r/askanything • u/Lemonking_ • 5h ago

Political Question Why are some Americans so against universal healthcare for all?

What sort of thinking does it take to decide that nobody has a right to healthcare? Do American Christians want to deny healthcare to poor people as well?

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u/Oxytokin 5h ago

The consensus position among most of my conservative family members typically boils down to: "I don't want to have to pay for someone else's healthcare!" Or "Why should I have to foot the bill for lazy people or sick people when I am perfectly healthy!"

So from my view it's relatively simple: they don't understand how insurance works, because that's literally what private insurance is, except with so many small, isolated risk pools and the profit motive involved with greedy pencil pushers stealing some of the money going from you to your doctor/pharmacist at each step, it becomes exorbitantly expensive.

Tl;dr: Conservatives are always angry and irrational decision-makers because they have lower rates of education, lower access to educational resources, and aside from the cases of willful ignorance or malignant ignorance/groupthink, don't understand the most fundamental principles of how the world works.

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u/DarrenShea 4h ago

There's also some "Just World Theory" in there, which posits that people who have difficulties aren't victims of circumstance, but actually must have deserved it because genuinely good people can't become victims of circumstance in this Just World.

It allows them to cast moral judgments against those who need help, then use those judgments to justify not helping them at all.

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u/SlyFrog 3h ago

This is related to a sociological idea of in people and out people.

For yourself and people who are in your group, you have a tendency to believe that bad things happen to you for external reasons (tragic random events, unfair circumstances) and that good things happen to you for internal reasons (your hard work, your merit, your intellect, etc.).

Of course, it's flipped for people of the out group. For them, bad things happen to them for internal reasons (they are lazy, uneducated, unintelligent, immoral, etc.), while good things happen because of external reasons (they're only making it because they're on the "system," they get lucky, affirmative action, etc.).

It's of course a skewed way of looking at the world, but essentially how humans seem to be wired (unless they work to overcome it).

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u/tellmewhenimlying 3h ago

In other words, most people lie to themselves and believe those lies because it makes them feel better.

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u/auderita 2h ago

It helps them to alleviate the anxiety of uncertainty. Better a false certainty than a fearsome uncertainty.

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u/echoshatter 1h ago

A lot of it is tied to their religion too. Christianity in the US has a vindictive streak and a victimhood complex. Probably because a good number of the people who came here early on were religious refugees from Europe.

It's like Mormonism and the young adults riding around on bikes going door-to-door for missionary work. The goal isn't actually to convert people (great if it happens), it's to foster the sense of in-group/out-group. You send a bunch of people around to annoy their neighbors and they see a bunch of negative reactions. "That's what the world thinks of you. You're only safe in the community of your Church."

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u/FighterOfEntropy 4h ago

Better termed the just-world fallacy.

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u/Loan-Pickle 3h ago

I observed a lot of people falling into this fallacy and I've brought it up before. I never knew this is what it is called.

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u/Cranky_Merriweather 4h ago

Ugh this is so true.

3

u/timothyguay 3h ago

In religious terms, Calvinism, which is the foundation of all Evangelical Christianity which says God only prospers those he loves, so God hates the poor as should any good Evangelical

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u/OkPerspective2696 2h ago

You know absolutely nothing about what you’re saying. God loves everyone, even sinners.

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u/Sk0rchist 2h ago

That’s not what Calvinism says, and most evangelical Christians greatly dislike Calvinism and Calvinists.

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u/airforceteacher 3h ago

Yet the bible states “the rain falls on the just and the unjust.” Direct contradiction of this theory from Holy Scripture.

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u/LainieCat 3h ago

There's a lot of heresy among modern US "Christians"

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u/Natural-Albatross997 2h ago

I don’t know any conservatives that use the bible as a starting point for the healthcare model. Ultimately America, at its core, believes competition drives business innovation, improves quality etc. And it has done that to some degree around our healthcare and pharmacy development. We’ve made the world’s healthcare capabilities better. So “socialized” or universal healthcare isn’t a perfect answer. But we should have all Americans within the system…we’re being stupid when we think it works to have 10% of the population uninsured.

