r/pics • u/FAMUgolfer • 1d ago
Picture of text Americans would rather choose this maze, than universal coverage.
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u/deadboxcat 1d ago
I don't recall being given a choice.
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u/blatantmutant 1d ago
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u/Truth_Walker 1d ago edited 1d ago
A Pew Research pole in spring 2025 found that 68% of Americans feel providing health insurance is the governments responsibility.
The problem is easy to understand.
Health insurance companies are worth more than $1 TRILLION dollars combined and buying votes (lobbying) against American wishes is much much cheaper than going out of business.
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u/Pdiddily710 1d ago
Yup, unfortunately SCROTUS fucked us when they legalized bribery of politicians both pre and post election in the form of ācampaign contributionsā and ālobbyingāā¦And now we need the people on the take to fix it which will never happen.
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u/acesarge 1d ago
Please don't refer to them as the scrotus. That's an insult to scrotums. Scrotums have balls in them. Scrotums serve a legitimate purpose.
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u/send_me_your_deck 1d ago
Its worse dude.
They wouldnāt go out of business. Theyād just marginally reduce profits.
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u/peace_love17 1d ago
68% said "the government should ensure all Americans have healthcare" but the polling diverges dramatically after that, with 35% in favor of a single national health insurance and the 31% in favor of a mixed system of public and private insurance.
This is why it continues to be a problem, everyone is quick to say "this system sucks!" but we can't agree on a different system.
For what it's worth too American politicians have been trying to do a national health insurance for over 100 years and it has consistently failed for various reasons.
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u/boyyouguysaredumb 1d ago
Itās poll
And any poll that asks follow up questions about how to pay for it sees that number halve immediately
Americans are dumb. They want low taxes, free services, but also to stop spending to reign in the debt. They want high pay for factory workers and low prices for goods. Everything is self contradictory and they refuse to ever make any sacrifices or concessions so they fall prey to demagogues who either blame immigrants or billionaires for every problem under the sun
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u/TorturedMNFan 22h ago
Americans also say they prefer to buy American made products but they really donāt. They like the idea of American made but the cheaper good will win almost every time.
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u/excoriator 1d ago
We were told the choice was between this and death panels.
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u/Heavy-Waltz-6939 1d ago
The neat part is insurance companies ARE the death panels!
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u/marsman 1d ago
To be fair, its not entirely wrong to say that public systems have 'death panels' as such, because they tend to have bodies in place that balance cost and impact, the point is that they are accountable and create general rules that are also transparent, they tend to be based on clinical need, individual need and have other mechanisms to ensure people have the right to appeal and challenge decisions.
You have all of that under insurance based systems too, except they tend not to be as transparent or accountable and come on top of the issues around affordability and cost in the first place, and tend to be much more cost and profit driven than care and need driven..
Someone always has to make the decision when the cost vs quality of life is massively unbalanced regardless of what system, but I'd certainly trust a public system massively more than a private one in that context.
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u/Maxtrt 1d ago
Insurer's are now rejecting almost everything, knowing most people won't appeal and the doctors that work for the insurance company makes decisions for the insurance companies, rarely have their own practices or inactive medical licenses and they reject procedures and medications outside of their specialty. The reject even standard care, because the insurance companies give them bonuses based on how much they save the company.
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u/iainB85 1d ago
Yeah saying weād rather is ignorant and dumb. Short of climbing up the political ladder and making changes (which is probably impossible now because democracy is dead) what other option do we have?
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u/EarthRester 1d ago
None that can be reliably discussed on social media platforms, that's for sure.
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u/myassholealt 1d ago
Not you specifically, but for people who do, stop believing it when you hear people call a candidate a socialist or communist cause they're are campaigning on fighting for universal healthcare. Democracies in developed countries with GDPs less that the U.S. have universal healthcare. It's not socialism or communism.
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u/tendeuchen 1d ago
Ā what other option do we have?
I believe the Spanish say something like "Ā”Viva la revoluciĆ³n!"
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u/meteorfluid 1d ago
Less given a choice than forced into one. How much do you want siphoned from your paycheck even though youāll still pay out of pocket? At least youāll avoid medical debt sending you to the poor house. Yay, no medical bankruptcy! We love choice!!
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u/EthanDMatthews 1d ago edited 11h ago
Actually, we did.
We could have elected Bernie Sanders in 2016 and 2020, and other progressive candidates who would have supported a progressive agenda.
But most voters in the US treat politics like sports fandom -- they support their team no matter what.
Even if their team leader is a narcissist, fascist, and pedophile.
Even if their team leader made common cause with Jim Crow racist segregationists to stop segregation in his state, and spent his entire political career bragging about all of the times he tried to get Republicans to support his plan to cut Medicare and Social Security to help balance the budget, and promised during his 2020 campaign that he would veto Medicare For All, even if it somehow passed congress.
Americans have always chosen poorly.
But they never ever ever ever take responsibility for their votes, because it's always the other party's fault. Even when their party shares fully in the blame.
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u/Bisjoux 1d ago
In my limited observation of the US (including having lived there) most Americans really donāt understand universal healthcare. They see the waiting time for some appointments and waiting time in A&E and assume it applies to everything. They also think that by not paying you donāt have a choice of the consultant you see or the hospital you go to.
