richardag said:
The problem with "universal healthcare" as defined by the leftist progressives is it becomes a completely government run institution. Currently if you are poor get sick you can go to a county hospital and receive healthcare. Not perfect, but one hell of a lot better than what "universal healthcare" has become in other countries. Many of the problems currently with our healthcare system today is a result of government intervention in both the healthcare system and insurance system.
As we have been witnessing, any government run bureaucracy can and eventually will be used by a dominant political party as a weapon. Today, as we discuss this, the Democratic Party leadership is proposing denying healthcare to people not vaccinated. The IRS, FBI, NSA, FISA Courts and more have been weaponized by the Democratic Party leadership.
This is a great point! I'll be the first to admit that healthcare in America is pretty ****ed up!
But, most of the folks that want "universal healthcare" don't understand why the healthcare industry is ****ed up. So they just peddle the argument that healthcare should be free (i.e. subsidized by the government).
Here's why "free healthcare" won't work:
We already subsidize healthcare in Texas via government assessed and collected property taxes. Yet, there isn't enough money to pay for it. Why? Because of health insurance! Uninsured patients often can't pay for services, therefore the hospital must cover the costs. To do that, they must increase costs for services provided to those that do pay to cover the costs for those who don't. Enter private insurance companies, who "negotiate" (heavy-handedly) for lower costs for those services.
Simply put, with revenue from services provided and taxes collected, hospitals often barely cover expenses.
For "universal healthcare" to even be a possibility, you'd have to kill the health insurance industry. I'd be all for that, since it would likely lower healthcare costs across the board. Politicians aren't going to allow that. The industry and it's lobby are far too rich and powerful. In fact, politicians doubled down under Obamacare by mandating that everyone have insurance. Why? Because if everyone has insurance, the insurance industry controls the healthcare industry. They control the premiums and out-of-pocket costs YOU pay and they control what healthcare providers are paid. The politicians get their kick-backs, the insurance company effectively launders the money, and the "rich keep getting richer". (Which is not want the poor truly want, but they're not educated enough in the process to understand that's what's happening, so they keep voting for politicians who promise "free healthcare".)
The other reason you can't cancel the health insurance industry is that it has become a fringe benefit of employment; as a result of government intervention in wages, I might add. Remember, the government doesn't want us to work for a living. They want us to be on their dole. And they punish the workers by taxing the hell out of us.
So instead of fixing the problem, politicians vilify the employed, as well as healthcare professionals and providers, based on class-warfare. The implication is that workers are given "free healthcare" because they work for employers who provide "free health insurance". So, if I don't work or I work a part-time, minimum-wage job, I can't get employer-provided health insurance, and therefore can't get healthcare. Or I can't get the same healthcare that rich people who work get.
And the simple facts are...you don't need insurance to get healthcare AND health insurance =/= healthcare. If the general public understood that much, the whole "universal healthcare" push would die.
ETA: Forgot to include federal healthcare insurance programs that ALSO subsidize the healthcare industry...that are collected as an additional tax from wage-earners.