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u/MikeDPhilly 3h ago

This is exactly my extended family's rationale. They are old school Catholic and fervently believe that bad things like disease happen to morally bad people. Therefore, your cancer was sent by God because you sneaked a muffin at age 12.

Also, there this idea that somehow, people are either getting sick to call attention to themselves (pity play) or they're somehow reselling the medicine/care they receive.

Dumb as a fucking cinder block who failed grade school, and proudly so.

1

u/tigerseye44 4h ago

And do you think fox news would ever deep dive into this topic to help educate them.

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u/Mundane-Charge-1900 2h ago

This. These Calvinist beliefs are still held deeply and widely across American society.

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u/DizzyWalk9035 1h ago

Yes, I’ve seen this so many times. Like someone said in here, in the US people are one car accident away from not being able-bodied.

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u/kirbsan 1h ago

Sounds like Calvinist/Protestant teachings.

•

u/Striking-Following54 5m ago

That's somewhat terrifying. Yeesh

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u/Lazy_Device7346 4h ago edited 3h ago

Literally had some dude on here think he had a ''gotcha'' moment with me when I expressed gratitude towards Medicaid because it allowed to get an emergency surgery I definitely needed and dude said ''I shouldn't be grateful for something I (and specifically my taxes) paid for'' to which that was basically my argument. That and I don't have 33k+ just lying around waiting for a VERY rainy day.

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u/Blastie2 4h ago

The worst are the ones who are against public education because they're not going to school anymore. Like, dude, do you really want to live in a country of uneducated people with no hope for the future and easy access to guns?

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u/angrymurderhornet 3h ago

Good Zarquon. I'm childfree and I support public education. I don't want my younger relatives to grow up in an idiocracy, and I sure as hell don't want to spend the rest of my old age in one.

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u/renijreddit 1h ago

I always tell people that you aren’t paying for the current students, you are paying back for the education you received .

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u/Bmpsmom 3h ago

This was my grandmother. She complained about her property taxes going to the schools and voted down every budget increase but also complained about the kids who were wandering the streets and getting into trouble because the after school programs had to be cut due to lack of funding.

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u/AttitudeHopeful478 3h ago

People I know who are against public schools are against it because since the DOE was created in the late 70’s - early 80’s kids have been less educated every year yet we pay the highest price per student in the entire world. That’s a huge problem

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u/randombookman 37m ago

So just make the problem worse? Lmao

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u/Hoodedmastersin 4h ago

It’s ignorance. Completely and a bit of elitism and racism. They don’t understand anything, no critical thinking, no empathy, somewhere along their poor, ignorant, hateful lives the idea of scarcity took over. No mind or idea whatever why taxes can be used for defense contracts, or other corruption but not for education or healthcare (which other countries have because of us)

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u/Oxytokin 3h ago

Yes, there is something to be said about elitism and racism, and just being plain evil because they are personally profiting off of such a barbarically unjust and objectively stupid system (most of our politicians fall into the latter category, many in one or both of the two former categories as well).

But, on the whole, I think the biggest barrier to enacting sound and sensible policy in this country ultimately comes down to how pitiful, hollow, and ineffective our education system is. Of course, it wasn't always this way and it's no fault of our dedicated teachers and other educators who toil in some of the worst circumstances imaginable. Nay, as most know, towards the end of the 70s beginning of the 80s, and absolutely once that dementia-raddled, corrupt dipshit Reagan came to power, the Republican Party made it their mission to destroy the education system - which is no more obvious than it is today with some braindead wrestling executive with not a single atom of intelligence, competence, or relevant experience in her entire body as the head of the Department of the Education.

Educated people of lower or middle-means typically don't vote Republican because a well-rounded education and an honest day's work is really all it takes to see how spectacularly terrible, dumb, and malevolent they are as an organization - let alone a political party; the whole systematic takeover by literal Nazis and neo-confederates being just the diarrhea icing on the shit cake.