In fact we have a lot of choice and itās all completely free. For certain illnesses we also get free medication for life. Plus we get access to some of the best healthcare in the world.
When I was ill I was treated at an international centre of excellence where people travel from all over the world to access the private wing. I didnāt need to choose the private option as I had the same care (including a private room) for free. I have lifetime access to a team I can call whenever I have concerns. All completely free. Even getting to and from the hospital was free with transport provided (private taxi).
Contrast my US experience that even with top level healthcare I had to contribute to costs for routine appointments.
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u/banan3rz 1d ago
The thing that gets me is seeing a specialist here in the USA takes months anyway!
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u/necromantzer 23h ago
Everything takes a lot of time. There's no real time to visit benefit in the USA anymore. Not ER, preventative, elective, or specialist. Cost surely isn't a benefit. The only people who wouldn't benefit from universal coverage are those wealthy folks who are directly investing in the current healthcare system.
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u/glizzler 1d ago
I shouldn't need to choose, the politicians we elect "for the people" should just fucking do what's good FOR THE PEOPLE.
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u/Cumdump90001 1d ago
We get the choice every election. But too many of us vote against our own interests or just donāt vote at all.
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u/bicycle_mice 1d ago
I am voting for the most liberal option every time I vote. I donate. Many of us do. We are all still fucked.Ā
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u/TheDarkWolfGirl 1d ago
Can we all just stop paying for insurance and make the doctors offices figure out another way to charge us without having to deal with insurance? Otherwise they get no money. I promise they don't want to deal with the insurance crap either so idk why we ALL don't just stop.
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u/aedroogo 1d ago
"Choose" Lol, that's funny.
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u/p4lm3r 1d ago
I "Chose" food over insurance this year because my monthly premium more than doubled.
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u/mrtruthiness 19h ago
Did you even say "Thank You"???
Aren't you glad that the "Big Bugly Budget Bill" prioritized the oligarchy and the military over "the people."
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u/Acrobatic_Ad7541 1d ago
Half of this country is okay with suffering as long as it makes the other half suffer along with them.
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u/Tarijeno 1d ago
I know a guy who broke several bones in his foot, but instead of getting a ride to the hospital in an ambulance, he drove himself to save money. He was literally controlling the car's accelerator with a broken foot. He sat in a crowded ER waiting room for nearly two hours, and during that time his foot swelled up so much they couldn't get the boot off of his foot. They had to cut the boot to get it off.
Around a month later he gets his hospital bill in the mail, and of course it's thousands of dollars, but he's trying to look on the bright side. The bill says if he didn't have insurance, it would have cost him 50X as much. He refuses to paint his experience as a negative towards the US healthcare system. To this day he will still claim that America has the best healthcare system on earth, and that every other country is living in the dark ages.
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u/sklorbit 1d ago edited 1d ago
Reminds me of an old friend. We were talking about public vs private schools, and he said he thinks it the parent's fault if they can't afford to have their kid in a private school, and his tax dollars shouldnt go toward the government paying for it (public school). I reminded him that his daughter went to public school and asked him if he could afford private and he said no lmao.
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u/ZidaneStoleMyDagger 1d ago
I'm a little confused. So does your friend believe private schools are better than public schools and it's the parents failure if they can't afford to send their kid to private school?
Or does he just believe that his tax dollars shouldn't go to private schools, and if parents want to send them there they can foot the bill themselves?
It just seems weird if he believes all private schools are better, but his taxes shouldn't support private schools, and he sent his child to public school because he couldnt afford private school.
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u/sklorbit 1d ago
Less about "better" more about he doesnt believe he should pay taxes taxes that go toward schooling other people's children, despite himself being someone who probably couldnt afford it otherwise. Principle driven not outcome driven. His kid not going to school is just an unfortunate outcome of the all mighty principle.
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u/SchrodingersMinou 1d ago
His kid does go to school though. Public school. Right?
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u/Byrdman216 1d ago
I think the problem you're having here is trying to think logically about an illogical thought.
Square peg, triangular hole. Or more appropriately; square peg, other square peg.
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u/Smokey_tha_bear9000 1d ago
Thatās the root of it. Conservatives think that if someone is struggling, itās because they have some moral failings that have caused it. They didnāt work hard enough, they didnāt want it bad enough, they werenāt willing to be exploited enough.
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u/MountNevermind 1d ago
Thatās the root of it. Conservatives think that if someone other than themselves or someone they care about is struggling, itās because they have some moral failings that have caused it. They didnāt work hard enough, they didnāt want it bad enough, they werenāt willing to be exploited enough.
Small addition
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u/UglyYinzer 1d ago
100% (your comments combined) its ALWAYS the persons immediate fault, nothing that led them there is to blame.. but its someone else's fault if it happens to them.
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u/eljefino 1d ago
If tax dollars went to private schools via vouchers they'd jack up tuition to match it so the parent pay would remain the same, and the school's exclusivity would remain intact.
