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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[–] [email protected] 104 points 2 months 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.

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 2 months 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.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 months ago (2 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.

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[–] [email protected] 45 points 2 months 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!"

[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 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.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

this band is very based from what I have seen

[–] [email protected] 99 points 2 months ago (6 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 42 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months 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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

many proposals have zero cost (or net zero, via offsetting tax credit of at least as much as the health care 'tax') for lower income earners. if this guy's only got 25% being withheld from each paycheck, he'd probably fall under that threshold.

[–] [email protected] 78 points 2 months ago

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.

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