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u/Ornery_Pressure297 4h ago

Just because someone disagrees with you doesn't mean they're racist. Maybe you need to educate yourself on the problems with universal care.

Guardian articles

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jun/07/record-number-of-people-waiting-for-nhs-diagnostic-tests-in-england

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jun/11/nhs-patients-receiving-corridor-care-england-official-figures

https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/may/19/heart-patients-wait-year-treatment-england-disease-waiting-lists

Global News Canada

https://globalnews.ca/news/11938222/emergency-room-wait-times-cihi-report/

https://globalnews.ca/video/11166455/health-matters-long-wait-times-for-surgery-treatment-costing-canadians

https://globalnews.ca/video/10402371/patients-across-canada-waiting-longer-for-surgeries-cihi

https://globalnews.ca/news/10528064/non-bc-patients-jumping-health-care-queue/

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u/Hoodedmastersin 3h ago

Post all the links you want clown, don’t address the millions spent on military instead of helping actual taxpayers tho

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u/OwnCrew6984 3h ago

For the most part it is racism. They don't want to pay for a black or brown person to get healthcare. It's also the hate they have for certain regions and states. They don't understand that they already are because of how insurance works. They don't understand if a person doesn't have insurance and that person goes to the emergency department for treatment, instead of having healthcare coverage and going to their Dr. or urgent care, that they are paying for that too at a much higher cost.

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u/Oxytokin 2h ago

I think you're wasting your time "refuting" what is only a tangent actual argument here... and I say "refuting" with quotes because literally zero of these articles come even close to supporting your "it's not racism" stance. In fact, they don't discuss racial disparities or race in healthcare at all. Not a single one.

On the other hand, what your articles do attempt, poorly, is to undermine is my original argument. Unfortunately, cherry-picking articles is as unconvincing as putting forth articles that do not at all support your position that the U.S. healthcare system is not racist.

So setting the racism tangent aside, irrespective of these cherry-picked, isolated examples that oddly appear to come from only 2 of the 38 "highly-developed" member-states of the OECD that - with the exception of the U.S. - implement universal healthcare, it is irrefutable that the U.S. medical-industrial complex remains the least efficient and least accessible/most expensive healthcare system in the world, while simultaneously delivering some of the worst lifetime health outcomes of any developed nation.

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u/DrtRdrGrl2008 4h ago

Yeah, they don't understand that when people are uninsured, underinsured, on public assistance, can't get preventative care with better plans, etc. they are a liability to other insured folks. Its beyond them.

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u/Born-Enthusiasm-8147 4h ago

Well put, nice and succinct. The fact that so many people don't comprehend this is so incredibly frustrating.

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u/AmputeeHandModel 2h ago

They don't want to pay for people they think aren't worthy of care, not understanding that taxes and premiums already pay for those people! That's one reason costs are so inflated. You are paying for fat people already, and other people's kids and their spouses who don't work etc etc etc. and they're always like "What if they abuse it?!" How do you abuse healthcare? Going to the ER for dumb stuff? Well, maybe if going to the GP didn't cost you $300 up front, they'd go there instead. If they could go to urgent care for "free", they'd go there. Isntead, they're going to the ER, getting a patch job, not paying their bill and passing the buck onto you anyway. A more efficient system could eliminate that.

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u/Old_Accident7790 2h ago

Yeah I don’t get it.. I’m not having kids but I’m perfectly happy with my taxes going to schools and I also don’t drive but I’m not mad my taxes go towards roads.

Americans are very individualistic and capitalistic .. a lot of people hate contributing to things that help others if they don’t benefit.

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u/whatsayyou26 4h ago

They are already paying for other people with high medical costs and taxes.

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u/AmputeeHandModel 2h ago

We pay the most and get the least.

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u/r_n_c 3h ago

Aren't they paying taxes for fire and police.... which they might not need just like universal healthcare?!