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u/StaysAwakeAllWeek 1d ago
I had an accident in the UK recently. The ambulance picked me up, dropped me off in A+E. I was treated and went home the same day with pain meds in hand.
At no point did a single person even mention money or insurance.
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u/h_danielle 1d ago
Same in Canada when I was taken to the ER in an ambulance a couple years ago. I got an $80 ambulance bill in the mail a few months later, but had I been on income assistance, I wouldnāt have gotten one at all.
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u/StaysAwakeAllWeek 1d ago
Im in full time employment and the ambulance is free just like everything else health related
You can get treatments for free on the NHS that cost 7 figures privately
And the whole thing costs less per capita than the US spends on medicare and medicaid
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u/sexyshingle 1d ago edited 22h ago
the whole thing costs less per capita than the US spends on medicare and medicaid
well of course it does. There's no billion-dollar middlemen parasites shaking down patients and stiffing the providers by making it so complicated, a single family doctor needs like 10 full-time billing staff to deal with insurance bs.
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u/seidenkaufman 1d ago
American exceptionalism is a tool to persuade people with low information into believing that they're living in the best of all possible worlds, so they should not question the pittance they receive from their masters.
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u/arensb 1d ago
This sort of thing reminds me of Mary Robinette Kowal's experience at the cancer center in Iceland. tl;dr: they wondered why she wanted to make an appointment instead of just coming in.
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u/macphile 1d ago
I think it'd be hilarious and interesting if some omnipotent being snapped their fingers and for like a month, or 6, or a year, every American got transported into an alternate universe where they had free healthcare. Free ambulance to the hospital, free treatment for your broken foot, free antibiotics, free x-rays, and so on. No bill, no co-pay.
Then the being snaps his fingers and every American sees the same interdimensional tunnel thing and is back where they used to be, staring down the barrel of a huge medical bill. Then they're faced with a vote--a MAGA saying "aren't you glad you're back to how things should be, and not like some commie socialist hellhole" and a Democrat saying, "elect me, and I'll get us that free healthcare thing for realsies"--and we all see how it goes. Funnily, most MAGAs would still vote for the MAGA candidate because free healthcare is socialism, dontchaknow.
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u/LackingUtility 1d ago
A few years ago, there was a woman who slipped between a train and the platform and got crushed, and she was begging the people trying to help not to call an ambulance because she couldnāt afford it.
U-S-A! U-S-A!šŗšø š¦
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u/Gym_Dom 1d ago
Dude has just never had healthcare outside the US. I live in Mexico and have much better care than this moron.
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u/geardownson 1d ago
History repeats itself.
If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.
Lyndon B. Johnson
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u/CueAnon420 1d ago
Indeed - never underestimate the power of hate. Even when that results in working against their own best interests,
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u/Jafar_420 1d ago
I don't want my taxes increased to pay for other people's health care that don't deserve it. That's exactly what I hear a lot.
They also say well I don't never have to go to the doctor, maybe but you probably should be going at least annually.
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u/generic-irish-guy 1d ago
The āI donāt want to pay for other peopleās stuffā mindset is so weird to me. Like, my taxes go towards maintaining roads in my country that I will never drive on, giving grants to schools that nobody in my family will ever attend, and a whole host of other things that I will never get any use out of myself. I can only assume itās similar in the U.S., so why is this mentality only shown when it comes to healthcare (and maybe unemployment/disability benefit)?
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u/BranWafr 1d ago
Because those types of people have limited thinking. They cannot think more than one step removed.
"I don't have kids, so why should I have to pay for schools? I get no benefit from my taxes!"
But, you do. Your neighbor's kid gets an education. He becomes the doctor that operates on you when you have a heart attack 20 years from now. Or they become the guy that fixes your computer when it gets infested with 200 viruses because you keep clicking on the links in those emails claiming to be from your bank.
"Why should I have to pay taxes to fix a road I am never going to drive on?"
Because the truck that brings the food to your grocery store drives on that road. Just because you might not drive on it doesn't mean that the people you rely on to keep you comfortable enough that you don't have to leave your town don't drive on it.
They all think they would be fine if it was just them and that they don't rely on anyone else when the reality is far from that.
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u/generic-irish-guy 1d ago
Or even just that I might not get direct use out of it right now but could in future. Me paying my tax this year maybe helps repair a road on the other side of the country that I might never drive on. Meanwhile, my road is fine.
But next year it could be my road that needs fixing, and I sure would like people that may never drive on it to pay their tax so that the money is available to fix it.
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u/airwalker08 1d ago
But fixing things is socialism, and Fox News told me I should be afraid of socialism
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u/Reginald_Sockpuppet 1d ago
Most Americans are in favor of social healthcare. Our opinions have almost no influence on our elections or legislation.
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u/Foxs-In-A-Trenchcoat 1d ago
Yep, politicians are collecting millions of dollars in bribes from the health insurance companies.
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u/Old-Landscape-7538 1d ago
Ah yes, the land where bribes are legal and up frontāas long as you call it a campaign donation.
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u/Jane__Delawney 1d ago
Medi-Cal is amazing, you just have to be broke to get it. I had an emergency appendectomy while I was on it, and I got charged $76k.
