this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2024
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Tweet is from around February 2022; I’m not visiting that cesspool to find the exact date.

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[–] Revan343@lemmy.ca 104 points 4 weeks ago (10 children)

Americans pay more for healthcare than any other country, for worse results than any country with universal single-payer healthcare. Moving to the same model as Canada or the UK would mean paying less for healthcare, and getting better healthcare.

Which is obvious once you understand how private health insurance works.

[–] unlawfulbooger@lemmy.blahaj.zone 38 points 4 weeks ago

Hold on, not all my money goes to healthcare in my for-profit healthcare system??

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[–] kokopelli@lemmy.world 100 points 4 weeks ago (5 children)

Like yes taxes go up, but also you’re already paying for health insurance

This is the thing that drives me crazy. Especially with those "I don't want my money going to pay for the wrong kind of person's healthcare" idiots. It already does. You already pay for that. Private healthcare is socialized healthcare except with some rich dumbass acting as a middleman so he can scrape a ton of money out while denying grandma that new hip she needs in the name of profits.

Just because you call it an "insurance fee" and pay more than if it was called a "tax" doesn't somehow make it better.

[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 42 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

Your taxes would go down, actually. The federal government pays more now than they would with a Single Payer healthcare system, because it turns out allocation and claim management for hundreds of millions of people, and allowing insurers and pharma to be price-makers, is more expensive than just giving the hospitals what they need on a regular basis.

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[–] GraniteM@lemmy.world 10 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

Here's Life Expectancy vs. Healthcare Expenditure, and there you can see Americans on average living about as long as people in Turkey or Poland while spending dramatically more than people in Germany or Switzerland.

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[–] Forbo@lemmy.ml 7 points 4 weeks ago

We're already paying more money for worse care. So dumb.

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[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 47 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Funny how Reagan ran on fiscal responsibility, gutted social programs and then spent all that money on military crap and subsidies for industrialist pals. It's never been different. Even the tea-party was miserly about social programs but happy to give the military everything it wanted (but not to improve the DVA and things to improve the lives of soldiers were right out.)

And yet somehow who's going to pay for it is regarded as a valid argument even though these social programs would be a tiny fraction of what we spend on our toys for killing people.

[–] EdgeOfDistraction@lemmy.world 19 points 4 weeks ago

Reagan didn't just spend the money from social programs: he changed the US from the biggest creditor nation to the biggest debtor nation to fund the military.

[–] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 46 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

Libertarians be like "But with free healthcare, I would pay for liver treatment for alcoholics, and lung treatment for cig smokers! No one will incentivized to live healthy lives!"

[–] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 29 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

They already do, though, that's what insurance is. They're just paying for the premium luxury version of liver treatment.

[–] zbyte64@awful.systems 9 points 4 weeks ago

American Libertarians would be okay with many of the contracts we consider illegal, like ejecting people with pre-existing conditions.

[–] naught101@lemmy.world 12 points 4 weeks ago

Yeah, well the rest of us will have to pay for their bear mauling injuries

[–] pyre@lemmy.world 7 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (2 children)

I think I found a way to convince them. we can say that with free healthcare kids under 18 will be able to go to a hospital and ask for treatment b without their parents because they won't need money anyway and doctors would want to keep their medical history confidential.

if kids can make healthcare decisions without their parents getting involved, that would be a first step towards lowering the age of consent!

I made it up but if we make it sound convincing they'll be advocating for free healthcare in no time.

[–] Zink@programming.dev 8 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Unfortunately i think “Medical privacy” is going to scream “abortion” to your target audience.

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[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 39 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

You can also take a fairly selfish view and come to the same conclusion. Like, I don't want to see homeless encampments, or really sick and untreated people, or panhandlers, or (...) while I'm walking around in my city. I can solve this problem by 1) moving to a nice suburb, or 2) having my tax dollars go to fix a problem that affects me. 1) is off the table because I want to live in the city, and 2)


while it helps the greater good


also helps me directly. (2 can also be addressed in a draconian fashion, which is not what I'm advocating at all.)

I think one problem is looking at things as zero sum. It's not. If you are healthy and housed and fed then you're not


to be very crass


an eyesore, you're adding to the fabric of the city. I want street musicians who are playing for fun, not because they're trying to make enough to afford dinner.

[–] HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com 30 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

This is something I just don't get how so many folks don't seem to get it. Social safety nets make just a better overall environment to live in. Most people work jobs interacting with other people and have all sorts of things outside of work interacting with people. Ideally they are clean, healthy, educated, and are happy in the sense they are not worried about their prospects for basic necessities like food and shelter.

[–] YtA4QCam2A9j7EfTgHrH@infosec.pub 18 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

There is some percentage of people that simple can not think in any other way than zero sum games. Every transaction, interaction, etc needs to have winners and losers. They can’t see that some spending is good because it helps people which in turn helps them. It is a completely alien world view that I also don’t understand. They are the foot soldiers for fascism.

[–] zea_64@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 4 weeks ago

I was gonna joke that they must not have friends then, but that's actually a pretty common problem.

[–] shani66@ani.social 28 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

Man, why are Republicans so fucking stupid? Even the greediest toplofty would benefit more from universal healthcare than they'd lose.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 23 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (2 children)

The thing that really grinds my gears about neoliberal capitalism is that isn't even good at capitalism. It is just mathematical fact that healthy and happy workers make you more money, and are more than happy to work harder for luxuries (that, by the way, improve your consumerist economy) than stressing themselves into an early grave over necessities, all while breeding more workers for you to exploit.

That's not even getting into the kind of moronic system that rewards CEOs for selling off productive company assets and calling it record profits, bonus please!

[–] shani66@ani.social 7 points 3 weeks ago

I might not be a good lefty for saying it, but I've never been against capitalism at like a base level. I imagine it'd be perfectly fine in a species evolution didn't utterly fail, but example says we humans cannot have it and remain functional.

[–] voldage@lemmy.world 5 points 4 weeks ago

I believe that it's much less about profits and much more about power. Being unbeliveably wealthy in a world where everyone have their every need satisfied is less favourable for a megalomaniac than being believeably wealthy in a world where everyone is desperate. People rarely desire expensive jewelery or other (relative) luxuries for their own satisfaction, usually it's used to signify wealth and show power. What use would those extremely rich psychopaths have for their money if there was no human black market to buy a child sex slave from? Where would they get their dose of praise and submission if no one desperately wished to change their dire living conditions and was willing to licktheir boots for that chance? I think capitalism was designed specifically for this purpose, and with class divide growing ever wider, it fulfills it excellently.

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[–] desktop_user@lemmy.blahaj.zone 23 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

if I'm paying for the creation of skeletons, I expect to receive some in the mail.

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[–] WaxedWookie@lemmy.world 13 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The US has by far the most expensive healthcare in the world, and for all that expense, achieves outcomes comparable with the third world.

Negotiating with providers as a single payer massively shifts the dynamic by putting the negotiating power in the hands of the people representing patients, and allows a huge amount of bloat to be removed from the system - like the entire insurance industry.

Single payer will deliver huge savings, better healthcare, and better access. The people that lose are the grifters draining the system for profit.

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[–] Banana_man@reddthat.com 7 points 4 weeks ago

this band is very based from what I have seen

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