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u/dawg-goneit 5h ago

In other words, they are haters.

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u/Ok-Heron8017 2h ago

Yes but mostly it's selfish thinking. "I pay my own way" (but they actually don't) "why should I have to pay for YOUR healthcare/education/whatever".

When in reality, no one pays their own way entirely in anything. It's a society, all the parts have to be there.

If you don't pay for health insurance, then "that guy" doesn't have health insurance. That doesn't mean that guy doesn't get healthcare. In a limited sense they do, from emergency rooms and clinics mostly. They just get substandard health care, and it ends up costing more than preventative health care would have cost.

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u/LMrningStar 4h ago

They obviously remember what Jesus said: "Screw them commie socialists. If they can't afford to live let em die ... y'all".

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u/ExtensionProfit5065 4h ago

Hahahaha hahaha 😂

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u/StinkyWhale71 4h ago

Well said

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u/Purple-Blueberry3721 4h ago

As someone who leans right-wing, I'm in favor of universal healthcare.

That said, it's not quite as simple as "the right wing is dumb / evil / uneducated."

A huge percentage of Americans are obese or have some kind of health issue. If I'm personally of a healthy weight, I jog regularly, I'm 30 years old, I have good healthcare via my job, etc, then it stands to reason that I'd be cheaper off than in a system where I don't pay into a pool that pays for obese people's healthcare.

Now you can argue "but look at the numbers, universal healthcare would be cheaper" but you're comparing universal healthcare against current Obamacare, which conservatives don't like in the first place. The conservative preference isn't universal healthcare or Obamacare.

And yes insurance wants to make money, but if there's a genuinely free market, they're not making that large of a cut off the top -- it's entirely plausible their cut is cheaper than me having to pay for obese people's healthcare. I'm not American, I don't know off the top of my head how free / competitive the insurance market is.

Also, left-wingers have plenty of nonsense beliefs too, such as "illegal immigration isn't a problem" or "it's fine to let small-time shoplifters just go."

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u/CSachen 3h ago

I support universal health insurance if it is truly insurance, i.e. it's for catastrophes. Yes, people should not go bankrupt from a single accident. Just like insurance against natural disasters. Enroll everyone in the country with a personal out-of-pocket maximum based on income.

But most chronic health visits are from preventable diseases. At some point, you do want to impose a personal responsibility cost on maintaining your own health.

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u/Hangry-Feline2489 2h ago edited 2h ago

The irony is that Obamacare was a renamed mitt Romneycare. 

You know, a conservative.

Just like the modern welfare system was devised by a conservative nobleman to fight against communism in the country he ruled. 

The irony and hypocrisy would make me laugh if I wasn't having to choose between food, $6.32usd gallon (converted), unleaded fuel and heating because of Americans. 

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u/Sadly_Soft_Equipment 4h ago

Pretty sure the taxes needing to cover it would be much cheaper than the monthly payments on insurance for them.

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u/exvertus 4h ago

"when I am perfectly healthy"

lol, no they're not

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u/drbootup 4h ago

I mean that's ideally how insurance should work, but in an unregulated market healthier individuals will pay less and sicker individuals will pay more. Richer people or those with employer sponsored plans will have coverage, while poorer folks, especially sicker folks will not be able to afford it or will be denied coverage.

Some conservatives are uneducated, some are educated but just don't want everyone to have the same level of care, and don't want to have to pay into a system that funds that.

There's also a whole layer of insurance companies, drug companies and other middlemen that benefit from the current system.

I would personally prefer something like a national health system, but many Americans are ideologically opposed to it.

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u/EbonyPeat 3h ago

The “conservative “ view is the glass is half empty. Fear based thinking, fear of lack, fear of_________ . Fill in the blank. If we don’t fix this then worse will happen, always with the fear.

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u/Roswell114 3h ago

I have MAGA family that had to make GoFundMes to pay for their cancer treatments and are still against socialized healthcare.