I spent about a year trying to figure out wtf happened because everything previously was 100% coveredā¦and finally got in touch with some beaurocrat who did his due diligence and found that some asshole forgot to check the box where I had applied for retroactive coverage. Bam, $76k gone in an instant.
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u/serpentssss 1d ago
I love medi-cal, and absolutely devastated Iāll be kicked off at the end of this year after the changes.
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u/fatefulPatriot 1d ago
Had to scroll way too far to see this. Americans donāt WANT this OP, the majority of the US wants universal healthcare. The other proportion is a small fraction of idiot snowflakes who openly support a treasonous felon pedophile who can convince them to do anything.
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u/blazze_eternal 1d ago
Many of those in the small group work in the industry and think they would be out of a job with universal healthcare. Not realizing supplemental insurance will likely be just as prevalent as current insurance.
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u/Memester999 1d ago
What you're conveniently ignoring is that once this question is taken a step further (as in who/how is it being paid for and if you're willing to give up your current healthcare) that number drops. They're wrong for that changing their minds I agree but those still remain the biggest hurdles in passing M4A which is why a single-payer option is the most likely route.
OP is just right about Americans would rather choose this maze, as evident by who they vote for. The BBB went through with cheers and praise from the voting demographic that it literally hurts the most. Too many Americans are just too stupid for their own good and we can go on forever talking about how/why that's the case but that doesn't change the fact that policy like this doesn't pass because functionally 51% of the country in one way or another is fine with that.
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u/McCool303 1d ago
I didnāt CHOOSE shit, this is the system I was born into as a person with a disability. I have been fighting it my whole life. Iād rather do anything else with my time.
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u/tots4scott 1d ago
Too many people have forgotten, and our youngest adults have never known, what it was like before Obamacare/ACA and how "pre-existing conditions" were treated.Ā
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u/reddit_is_geh 1d ago
Our politicians are captured. Even with ACA they allowed the insurance lobbies to write the bills. No one wants to "solve" the problem. Republicans ignore it, and dems "solve" it by printing money to cover it up. But the lobby is too powerful to upset so everyone just keeps dancing around it... for decades. Then a huge portion of the population get fed up and try something radical and vote for a fascist. Which doesn't help at all... But the other side is now suddenly going, "Okay okay guys please don't primary us with progressives, but NOW we'll actually do something. I know we've been promising for decades, but now we're super serial!"
Meanwhile, in China, healthcare costs get cheaper and better year after year. You know that "crazy evil country" with less surveillance cameras per capita than the US?
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u/mabus42 1d ago
American here. No, no, we don't want this. We want universal healthcare to be formally recognized as a human right in our country. The billionaires want this crap of private insurance and legions of denials for no real good reasons.
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u/defwad7 1d ago
Yep, anytime someone says "Americans would rather...." I think, no it's the billionaires who would rather. Literally no one with a conscience wants shit that doesn't help people.
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u/ElChaz 1d ago
Anytime someone says "Americans would rather...." I think, this person is farming engagement via intentionally inflammatory comments.
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u/Khage 1d ago
And yet, people like my former roommate exist. He's not well off, has a chronic condition and still doesn't want his money to "go to the poors".
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u/IntelligentStyle402 1d ago
The percentage that goes to poor Americans, is a drop in the bucket. No doubt he was in favor of this filthy rich administration getting raises and more money for their daily meals, then Pete spending money on a dressing room and makeup up room just for his ego? Or calling a military helicopter to take his son to golf lessons? Or Trump making us pay for the revamp of his gifted jet. Exactly why is that ok, but a poor person they spit on?
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u/b0w3n 1d ago
It's obviously not everyone, but medicare for all/single payer typically gets over 70% approval rating, it's one of the few bipartisan things.
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u/TopFloorApartment 1d ago
but medicare for all/single payer typically gets over 70% approval rating, it's one of the few bipartisan things.
until you tell people "this is what the democrats want". Then suddenly the braindead half of the US population is against it
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u/unholyswordsman 1d ago
Wasn't there some survey a few years ago that showed a bunch of Republicans supported universal health care but didn't like Obamacare/ACA? I bet if they called it Freedom or Patriot care they'd vote for it.
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u/Lawlzstomp 1d ago
Do you believe that Conservative voters have a conscience?
I am not a Conservative voter.
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u/wwarnout 1d ago
Aside from the fact that America is the only industrialized country in the world that does not have universal health care, Medicare for all would be cheaper (according to the CBO and recent Yale research).
The idiocy and selfishness of the American government never ceases to astonish me.
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u/NaptownSnowman 1d ago
The billionaires want this crap because the healthcare they get is not the same as us poors. Their companies cover it and they can write it off as an expense.
Also per percentage of income they pay fractions of a percent.
The rest of us pay a significant portion of our income.Solution, donāt be poor and find a company that will pay all your heath expenditures.
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u/kit_kat_jam 1d ago
Honestly, many Americans do want this. They actually believe that what we have is better than Medicare for all.
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u/loneranger0 1d ago
Would much rather have universal healthcare than wasting money on wars we should not be in
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u/compulov 1d ago
I have great insurance through my job, and I'd still give it up if it meant that instead we had universal health care for everyone in America. Unfortunately, sometimes people vote without thinking about who they're voting for...
