The US is one of the notable country with no universal healthcare. By Universal healthcare I mean no one has to pay for health insurance and hospital expenses. It would all be covered by the tax money.
The US has always shyed away from this. I don’t believe it’s entirely because of insurance firm lobbying. There is atleast some fear or uncertainty among the general population.
What is it ? Why isn’t universal healthcare not a thing in the US ? If you personally have some reservations, please share
26 comments
My taxes will go through the roof. I’ve lived in the UK and Canada so I’ve experienced it first hand.
That conservatives will underfund it, then point to the problems from underfunding as an example of it not working well. See IHS, and the VA.
I pay $35 a month for excellent coverage that the government will not be able to provide. Healthcare in military has made me absurdly averse to govt care in general. Oh yeah, they’ll ‘cop’ all the expenses, but that’s all they’ll do.
Americans generally hate additional taxes and also don’t trust the government to do anything competently
The taxes, and the reduced quality of service for me.
I am completely in favor of universal Healthcare. Better than so much of our healthcare spending going to massive profits and executive pay for insurance companies, which are obviously incentivized to minimize spending on actual healthcare.
Lack of medical innovation.
Even more bloat in the system
Long wait times
Paying for procedures and medicines that I would consider unethical or immoral.
These things might be mostly unfounded or not what would actually happen, but these are the thoughts that come to mind.
I think we are for a better way than the existing method but at the same time big systematic change like implementing universal healthcare would seem pretty scary to most people since the government typically handles everything so inefficiently. I would be in larger favor of the government offering a public option that will negotiate with healthcare providers better than private insurance companies. This could be a VERY competitive option that could drive down the price of healthcare across the board since it’s offered at the federal level and best part is if you don’t want it you don’t have to have it
The best argument against single payer health care in the United States is the [single payer healthcare system](https://www.google.com/search?q=va+scandals&sxsrf=ALiCzsbi7VboGr_9LRPipLybIjLmAXb-Ag%3A1659120193330&ei=QSrkYsOQEo3nkgXokp6QCg&ved=0ahUKEwiDtYuu4J75AhWNs6QKHWiJB6IQ4dUDCA4&uact=5&oq=va+scandals&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAMyBwgAEEcQsAMyBwgAEEcQsAMyBwgAEEcQsAMyBwgAEEcQsAMyBwgAEEcQsAMyBwgAEEcQsAMyBwgAEEcQsAMyBwgAEEcQsANKBAhBGABKBAhGGABQ_wJY_wJgnQVoAXABeACAAQCIAQCSAQCYAQCgAQHIAQjAAQE&sclient=gws-wiz) that currently exists in the United States.
After that, it’s that the system works pretty well for *most* Americans. And if something is working pretty well, you might tinker with it, but many people would hesitate to take it apart and start over.
I suspect loss aversion is a big part, a fear that even if one’s current insurance is bad, something new might be “out of the frying pan, into the fire.” People want assurances that they, as an individual, would be better off, especially if they already like their insurance, their doctors, etc.
Additionally, distrust of how effective government funded enterprises are. Anyone who has ever waited on line at the DMV or the post office will start projecting that experience onto their imagined interactions with medical appointments.
Edit to add: I support universal healthcare, but I recognize that these are some valid concerns people have.
Incompetence. We already have US Government healthcare, you just have to work for the USG to earn it. Ask a veteran how they like it. Veterans commit suicide in VA Hospital parking lots to protest the level of care. The Government has not proved that they are up to this task. Rather, the opposite. We have the world’s most modern medicine because in a capitalist system all the incentive is on creating new ways to do things. Foreigners who can afford it fly here for the best care in the shortest amount of time. We have foreign doctors because in a capitalist system the best work is rewarded the highest. I can go to the hospital and find a Canadian citizen being treated by an Indian doctor. That doesn’t happen anywhere else. It’s expensive because it’s the best, and I think it’s worth paying for. The US Government has *never* taken over something and made it *better* , forget about more efficient or cheaper.
> By Universal healthcare I mean no one has to pay for health insurance and hospital expenses. It would all be covered by the tax money.
Well, at least you didn’t try to characterize it as “free.” Gotta give you that. With too many others who have visited this subreddit, it’s practically the first word out of their mouths.
If that is your definition there are more notable countries without universal healthcare. Germans pay 7.5% of their income, with employers chipping in the same amount, for health insurance.
E: that being said I’m a proponent of universal healthcare.
Long wait times, government incompetence, less innovation, limited choices, and reduced quality of care.
Also, I’m concerned that access to healthcare would at some point be used as a political tool to control us.
