Differences in physique/body shape between living in Chicago versus living in Indiana is straight up jarring. I see plenty of overweight people in the city, but it's nothing compared to how many outright morbidly obese people there are in more rural/red state areas. But I guess you can't be that much of a drain on the healthcare system if you die in your forties instead of lingering on into your 60s, 70s, 80s, etc.
U.S. definitely has an obesity problem. I am fine with basing healthcare premiums on weight. Someone who weighs 3 times what I do should pay 3 times what I do.
Well it had a lot of things that ran in the same vein with similar mechanics and there were a lot of specifics that had promised benefits that never materialized or just flat out went in the opposite direction. As Rush pointed out the notion of spreading the cost to help mitigate cost, the individual mandate, ended up translating into huge premium and deductible increases when 10s of millions of people flooded the system to use benefits theyd never contribute towards. On top of that since there were only very specific basic "preventative" test/procedures that were required to be covered health care practices shifted the cost onto other specialized testing, you saw disincentivization of people wanting to get these because they werent covered, so there was a shift of the people who just waited until it became an emergency before seeking help. The opposite of preventative care, that I agree is something we lack almost entirely in this country. I know personally these required preventative care testing themselves actually became less accessible because the reporting requirements for them became super onerous on the health care facilities. Before it was required to be free the yearly check ups with your standard battery of test could be requested during any visit by just asking your doctor during the appointment. It then became its own class of appointment since they had to make sure everything was logged in their system properly* for insurance and government records. Because of the extra added cost in time they ultimately started only offering these free appointments in a limited structure, only certain times of the day and certain times of the year. You have to schedule them 6 months in advance. *the electronic records requirement another supposed efficiency tactic that ended taking more time for doctors away from actually seeing and treating their patients. My doctor told me he spent 60-70% more time filling out records, ultimately so the insurance companies made sure they got everything billed (the actual purpose of the electronic records requirement not that it was actually efficiency based at all), than he had before. He now spends our appointments staring at a screen filling in every detail instead of focusing on talking with me. He claimed to get back to the old standard of care each doctor in his practice would have had to hire a data entry employee adding 30-35k per doctor in cost. Leading to hire cost equaling less people getting care. Forgive me if I don't trust the pie in the sky promises of universal healthcare. I will say Im not saying there aren't some major things that need to be changed in healthcare. Medical billing and the eye popping numbers and convoluted billing schemes is probably the single biggest thing that could get the population on board with single payer. It's frustrating to the max and wanting it simplified is a notion that could translate into a winning point for the cause. Not that I think single payer is the answer but I get peoples sentiment of burn out of health care because of this boondoggle aspect of it.
Dude fried food has nothing on Mexican food. It’s delicious until you eat it all and see the grease it left on your plate (which some people use a tortilla to clean up).
Okay, I hear a bunch of people who already have good health insurance complaining "these damn poor people and immigrants are going to raise my premiums!" I think that there is another issue that needs to be addressed: MEDICAL CARE IS TOO FUCKING EXPENSIVE. Have you ever looked over a hospital bill? ALL of the charges are padded, and some of it is straight-up, made up bullshit. That's what your precious private insurance is paying for. The fact that Jungle Julia and I will lose our house if either of us gets seriously injured does not sit well with me.
I might be missing something, but if you have universal healthcare available for all, then doesnt that eliminate the need for having health insurance and premiums?
Well you’re premiums are just transferred to the government via taxes. With amount of new entitlement spending being proposed if you think they’ll just tax 250k and up only that is fantasy land.
I fully appreciate that you'd have to cover that via taxes, and of course you should be taxing all members of society for use of the system. I guess it always fascinates me when you hear of people in the US going bankrupt because someone on the family got cancer or had an accident. In the UK that really doesn't happen because of the NHS (don't get me wrong it's got it's flaws however it's nice not to have to worry if you do get sick) By deductables I'm assuming you're meaning an amount paid upfront before your insurance kicks in? Again though in a true universal health care system that would be covered as part of that, eliminating the need for insurance. Unfortunately you'll always get those few idiots who think they are dying when it's just a cold.
Yes by definition, that’s what a deductible is. Still need an out of pocket deductible to keep the morons thinking twice before going to seek care. You can insure people and still have them pay a deductible.
So, we need to paywall healthcare because an overwhelmingly small percentage of shitheads might take advantage of it? Nevermind how many lives it would save at a lower cost to taxpayers over the long run?
I once saw a guy come into the emergency room because his new sneakers gave him blisters. Nothing is going to realistically stop the morons.
I really don't know what latitude hospitals have turning people away but frivolous emergency room usage should be able turned away without fear of lawsuits, maybe their debt shouldn't be dischargeable in bankruptcy like student loans. I think it's mitigated somewhat with the rise of smaller urgent care places that don't charge and arm and a leg.
Yeah, I ask because typically I'm more used to excess Vs deductables, hence my question. I guess as well it comes down to the difference between each others meaning of universal healthcare. When I think of universal healthcare, I think of it as more government run and funded through taxes, hence the removal of any need for insurance, excess or deductables, while I think your view is more of it as via insurance subsidised by the government? Unfortunately I don't think you're ever going be able to stop the morons from making stupid claims. Instead don't high deductibles have more of an effect on the poorer/people with shit plans who won't seek help even when they need to?
Here in Canada when someone comes to the ER with something frivolous they wait for triage like everyone else. So blister guy had better have a day to wait. Instead of a cash based paywall it is a time based paywall. So rich morons who don't know what polysporin and bandaids are for will wait as long as the poor moron.
At a certain point, to kill time, I tried to run the math to figure out if he was so low on the triage list that he would actually wait forever, as all current and future medical emergencies would be a higher priority than his fucking foot.
Like... what's the play here? Who is the audience for this tweet? Why is he simultaneously seemingly totally unconcerned with their missile program and their human rights abuses; if you're trading one for the other, why are you giving up both?
I didn't watch the second debate, but I caught some highlights and Gabbard kicked ass. She really needed to make some noise, and apparently she finally did, and made Harris look pretty bad while doing it. I don't know how important it is, but she ended up being the most googled candidate during the debates and gained the second most twitter followers. I know she has next to no chance, but good to see her creep up the ladder, even if just a little bit. I'm glad the herd is getting thinned for the next round of debates. They really need to get rid of some of these totally pointless candidates.