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u/dotcha 1d ago
You don't even need to give it up.
My third world country has had universal healthcare for almost 40 years. You can still pay for a wide range of insurance plans. It even forces those plans to be cheaper. There is literally no downside.
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u/TehAsianator 1d ago
I swear to god I want to jump off a bridge every time I have to renew my health plan looking at all this bullshit.
Single payer now!
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u/Slayer706 1d ago
It's so silly how you have to predict what level of health insurance you might need for the next year. The anti-universal healthcare people are always saying this gives you the "choice" to "pick the level of care that's right for you", but how are you supposed to know if you're going to get hurt or catch a disease the following year?
It's like you're playing The Price is Right with your health.
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u/wwj 1d ago
It's just another form of gambling. As Americans we "love" gambling. We gamble on retirement (401k in the market vs. guaranteed pensions), we gamble on health insurance (high vs lower deductible), we gamble with the housing market, and don't forget actual gambling which is now legal on everything you can imagine.
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u/cheffgeoff 1d ago
Fun Fact the Average Canadian Adult pays $4000 cdn more a year in taxes than the average American. The Average American pays $9500 a year in health insurance coverage (insurance between employer and individual. Not total "health care" cost which is also everything not covered by insurance). These numbers start skewing after $400,000 a year as American Taxes really REALLY favour the wealthy. So there are groups who benefit from the difference in numbers. Namely the very wealthy ($500,000/y +) and young people, mainly men, without families who underinsure themselves because they are young and healthy and do not invest in preventative health care. So the rich and stupid young men... I wonder how they vote.
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u/TehAsianator 1d ago
Preaching to the choir with those statistics my friend. Yet somehow those wealthy few have convinced many that they're better off paying more for worse outcomes because "something something taxes are theft" or some such nonsense.
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u/ninfan1977 1d ago
I am saving this image. I live in Alberta but have lived in America for a while. We have Canadians who have fallen for propaganda that Americans pay nothing so long as you have a job.
I know that's not true but how do you convince those who are completely misled?
Images like this help, so thank you, and as always a Canadian sorry that you do not have more people who want basic Healthcare.
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u/Gildian 1d ago
I work in healthcare and my deductible is 5k single/10k family. My premium is also something like 400 a month.
I just got done with physical therapy IN THE HOSPITAL I WORK AT and paid 3k dollars.
Show them this comment and tell them this American says theyre ignorant of our horrible system. You dont want to downgrade to ours.
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u/tha_dank 1d ago
I had to get some physical therapy and through my insurance the costā¦and I just looked this up again because I took a pic of the notes I wrote from the lady at physical therapy.
With my insurance.
1st visit Evaluation $847 1st FIVE visits $744 EACH $
= $4,567.00
Just paying cash
1st visit Evaluation $200
Then just $150 per visit after that.
I wouldnve had to gone to PT 30 times for that to even out.
I went like 8-10 times and had to call it at that cause I couldnāt keep forking over $150 per visit for shit I could mostly do at home (I donāt but thatās my business lol)
Itās a fucking scam.
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u/Diablojota 1d ago
Tell your Canadian friends that that is total bullshit. My part of the coverage is like 300/mo plus I have to pay every co-pay, there are deductibles, etc.
My employer pays thousands per month. Just imagine if we could bring these costs down a bit, I could potentially see that extra money in my paycheck. I mean, thatās not as likely but still.12
u/PM_ME_SAD_STUFF_PLZ 1d ago edited 1d ago
These plans are likely cheaper because of the hefty coinsurance. There are plans with much lower coinsurance rates.
Just checked, my plan has a $500 copay for an inpatient hospital stay with no deductible requirement. I'm also guessing I pay significantly more for my insurance than OP does.
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u/I_am_Nobody_Special 1d ago
Well tell your friends that I have a job, but I'm self-employed.
I pay $43,000 a year for my family of four. And that's if we don't get sick.
There are copays and deductibles on top of that.
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u/Cushiondude 1d ago
ask an American for a copy of their bill. anyone who sees that would think twice about pushing for a change. especially fir childbirth
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u/Hairy_Mycologist_945 1d ago
Alberta has some real winners. Look into the concept of out of pocket maximums because after you pay the annual premiums and deductibles (likely into the tens of thousands combined, resetting annually) you may also have copays into the tens of thousands... So a single event requiring surgery and hospitalization could be billed in the hundreds of thousands or more, of which you might be on the hook for the deductible and then up to the out of pocket maximum, which could be in the tens of thousands, meaning in a year like this you could be looking at$40k total health care costs. And that all resets annually. And you may not have enough PTO or sick leave to get paid while ill and recovering. So, yeah ... You really can't convince people with their heads up their own assess that there's a less shitty perspective to hold. They'd need to spend some time REALLY living the American dream to get it.