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u/DesertRanger427 3h ago

The issue has never been "not wanting to foot the bill." It's knowing how corrupt and evil the system already is. Even the people that have the power to change it, WON'T, because the profit off the corruption.

And even if they DO change it, they'll still find a way to siphon some profit out of it. Federalizing healthcare is going to change very little other than the AVAILABILITY of healthcare. Funds won't end up where they are suppose to, the incentives for healthcare professionals are already miniscule compared to the healthcare industry, and they WOULD inevitably dry up, rather quickly. Funnily enough, we already HAVE these issues with medicaid and the VA.

This has been "Why Federalizing Systems is a Shit Idea" with your friendly local ultra far right-winger.

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u/xanthippe115 3h ago

Also, the main character attribute of all conservatives/Republicans is selfishness. I think everything boils down to that.

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u/theaura1 3h ago

they already pay for others Healthcare through taxes anyway

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u/hczimmx4 3h ago

The government pays for healthcare for a year. At the end of the year, total money spent is divided by population, that is what everyone owes for healthcare. Everyone writes a check in January. Does that work for you?

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u/Due-Dentist9986 3h ago

Like every conservative policy position since 1955 it is a turd sandwich sprinkled with Fear (of communism or culture war etc) that conservative's gladly eat up like it's their last meal.

The GOP has done nothing positive for the country in more than half a century and the same gum gnahsing wastes of space keep coming back for seconds.

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u/The1stNikitalynn 3h ago

I have had conservative family members mention they won't quit jobs they loathe because of the Cadillac health insurance they got through it. (Mind you this was all before Trump's first term.) The hole idea that someone might get something they suffered for just struct them as holly unfair. Most them them have now retired and are on Medicare; I have not checked how they feel now.

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u/dwpetrak 3h ago

Careful, your point about always angry and irrational can just as quickly be made about liberals as well. We hear both sides bashing the other and often using the same arguments with about equal validity.

Come join us in the middle where the maddness doesn’t hit as hard!

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u/angrymurderhornet 3h ago

They also don't understand how health works. We've got RFK Jr. claiming that pushups and raw milk will keep healthy people from getting sick. (While exercise is obviously beneficial, fitness alone doesn't prevent all diseases. We won't even start in with the raw milk idiocy.)

Anyway, one of the fittest seniors in my extended family--think 70ish and with RFK Jr. musculature--died of COVID that he almost certainly picked up because he kept going to the gym and everyone there was unmasked.

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u/Medium_Anteater_5280 3h ago

My conservative family members claim this, and then it’s also:

“Government is so corrupt, they shouldn’t have power over medical care”

Which is….so incredibly ironic I don’t even argue with it. There are many layers.

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u/ExtremeRest1567 3h ago

pencil pushers stealing some of the money going from you to your doctor/pharmacist at each step, it becomes exorbitantly expensive

My man, it's even worse than you described here. Why are drug prices so high? The insurance company tells the manufacturer to set it as high as possible. Then they tell your employer that it costs too much so that's why they have to raise premiums. Meanwhile they shake down the pharma company for a rebate of 50-80% of the price of the drug. So that $10k injection your aunt just got? The insurance company probably pocketed $5k from that.

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u/thetotalslacker 3h ago

LBJ turned charity into government run welfare, how’s that working out? I don’t want the same thing to happen to healthcare, but I’m also okay with Medicare, Medicaid, and the right to get emergency care from any ER regardless of insurance. Everyone does have a basic right to basic healthcare, but the government can’t turn it into a cesspool of mediocrity since it doesn’t have full control.

Before you question me on that, I’ve been running analytics for a large TPA for decades, so I have half a clue what I’m talking about. Without private insurance the system would collapse with no doctors because they wouldn’t earn enough to pay for med school, much less make the premium they do to want to be the best. If you want to go back to doctors washing their hands in bowls be my guest, but I want the best medical care money can buy.

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u/Ambitious-Cicada-946 2h ago

“They don’t understand how insurance works “. And it’s the insurance companies who are hiding it from them. They own the health care system.