The answer is that the majority of Americans are satisfied with the coverage they do have.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/327686/americans-satisfaction-health-costs-new-high.aspx
So there’s no political impulse for change
Also 93% of Americans have health insurance. 3-4% will be added to that when the remaining states at *somepoint* do Medicaid expansion. The remaining 3-4% are mostly people who don’t want to be insured. Some technocratic fixes should cover the rest.
The main issue we have is that many services cost too much. (Cost disease). Insurance reform just changes who is paying not the underlying amount.
I have you yet to see anyone really propose actual plans or systems for universal healthcare in the US. From New York to North Dakota, I don’t think a top down federal healthcare system is smart or would work super well, I think states, ala minnesotas minsure are better directions then the feds coming into healthcare. Not to mentions the absolute hell our doctors would have to deal with as they became political toys to the whims of politicians and political lobbies worse then even the current insurance industry could do.
Give some concrete federal plan that makes sense and could pass congress and I will take the idea more serious. Until then universal healthcare is up there with Fusion power on good ideas just 40 years away.
Republicans would intentionally sabotage it like they intentionally sabotaged the education system by putting DeVos in charge and the post office by putting DeJoy in charge. Don’t get me wrong, I would love universal healthcare, but it would take a miracle to not only implement it, but to protect it from the same fate.
The giant sink hole that the federal government will make it.
Healthcare is the # 1 expense in our military, and most who have used VA will tell you historically it has not been very efficient.
I have nothing against it in principle, just EVERY new federal agency becomes a power grabbing money hole.
As someone who uses the VA its wonderful not to worry if I get really sick or if I loose my job that I won’t be medically taken care off. But as someone who uses the VA I also know the backlog and hassle that comes with it. There are some benefits to the US Healthcare system the way it is, however, it’s made it so you either have to be very poor or very rich for it to work
Universal healthcare just means everyone has access to healthcare. In the Netherlands, universal healthcare is achieved through a regulated private insurance industry. Some countries have a mixed system and some are public, singlepayer systems. There really is no excuse for having a system spends an absurd amount percapita to achieve marginal results. Most Americans support healthcare reform, if I recall correctly. The fact it hasn’t gone done is a function of how messed up the priorities of our government is.
> no one has to pay for health insurance and hospital expenses. It would all be covered by tax money.
Explain to me where the tax money comes from if no one has to pay
My objection is two fold: I am happy with coverage/care/cost I currently receive and I don’t trust the government to administer a program superior to the one I have now.
I’m not really concerned with higher taxes or anything like that if I get something tangible in return for it, but I am concerned about it being used as a bargaining chip or a hostage for federal politics. Our politicians are completely void of personal shame.
> By Universal healthcare I mean no one has to pay for health insurance and hospital expenses. It would all be covered by the tax money.
Who pays the tax money?
It is fundamentally opposite of what I believe the fundamental role of government is.
Government exists to protect the rights and wellbeing of its people against aggression of others. It is not responsible to supply any level of lifestyle to anyone.
It’s not really the lack of universal healthcare that’s the problem, and most people get this wrong — most Americans have insurance. As others in this thread have stated, a majority of Americans are satisfied with their insurance. It’s the overall cost that is making people mad. Healthcare is one of the largest expenditures of the US Federal government, and yet the outcomes remain poor relative to the rest of the developed world, despite us spending a huge amount of money on healthcare proportionally.
Much of the cost lies with prioritizing acute care over preventative or long-term care. All too commonly, emergency rooms see the same rough homeless person in the hospital yet again for some health issue because they can’t see a doctor about it, and they can’t legally turn them away. The ER will treat their immediate life-threatening issues (for tens or hundreds of thousands of $USD) and then dump them back on the street, only for them to return weeks or months later dying again. One individual could cost the hospital millions, when a good system for providing someone like this with treatment for chronic issues could keep them out of the ER and solve their ailments for a fraction of the cost. That’s an extreme example, but similar problems aren’t uncommon for otherwise normal people. All too often, chronic ailments that could be prevented or treated easily simply aren’t tracked until they get to a point where a person has no choice but the emergency room.
[This study](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7309216/#:~:text=It%20is%20estimated%20that%20only,above%2Daverage%20preventive%20healthcare%20metrics) shows that it is estimated that only 8% of Americans get regular preventative screenings. [Another](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0736467919304615) shows that 2 million US adults use the emergency room as their main source of preventative care. Part of the goal of the Affordable Care Act was to help alleviate this. This also doesn’t touch on how pricing is different for private insurance. It is a very complicated issue, moreso than most people make it out to be, but policymakers and (more importantly) their advisors are thinking about this.