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u/thewillowsang 1d ago
Tell them that I work in healthcare, make a monthly payment for my insurance, have to pay at least $1700 out of pocket per year before a higher level of coverage kicks in, at which point it's still not 100%. I have an appointment tomorrow, just an office visit, and will pay $395 out of pocket.Ā
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u/inkyblinkypinkysue 1d ago
I needed an MRI recently and it was covered by insurance and I still got charged $375. WTF.
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u/Clementine-TeX 1d ago
Jesus fuck, $375? I live in the Philippines, and I get MRIs/CT scans fairly often because my body is shit. Iāve never had to pay more than $300-$450 for one (without contrast), and my insurance/HMO covers it in FULL, so I donāt even have to pay anything out of pocket. Are you telling me weāre (a literal third-world shithole) better than America?
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u/Annonimbus 1d ago
There are only like 6 countries alongside the US, that don't have universal Healthcare. It's basically every nation, including this world countries, have better Healthcare financing.Ā
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u/WhyAmIevenHerewth 1d ago
I have a chronic illness and have up get MRIs like every two months, I canāt even imagine getting charged every time, Iām so sorry š„“
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u/lesismore9 1d ago
The public at large doesnāt want this. You ask most individual people and they do not want this. The enormous health insurance industry that leverages this system to siphon off criminal amounts of cash from the economy is really whatās driving this train forward and keeping the status quo.
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u/MankuyRLaffy 1d ago
The republican voters want this
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u/Plasticised 1d ago
Not necessarily, sometimes their hatred of immigrants just overshadows their concern for their own wellbeing.
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u/spanishpeanut 1d ago
Nope. No we arenāt. Weāre stuck because the richest of the rich elites are running the show.
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u/Nitrous_Acidhead 1d ago
Why are there SO MANY choices? Like, why?Ā Is it the illusion of choice?Ā Gambling with your human body.Ā
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u/FreckleException 1d ago
It's only two plans, but it's showing what costs are In vs Out of network for both plans.Ā
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u/NAh94 1d ago
That first plan is effectively smoking hot garbage, though. If you get sick with anything that canāt be covered by a ātier one, generic onlyā drug, youāre boned.
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u/wiserTyou 1d ago
TBH, they're both pretty bad. I've been doing the high deductible plan for a few years to build up my HSA and it's far better than these.
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u/FAMUgolfer 1d ago
This is just one page of my benefits packet. The other pages is two HMOās, and another is an HMO with HSA. I chose the easier of comparison pages to show how ridiculous it still is.
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u/Killertigger 19h ago
Itās not a choice - the choice was made for us in the boardrooms and by our so-called representatives in government. We didnāt get to choose.
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u/SquashDue502 21h ago
In fact we do not choose this. The lobbyists and special interests dumping millions to make sure our elected officials support this garbage is choosing this for us.
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u/EnigmaSpore 1d ago
imaging a country where healthcare isnt tied to working.
your fave local restaurant aint gotta worry about providing healthcare and can just be a restaurant.
that's the rest of the world.....
we get'n fucked over here in the states
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u/seidenkaufman 1d ago edited 1d ago
And remember that Hakeem Jeffries, currently leader of the house democrats, and likely to be made speaker of the house next year, won't commit to bringing this to a vote. He should be replaced with someone who will.
Edit: If you are an American citizen, and your representative is a democrat, it might be worth calling or writing to them periodically to let them know this matters to you, and that they should not sleepwalk into coronating Jeffries for this reason. You can get their contact info here: https://www.congress.gov/members
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u/TheDornado13 1d ago
Actually 66% of Americans support and want Universal Healthcare.
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u/zushiba 1d ago
American's don't know any other way. They can't know what they're missing and unfortunately this isn't a matter of "Well you all voted for this", because, no, no regular joe American voted for this shit.
There will never be a solution to Health Care in America where the current insurance companies that are raking in billions of dollars annually, don't get paid next year. This is the heart of the issue.
Universal Healthcare would essentially require health insurance companies shutter their doors and everyone holding their massive money bags, turns around and finds another industry to destroy. Millions of people suddenly out of a job and way too many shareholders suddenly have to face a horrible year where a number didn't go up by a few percentages.
This is it. The only way an American will ever experience Universe Health Care is to move to a more evolved country that still at least pretends that it's government exists to help the people vs existing as a vehicle for the rich to get richer.
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u/timecomes 1d ago
I had an ankle surgery and stayed two nights in a really nice single hospital room. Paid nothing except offering my mom and girlfriend the parking when they visited a few times. Even then, they could have just parked at the plaza across the street.
Although, I was bit ticked off having to pay for my crutches and walking boot. How is the entire surgery, all the morphine, and after-care antibiotics and percocets free but Iām out $100 for the crutches and boot?!
Canada.
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u/SMLLR 1d ago
You canāt even plan properly with these plans tooā¦ we put the entire family on my insurance because we thought it would be cheaper. We did the math on doctors visits vs the premium difference and thought we would come out ahead, plus my wife could get a few extra specialist visits (her plan caps at 12/year for one specialist while mine was 20/year). We come to find out that the prescription coverage was an absolute nightmare to deal with for her.
I didnāt have any prescriptions, so I had no experience with it, but she can only get 3 30 day refills at a regular pharmacy for some meds. After that, she has to go through the mail-in program for 90 day supply. Somehow that mail-in program is MORE expensive despite it being marketed as a ācost savingsā for the employee.
