Time to break free of traditional political ideological labeling and divisions. Time to abandon old, divisive sociopolitical labels like "liberal" and "conservative".
A new political party based on a vastly, commonly held virtures lends itself to embrace over 66% of Americans, and it clearly embraces progressive principled thinking. In the most ideal American sense of unity, a political party should not be able to be defined or placed as "to the left" or "to the right" of where the Democratic or Republican parties currently are. Just let it exist organically based on present-day principled thinking. The American Progressive Majority.
Originally Posted By u/Atlanticbboy At 2025-03-23 04:38:18 AM | Source
it's wild that only 55% of you guys want a fairer health care system
It’s because the phrase “Medicare for all” has been propagandized. If you instead asked if people wanted “affordable medical treatment and preventative care for themselves and others”, I’m sure that number would be much higher.
The idea is Medicare for all as baseline, and private market on top of that. Every country with single payer health care also has private market clinics. The idea that private markets would be outlawed is a misunderstanding, and when pushed by those who would make less money under a single baseline payer system, is misinformation.
When basic healthcare is universally covered, premiums or out of pocket just for anything considered an extra service aren't directly comparable to premiums for insurance for all Healthcare. They will be much less, because they cover less, because anything the government designates a core service is provided at no cost.
Private insurance or just out of pocket costs (they are lower costs, cut out the middleman of insurance) on top of universal health care systems can be upgrades to included services - like getting a private hospital room rather than having a roommate - or could be going to clinics that only have private patients and offer services outside what the government plan covers. For insurance plans (as opposed to out of pocket), the specifically private network would be smaller because the general care government plan would cover almost every provider, and the private plan is just adding on a few on top.
I believe Medicaid (for certain low income people) unfortunately has much higher barriers to coverage than Medicare (for over 65s), but any insurance is going to have a denial rate. No system has infinite money to cover every service, and setting expectations for coverage like what Medicare provides today is realistic.
Sadly, I don't believe it is true that Americans broadly want universal healthcare coverage. The idea that people less healthy and poorer than citizen X deserve nothing from the society they live in is really widespread. Even if the efficiencies of having a one payer system are brought up (so much money is currently spent navigating the multi-labyrinth of our multitude of different insurance companies), there is some feeling that less healthy people who can't afford care deserve to suffer. I encounter this occasionally even in liberal spaces like lemmy, and it is pervasive if I lurk in more conservative platforms.
There are a lot of special-interest items on the list, and for those things people aren't going to feel any risk to themselves by saying sure let's fix this or that. But for healthcare, which directly affects them, they could be more like, "I'm surviving the way it is, don't monkey with it."
About 70% of Americans are overweight or obese, why should healthy people be penalized more because of them?
You already are.
That's how insurance works.
That’s not how it always works though, people who smoke have higher premiums for example.
People who choose to skydive are not eligible for life insurance.
People who crash their cars yearly pay more than safe drivers.
People who don't claim absolutely do subsidise people who do. Where do you think the money goes?
People who smoke pay more in taxes, because cigarettes are heavily taxed. Similar story for people who drink a lot of alcohol and the like.
And why apply this mentality to healthcare and not other things? Assuming you're a high earner, you'll pay for roads that other don't, for education, for the military, police, fire brigade, etc. Should all of this stuff only be accessible to people if they pay for it directly? How would that even work?
You completely disregarded my point where most insurances price premiums depending on risk; which Medicare does not, besides maybe cigarets.
Education, police and firefighters should be accessible for all; and obviously abusers should be punished, as in people who burn their house on purpose.
There’s a strain on healthcare resources that is avoidable if people would just eat a bit healthier and exercise a bit more.
Maybe if you don't need to spend so much in healthcare you can spend a little more in better food.
Subsidizing healthier food options and encouraging people to exercise can be a start.
If you can go to the doctor without paying you go whenever you start feeling sick. That saves money and time. And you have better health, so you can work better and with less stress. That's cheaper than having to heal you when you are really sick.
Yes. Additionally, you likely won’t need to go to the doctor as often if you eat healthy and exercise regularly.
No I didn't.
Risk is already somewhat baked into tax-funded healthcare by way of harmful things being taxed more. Like I said.
Maybe I'm just too NHS-brained, but I think it's insane that you don't think the same should be true for healthcare. Like I genuinely cannot get my head around believing healthcare should not be a right, and that some people should suffer. I'm not trying to be a dick when I say that, it's just truly mind-breaking to me. It does not compute.
They are. As stated, the "punishment" for people who do things like smoke or drink themselves into poor health is paying more into the system via taxes, just like with insurance premiums being higher in the US.
Obviously. But there's a strain on that regardless of being private or public healthcare.
Again, if you are young and healthy, your insurance contributions pay for others. That money doesn't go to you, it goes disproportionately to people with unhealthy lifestyles and the elderly. You are already paying for people that make poor health choices.
I don’t think unhealthy food is taxed more than healthy food in the US.
With a universal publicly funded healthcare system, it’s only fair to reward people who are healthy and entice people who are not to make healthier choices.
Penalized... how? Do you think overweight people getting healthcare harms you somehow?
How is Medicare funded? Healthcare costs are a lot higher for obese and overweight people.
Health insurance costs mostly come from profiteering. The cost savings of not having middlemen more than makes up for needing to pay for people with special needs.
That's why it's always always cheaper in countries with public insurance.
Sure but we are very far from being able to have a nationwide public insurance system.
Okay, but we're talking about having a nationwide public insurance system.
The fact is, even if you don't do anything to encourage healthier lifestyles, public insurance is cheaper. You're being penalized right now by your private insurance carrier who is profiteering off of you. Abolish those middlemen and you save money, regardless of public obesity.
If you follow U.S. politics, you know that's not happening anytime soon.
Because of something called the social contract.
But I guess you think you are so young and healthy that you will never grow old or becoming unhealthy.
What an egoistic shit take BTW.
Of course I will grow old, age is not the point here. It’s about unhealthy life choices.
If you think drug users chose it, then you are quite unknowing about how things work. Most people with bad habits would love to not having them, but everyone can't be some sort of superman and just do everything right.
We were talking about obesity and unhealthy food habits. Most drug users chose to start doing drugs, and some drugs are fine in small doses with moderation.
You are right though it can be difficult to break bad habits, the book atomic habits may help with that.
You've heard of an ouroboros?
What about it?