Main reason I ask is because Chillindude, a prominent member of the competitive Melee community had a stroke recently and as he’s relatively healthy and works out often, he doesn’t have health insurance, and even though he’s sponsored by Team Liquid, one of the largest e-sports teams out there, because he is classified as an independent contractor, he doesn’t have health insurance through them.
The way he got the stroke was through an infection in his knee that he got misdiagnosed twice, and the hospital was going to throw him out even because he’s been stabilized, but doesn’t have coverage, which to me is actual BS but I’m honestly curious as to why this would be the case, considering strokes need so much recovery done for them.
Situations like this is part of why I couldn’t write my own thing for the ideal society post I made the other day, because I have no clue how healthcare should be handled. I do know however that portions of why healthcare is so expensive is due to the companies that make the equipment being anti-“Right to Repair” and the actual repair costs of the equipment being outrageous (Louis Rossmann made that a video months ago and I can’t find it), but still, this whole situation is really outrageous to me, that the hospital was going to throw him out after he stabilized due to a lack of proper coverage, and that stroke recovery as a whole is as expensive as it is in the US. I’d love to hear from our European people if it’s really any better there or am I being lied to, but still, idk what the solution really is.
Edit: I’m in the US, so this is pretty important for me to know.
I've lived in both the US and UK, and I have had direct experience, and intimate witness to some of the best and worst of both systems.
In the UK, my slowly dying father's care has been excellent. His pacemaker was installed promptly, his checkups are regular, his medication is provided, he has had two emergency ambulance rides, multiple stays in hospital, and this has cost... Nothing. Not one single penny.
...I, on the other hand, have had to harass doctors for months to have an internal leg injury properly addressed, even despite the fact that at one point, the pain from this injury was bad enough to limit my ability to walk to two miles before literally had lie down on the ground unable to stand. It took six months to get a 20 minute appointment for imaging. Ridiculous. Still, it cost me nothing, and the real reason I waited six months was because I didn't feel like paying approximately $500 to get it done privately.
Now, when I was in the US...
A family member injured himself with a chainsaw and we got a bill of $13000 to sew him up. No ambulance, because we drove him to the hospital ourselves. However... That bill is bullshit. You simply ignore the bill, ignore the phonecalls and mail, and you wait until they magically offer to reduce it.
I don't know what it was haggled down to in the end, but my family weren't pulling their hair out over it and they still went on holiday that year, and the next - and this is a family on around 70k household income.
I didn't enjoy more or less paying a minimum of $100 every time I saw a doctor for anything but I did enjoy that that doctor was almost always rapidly available, and furthermore, seemed to actually care that I was happy with the treatment.
Lastly, a friend of mine tore her ACL, got misdiagnosed twice, spent 8 months unable to stand without crutches. She isn't being bankrupted by this because she's on medicare, but if she wasn't, she'd be staring at a $20k bill to try and haggle down.
...Sooooo if you ask me about healthcare in the US vs healthcare in Europe, I'm going to tell you that things in the US aren't as bad as people tell you, but for anyone who doesn't have a $100k just lying around? You're a brainwashed rube if your reaction to free healthcare is 'IT'S TERRIBLE, GET IT AWAY FROM ME!'
The reason a lot of people on the right are opposed to nationalized healthcare is because we know the same people pushing it also want to give it to everyone in the world that steps foot in this country (and eventually the "step foot in this country" requirement will go away). And extend it to include every medical intervention (like making men look like women and women look like men) they get it in their heads they "need" performed. And then deny it to normal people if they chose to not take a particular medical intervention or call a man a man even if he says he's a woman.
In short, we know it'll be run by children who hate us; and since we're apparently incapable of removing those children from positions of influence, the next best option is to minimize their influence.
How about "It's not actually free, and it's supported by morally unconscionable armed robbery?"
Are the roads also armed robbery?
Believe it or not, there are more miles of privately-built, privately-funded, publicly-accessible roads in these once-United States than several European countries.
The rest of them are privately-built, larceny-funded, publicly-accessible, and generally rougher driving.
Several European countries are ten miles across, so...?
A place where nothing is paid for by taxes is ultimately not possible on the scale (both population and geographic) of most US states.
Taxes go into maintaining everything from the roads to power grid to making sure buildings are built properly, to putting out fires, and they ultimately have to happen. The fact that privately funded roads exist (they exist even in England) doesn't change the fact that ultimately, it's just better for a majority of people if public funds are put to use to for certain things that everyone needs - and at some point, everyone needs healthcare.
This isn't to say I think private healthcare is a bad thing. I think it should exist for those who can afford it, and there are certain treatments that should never be publicly funded - most cosmetic surgeries, for instance.
The difference (to him probably, just assuming because I’m not him) is that roads are straight up written in the Constitution, while healthcare is assumed to be in the “General Welfare” part.