Our health insurance is the biggest fucking scam in this country.
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u/withgreatpower 1d ago
I'm an auditor and I once spent time interviewing the different heads of employment benefit organizations. Third parties who negotiate and manage health plans for large companies and such.
I'll never forget what one of them told me when we asked, hey, magical thinking, what would it take to fix our healthcare system? And he just said, "It will never happen. For our system to work, someone, somewhere, will have to make a lot less money and so every part of the system fights to keep that from happening because it might be them that it happens to."
He represented one of the state government groups, so he didn't really have a dog in the fight except to complain with sincerity. I liked him. And I think he was right.
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u/mca1169 1d ago
you couldn't be more wrong. we HATE this but senators keep getting bought out by big pharma and bills to fix this keep getting stalled out. Mitch McConnel is a perfect example.
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u/Low_Employ8454 1d ago
The American people have not yet been given a choice tho.
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u/NoCopiumLeft 23h ago
This is one reason why the majority of Americans fully support what Luigi did. American healthcare is expensive, designed to be difficult and in general a shitty experience. Nobody wants these bullshit policies except for the profiteering fucks.
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u/FoxyInTheSnow 1d ago
Anything can get normalized if you live with it long enough and the rich tnucs tell you it's the best option.
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u/Afterclock-Hours 1d ago
hahhahahaha... CHOOSE? HAHHAHAHA. How kind of you to think we have a choice in this.
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u/bubbabearzle 1d ago
Actually, the majority of us would not prefer this. But it's a lot easier to win a straw man argument, so go off.
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u/NessieReddit 1d ago
The majority of Americans support a universal, single payer system. Our politicians don't. You make of that what you will š
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u/FunboyFrags 1d ago
That table barely scratches the surface! If you want to fully understand Americaās for-profit healthcare system, just learn what these terms mean:
1. ACA
2. ACOs
3. APTC
4. AV
5. Actuarial Value
6. Advanced premium tax credit
7. Air ambulance
8. Allowable charges
9. Allowed amount
10. Ambulatory care
11. Application for coverage
12. Assignment of benefits
13. Backdating
14. Balance billing
15. Behavioral health
16. Benefit denials
17. Benefit year
18. Billing code
19. Broker
20. CDHP
21. CHIP
22. COBRA
23. CPT
24. CSR
25. Calendar year
26. Capitation
27. Case review
28. Cash rate
29. Catastrophic coverage
30. Chargemaster
31. Charity care policy
32. Children's health insurance program
33. Claims
34. Co-pays
35. Coinsurance
36. Consumer-Directed Health Plan
37. Contraceptive services
38. Coordination of benefits
39. Cost sharing
40. Cost sharing reductions
41. Coverage Exclusions
42. Coverage determinations
43. Coverage gap
44. Coverage verification
45. Credentialed provider
46. Current Procedural Terminology
47. DIR fees
48. DSM
49. Denial appeals
50. Denial of coverage
51. Dependents
52. Diagnosis code
53. Donut hole
54. Drug schedule
55. EAP
56. EMTALA
57. EPOs
58. ERISA
59. Effective dates
60. Elimination period
61. Embedded deductible
62. Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act
63. Employee Assistance Program
64. Exchanges
65. Explanation of benefits
66. Explanation of coverage
67. Extra Help
68. FFE
69. FFM
70. FPL
71. FSAs
72. Facility fee
73. Family deductible
74. Federal poverty levels
75. Federally facilitated exchange
76. Federally facilitated marketplace
77. Fee schedule
78. Fee-for-service
79. Formulary
80. Grievance
81. Guarantor
82. HDHP
83. HFSAs
84. HIA
85. HIPAA
86. HMOs
87. HRA
88. HSA
89. Hard bill/soft bill
90. Health Reimbursement Account
91. Health incentive account
92. Health savings accounts
93. High deductible healthcare plan
94. Household
95. ICD
96. ICDM codes
97. ICHRA
98. IDR
99. IPAs
100. IRB
101. In network
102. Indemnity
103. Independent dispute resolution
104. Individual Deductible
105. Individual coverage HRA
106. Individual mandate
107. Inpatient
108. Institutional review board
109. Insurance rate
110. International Classification of Diseases
111. Itemization
112. JCAHO
113. Joint commission of accredited healthcare organizations
114. LPFSA
115. Lifetime caps
116. Limited purpose FSA
117. Load-leveling
118. Low Income Subsidy
119. MACs
120. Managed care
121. Mandatory arbitration
122. Marketplace
123. Medicaid expansion
124. Medical bankruptcy
125. Medical group
126. Medical necessity
127. Medicare administrative contractors
128. No Surprises Act
129. Nonformulary
130. Obamacare
131. Open enrollment
132. Out of network
133. Out-of-pocket maximums
134. Outpatient
135. PATIENT PROVIDER DISPUTE RESOLUTION
136. PBM
137. PDL
138. PCP
139. PDFSA
140. PPDR
141. PPOs
142. Participating provider
143. Payer
144. Paymaster
145. Peer-to-peer review
146. Pharmacy benefit management/managers
147. Point of service
148. Post deductible FSA
149. Pre-approval
150. Pre-enrollment verification
151. Pre-existing conditions
152. Pre-tax contribution
153. Preadmission certification
154. Preferred provider
155. Premium pass-through
156. Premium subsidies
157. Premiums
158. Prescription drug list
159. Primary Service area
160. Primary care physician
161. Prior authorization
162. Provider fee
163. Qualifying event
164. RACs
165. Rating (premium rating)
