expectation of keeping society healthy. Even if you’re a carpenter and not say the owner of Twitter. >
  
  Yea it's legit crazy. I remember when the USA tried to do universal health care and I thought holy crap this is a step in the right direction. To this day am still completely baffled by anyone who is against universal healthcare and access to all through it. Like people are so dumb they are against something that can help everyone. I have no words at this point. >
  
  My taxes will go up.
  Yeah, but you'll save all the money your employer is taking out of your paycheck for healthcare, and they'll save all the money they have to spend administering all of that bullshit. It'll end up being cheaper for everybody. And if you ever have to leave that job for any reason, you won't have to worry about losing your healthcare. 
  But my taxes will go up. >
  
  But will they go up $2700/mo? Because that’s how much I pay for health insurance for my family.  I don’t know how people afford insurance. >
  
  And even if you can afford the insurance, you might not be able to afford to  actually use it. >
  
  Or get the time off to actually use it either. >
  
  Or your insurance company just decided that your policy doesn’t cover whatever is ailing you. >
  
  Or you're unconscious when an out-of-network specialist steps in to help.  
  Living in the US means accepting the risk that at any moment something totally beyond your control could emerge and, if it's bad enough, you entire financial future is ruined. >
  
  ..unless you work in congress. >
  
  Precisely.  Lifetime of healthcare paid for by taxpayers, yet, at least for the “R’s,” they want to cut Medicare and Medicaid funding for the people that would benefit the people paid for by the people. >
  
  I received a bill for $40K for 10mins of stitches that were done by a plastic surgeon. The system is beyond broken.
  The kicker was having to wait 5 hours in the waiting room to see this guy. >
  
  If I’m a doctor doing that I’m honestly concerned someone snaps and comes back to shoot me at those prices. >
  
  One would hope that, if a person was going to snap, that person would direct their rage at the nearest healthcare CEO or other executive, but America loves letting me down. >
  
  Going to a billionaire estate would work too. At the end of the day, this is their system >
  
  Honestly, just need a grassroots campaign that shows how much more affordable and usable tax based universal is even compared to “great” job based private.
  Headline blurbs should be:
  No copays
  No doctor is out of network
  All medicine is negotiated to the cheapest price
  No gouging
  Just go to the doctor and leave—we’ve got you covered.
  I had my private through one of the largest private universities in the country, in Boston, MA and STILL my paycheck cut for healthcare was bigger than the jump in taxes and I had to drop $30 every time I actually used my healthcare—this was one of the best hc deals out there too. >
  
  
  All medicine is negotiated to the cheapest price
  
  This is the sticking point. The rest is fluff. Until there's a way to price control, nothing will improve. Also fundamentally goes against the American capitalist ethos (which I agree doesn't work in healthcare). >
  
  My boomer parents will start reciting quotes about 'waiting in line' etc.  
  Meanwhile people die waiting to see specialists in the US every day. >
  
  
  My boomer parents will start reciting quotes about 'waiting in line' etc.
  
  Yeah, mine do that too. 
  And in the same breath, my mom started whining about "the wait times" when she had to get some non-invasive surgery done. 
  I love my parents, really I do, but how is it their generation went to college for the price of a McChicken and somehow managed to end up so goddamn gullible? >
  
  My father has a graduate degree in a hard science. Somehow, he is still gullible and falls for the simplest shit. I assume it was the lead in the gasoline and paint. >
  
  The US system is also counterproductive. I was auto enrolled in Medicaid when I was looking for more affordable insurance when I was between jobs. Then I developed a hereditary autoimmune disorder. 
  I’d love to go back to work, but not if it means having to decide between affording medications and healthcare or earning a wage. Ideally, one should be able to do all of the above.  
  If we had a system of universal healthcare that was taken out of the hands of employers, it would actually open up the workforce. >
  
  Nothing like getting a job offer and then asking if you can get the health care information to find out if meds are covered or at what rate.
  Even if you have the same job, your employer can change the plan to save a few bucks and then your on the hook for hundreds to thousands a month. >
  
  Pshhh, that’s just beautiful beautiful CHOICE!
  You get to choose your employer, obviously. >
  
  Unironically their argument. It’s a free market you sillies, just find a new job! >
  
  You know, if any random person could walk into some kind of office and walk out with meaningful and gainful employment with more or less no questions asked, I might cede the point. 
  But then you'll never get through to "small business owners" who don't understand that a 4% income tax on their employees is less than whatever they are being forced to pay for group insurance. >
  
  Watch conservatives scramble to explain how the statistics should account for rich and poor people separately, without making themselves sound like insuffarable snobs and racists. >
  
  "If the poor just took better care of themselves, they wouldn't need so much healthcare. It's right that we severely limit poor people's choices to maintain their health so they understand the value of work." - conservatives >
  
  As Democrats argued during the Obamacare debates, the Republican health care plan is
  
  
  Don't get sick.
  
  
  If you do get sick, die quickly. >
  
  And who can forget brave Republican Dan Patrick's contribution to the role of Grandpa and Grandma in the economy during COVID? >
  
  Everything's bigger in Texas, especially assholes. >
  
  And it goes up but the media doesn't talk about that because ~~of who they are sponsored by~~ healthcare prices aren't on signs we see on every corner like the cost of gas >
  
  Well we’ve tried nothing to fix it and we’re all out of ideas! >
  
  Medicare For All