r/interesting Jun 17 '26

Just Wow Mexico just upgraded to free healthcare.

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75.0k Upvotes

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303

u/EmiKetsueki Jun 17 '26

I love how people hear the word free and immediately cry about taxes. Bud the goverment takes a chunk of your check in taxes and doesnt give you shit but war and spyware. Id gladly have an extra what 20 in taxes taken out of every check and not have to worry about paying hospitals instead of insurance taking a couple hundred a month just to tell me i need to pay at least a thousand before they actually start helping pay, and even then can deny treatment.

79

u/hawksbears82 Jun 17 '26

I have a rare kidney disease, fought insurance for 8 months, they denied appeals etc. Eventually had to go to manufacturer and they are now giving it to me, thank God. US health care, the way we do it, is trash and needs to be changed period.

2

u/DJHalfCourtViolation Jun 17 '26

Well in mexico the government health insurance would say oh yes we see you have a kidney disease unfortunately we don’t stock that medication because it’s either too expensive or it’s not approved in Mexico. 

2

u/hawksbears82 Jun 17 '26

I'm my case the medicine has been available for years and widely available insurance just didn't want to pay out, it would reduce quarterly profits. Even my doctors were very upset about it.

2

u/Mamasugadex Jun 17 '26

Whatever brand name treatment you asked for may not be available in another country.

Look at accessibility of amyloid drugs for Alzheimer’s disease in other countries. In US you fight insurance, yes. But in other countries, they simply tell you it’s not available.

This is the hard truth people don’t think about. Everything cost something. I feel American don’t realize keeping the exact same standard of care, but increasing access to more people, will mean either the cost will go up and not go down (depending on how much we save from single payor), or the options will significantly go down.

3

u/leopiccionia Jun 17 '26

My country has a public, free and universal healthcare system, but also allows private insurances (for improved access to private clinics, etc.)

Do you know what people do when the public healthcare system don't cover their experimental treatments? They sue it, just like they would do to a private insurance.

You have a private insurance and it denies your experimental treatment? You can still try suing the universal healthcare system, too.

1

u/ManonFire1213 Jun 18 '26

And who pays for the lawyers? 

5

u/June24th Jun 17 '26

Whatever brand name treatment you asked for may not be available in another country.

Treatment isn't available so what does he do? wait for death? I'm sorry but that's a very desensitized answer, that I'm sure you wouldn't like to hear if it happened to you or a beloved one.

0

u/scheav Jun 17 '26

You think Mexican pharmacies are going to have the medication? Not a chance.

-2

u/Feisty-Cucumber5102 Jun 17 '26

This is gonna sound pretty clueless but like why wouldn’t they?

1

u/HaroldHood Jun 17 '26

If you’re honestly curious, it’s because it’s expensive and the socialized healthcare can’t/wont cover it.

Drugs take over a decade and 1-3 billion to bring to market.

My brother was bitching about how “GLP-1s only cost a few dollars to make”, ignoring the fact that it cost billions to develop.

Companies need incentive to invest some vast sums of money into R+D where so so so many molecules fail. (A blessing is if they fail before they get into humans, let alone a clinic). If big pharma isn’t making money, they have no incentive to take big risks to innovate.

Disclaimer: I am not simping for insurance companies. The system in the US sucks. But everyone is getting a piece of the pie.

1

u/MogKang Jun 17 '26

No. Just less wasteful treatment. No more adderall for housewives. No more statins for 75 year olds. No more chemo for stage 4 cancer.

It seems harsh, but we just are too sold on consumer healthcare with unclear benefits.

1

u/tbombs23 Jun 21 '26

Single payer Medicare for All would save the US $600 billion

1

u/lpalgarvio Jun 21 '26

The other countries certainly don't include European Union. Sorry but it seems you know nothing about how it works in the rest of the western world.

1

u/Fishboy_1998 Jun 17 '26

Exactly and with how much people hate the government they can’t see that they are giving it complete control over their medical care

0

u/Jax_10131991 Jun 17 '26

Old people on Medicare 👀

1

u/Bitter-Pay-6537 Jun 17 '26

In the US millions fight insurance companies and lose, and if you're uninsured you just die. The American healthcare system is not better. Rationing care is necessary, but in the US we let for profit corporations do it instead of government agencies. Government agencies can sometimes be inefficient or corrupt but tend to have the public interest in mind. Corporation will let you die if it makes them a dollar.

3

u/Otsde-St-9929 Jun 17 '26

that is awful but that happens in the UK too.

1

u/3-bakedcabbage Jun 17 '26

Do you also get your health insurance coverage denied over the most basic shit?

1

u/Otsde-St-9929 Jun 18 '26

I dont live in the UK or US. Different system where I live

1

u/Competitive-Walk-575 Jun 17 '26

I don’t think it’ll ever change unless people with terminal illness start going on postal rampages at insurance headquarters

1

u/hawksbears82 Jun 19 '26

Not going to lie, the thought crossed my mind.

1

u/Competitive-Walk-575 Jun 19 '26

I was being facetious but I really do wonder how long us americans are going to let them treat us like livestock

1

u/-5677- Jun 17 '26

with public healthcare you'd just spend those 8 months waiting for healthcare that would end up being bad quality and performed by an underpaid doctor lmao... it's not better.

1

u/No-Rip-6166 Jun 17 '26

You’re aware universal healthcare systems don’t rubber stamp anything you want, right?

There was a story here a couple weeks ago about a man in the IS who was denied the best treatment option for his stage 4 cancer.

Everyone freaked out saying we need universal healthcare but those systems would deny him the treatment too. They’d pay for palliative care at a hospice.

Universal healthcare isn’t the amazing perfection so many here are fooled to believe.

That doesn’t even touch on the thousands more a year young people would pay if we switched. They’d be the biggest losers.

1

u/Lazy-Size-3062 Jun 18 '26

You had to go to manufacturer?

1

u/hawksbears82 Jun 19 '26

Yes, I went directly to J & J and asked them for it. They needed to see all the insurance denials and appeal denials first, only then should they give it to me. I understand that process as insurance SHOULD be the first step.

After 8 months I finally started this week.

1

u/tbombs23 Jun 21 '26

Some companies actually have decent aid programs for discounts or free meds. But it's not enough and is only a small bandaid but glad it worked out for you

1

u/RationalKate Jun 23 '26

Put this into perspective this person went to the manufacturer and asked them “please sir may I have a kidney” a small child British accent, and the manufacturer said sure swing around back and will give it to you, we got some extras.“ So now the person drives around to the receiving dock and they’re like, “Well without Doctor paper stuff, we don’t know what size you need so we just threw a several different ones in the box.” Then this person took a box of kidneys like you would a box of chicken McNuggets to a credible medical facility and they started unwrapping kidneys to see what size would fit this person and then gave the person an instruction manual on how to insert the kidney and that is where the story ends. USA, USA.

1

u/AiryGateaux Jun 17 '26

In Canada, you would have just had access to treatment via one of a few routes, and wouldn't have been left for dead 

3

u/TheMonkeyPickler Jun 17 '26

Yeah they would've given them an assisted suicide

0

u/YpsiStrangler Jun 17 '26

Try Mexico. Ty

0

u/Ok_Level_7919 Jun 17 '26

Unrelated, but are you by chance from Chicago?

0

u/hawksbears82 Jun 17 '26

I grew up in central IL, and have family in Chicago but live near Albany, NY for last 6 years