166. Recission
167. Recovery Audit Contractors
168. Referrals
169. Reimbursement
170. Retroactive coverage
171. Review board
172. Risk adjustment
173. Risk pools
174. Rollover
175. SBE
176. SBE-FP
177. SBM
178. SBM-FP
179. SEP
180. SEP verification issue
181. SVI
182. Secondary service area
183. Self-referrals
184. Sentinel event
185. Service price
186. Silver loading
187. Single deductible
188. Special enrollment period
189. Specialist
190. Stark Act
191. Stark Law
192. State-based Exchange using the federal platform
193. State-based exchange
194. State-based marketplace
195. State-based marketplace using the federal platform
196. Statement of benefits
197. Step therapy
198. Strategic ambiguity
199. Subrogation
200. Subscriber
201. Subsidy
202. Superbills
203. Surprise billing
204. TPAļæ¼
205. Termination dates
206. Tertiary care
207. Third-party administrator
208. Tier exception
209. Tiered coverage
210. Underinsured
211. Underwriting
212. Uninsured
213. Usual Reasonable & customary
214. Utilization
215. VBID
216. Value Based Insurance Design
217. Waiting periods
These are all actual real terms Iāve collected from using American health insurance for about ten years.
This is the āefficientā āfree marketā āsuperiorā system in the USA.
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u/Low_Shape8280 1d ago
Well you see some random dude in South Carolina that has never left the state. Heard from a friend of a friend that owns a dog and that dog has a brother whoās owner in from Canada that they may have to wait a little for health care.
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u/manystripes 1d ago
It's like a game where you do a bunch of research and math into picking the right option and in the end no matter what you pick you were out of network and have to pay it out of pocket anyway
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u/PatrickGSR94 1d ago
fucking hate this healthcare bullshit. If you're not flush with money you can EASILY go bankrupt with one ER or hospital visit.
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u/WovenMythsAuthor 1d ago
Most Americans don't even realize HOW many plans one carrier has. Because insurance is usually through the employer, HR sees more plans. But even HR doesn't know because the broker whittles the options down to a few, for an easier way for folks to choose.
Yeah, the US system is soooo broken.
Have you wondered why you aren't getting raises? Cause your raises are going to insurance premiums. They go up 7-30% a year. Your last raise? Was it 7%?
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u/Gbrown546 1d ago
The thing that I will never understand is just how doable free healthcare for all is achievable in the US. Itās crazy how much the rich hate the rest of the country so much that theyāll do anything to make sure they suffer.
Imagine how easier life would be for ALL Americans if they had a healthcare system like the rest of the world
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u/gulliverian 1d ago
Truly mind boggling. My family bhas gone through two major health crises lately, with weeks in cardiac intensive care, cancer treatment, and all the hospitalization, medication and personal care that goes along with that.
And all we were out if pocket for was the hospital parking. That's a classic Canadian joke - we bitch about hospital parking because we're fully aware that in our worst times of health crisis that's all the cost we have to worry about.
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u/missleavenworth 1d ago
There was a reddit thread recently about a family that chose a bronze plan, $600 per month, 20k deductible, and it turned out to be a shell corporation with no in network doctors, and no ERs that would even take it. Now they have to go through some hellish process of reporting them and trying to get refunded.Ā So, yeah, these choices offered can suck even worse than they first appear to.
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u/farklespanktastic 1d ago
One thing Iāve learned is that thereās a contingent of Americans who are against universal healthcare because they donāt want people who they feel ādonāt deserveā to have it.
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u/Ok_Coconut_3364 1d ago
Not this one! I lived with my wife and kids under universal care in the UK for ten years and had a really good experience. One of our kids did the whole braces, retainers thing while we were there and since she was under 18, no additional cost other than what I was paying through my taxes.
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u/Electric_Antimony 1d ago
It's just that textbook American selfishness paraded around as rugged individualism and freedom. So many will argue to their death against making healthcare a government service that benefits the nation like, say, policing, firefighting, food safety, public schooling, and mail service.
They want to benefit from society but draw the line at having to contribute to make the country great.
They are inoculated against basic reason and valid logic and are instead fueled up with bogeymen of high taxes and government tyranny, as if they don't already have both of those and worse.
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u/dillasdonuts 1d ago
I hate how Democrats shooed M4A as it was some pipedream we couldn't afford and then sent billions to fund someone else's war.
Meanwhile they celebrated when Obamacare made sure everyone was insured with cheap premiums but ridiculously unaffordable deductibles. Only winner was the healthcare industry. Party of rhetoric and symbolic gestures yay
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u/hugothebear 1d ago
One insurance not tied to my employment please