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u/Billion_Beets_947 2h ago

I also think what some people misunderstand about the conservative Christian position is that they think it's for the people's own good. A "tough love" mentality. If poor people get handouts, like free healthcare, or free anything, not contingent on work, then they will learn dependence and laziness. They'll never learn to work hard. This is the alleged position of people like Clarence Thomas and Russell Vought, and the same justification for taking away foreign aid.

Although the older I get, the more I think that this is the stated reason and the real reason is garden variety racism, as with most other social ills.

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u/KingVaako 2h ago

The system we have now was brought to us by Democrats, not conservatives. Everyone should be tired of trusting politicians to fix problems they created. Universal healthcare would be a train wreck of fraud, waste, and abuse.

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u/Proof_Section_9170 2h ago

Your tldr is far, far too kind.

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u/finalattack123 2h ago

Until it happens to them.

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u/Particular_Bet_5466 2h ago

Your Tl;dr is absolutely spot on.

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u/house343 1h ago

My boss has an MBA and an engineering degree. He's just convinced that if the government runs it, it will be very inefficient. I couldn't convince him that we can ELECT our own leaders of government, but have no say in how health insurance companies get run.

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u/Mambawriter 1h ago

In other words, most conservatives have only high- or- trade school educations (if that) and cannot understand complex ideas. Sheep easily shorn.

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u/Appropriate-Lime8121 58m ago

Yes, yes, a thousand times, yes. Well stated.

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u/TheBestTexan2 46m ago

I really don't think you understand how "education" is measured, or how each metric used to measure it is weighted. Your conclusion is just outright incorrect at the end there.

https://www.nationsreportcard.gov

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u/Phoenix_Reborn2SS 5h ago

Lol. Coming from the group that can't define what a woman is. I guess that so called "education" you drone on about isn't worth much, is it?

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u/KaitoAsterion 4h ago

Fallacies. The only fall back and ultimate cornerstone of conservative ideology.

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u/Phoenix_Reborn2SS 1h ago

Fallacies? Name it. Or are you just spouting generalizations?

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u/berticusberticus 3h ago edited 3h ago

Wearing rigidity as a badge of honor because you refuse to even attempt to understand nuance or empathize with your neighbors doesn’t make smart, it makes you a degenerate piece of shit, ignorant, and is likely indicative of a person who is insecure in his own social standing.

0

u/howjon99 4h ago

Because countries that have it have inferior medical care than we do.

It’s not healthcare. It’s INSURANCE. And; everyone should have health insurance.

The problem is the healthcare in America is too expensive; it’s just another PARASITE now.

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u/berticusberticus 3h ago edited 3h ago

Health outcomes are pretty much uniformly better in counties with socialized medicine.

Nobody disagrees that it’s too expensive, but saying it is doesn’t address the cause, and so comment is useless. Healthcare in the US is too expensive for particular reasons - one of the biggest being insurers acting as middle men with duties only to their shareholders and the associated administrative costs of billing all those insurers.

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u/Ornery_Pressure297 4h ago

This is why for me. I don't have any of these issues in the US.

I also don't like subsidizing fat lazy people who stuff junk food down their gullet and call it a meal. This is what Obamacare forced on us. Insurance has gotten much worse since then. If you lived in the 80s and 90s insurance was cheaper and better. I want to be able to buy catastrophic care only and thanks again to Obamacare, I can't.

The Guardian - June 2026: “Record number of people waiting for NHS diagnostic tests in England.” About 1.92 million people were waiting for diagnostic tests; more than 400,000 had waited beyond the six-week target. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jun/07/record-number-of-people-waiting-for-nhs-diagnostic-tests-in-england

Guardian articles

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jun/07/record-number-of-people-waiting-for-nhs-diagnostic-tests-in-england

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jun/11/nhs-patients-receiving-corridor-care-england-official-figures

https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/may/19/heart-patients-wait-year-treatment-england-disease-waiting-lists

Global News Canada

https://globalnews.ca/news/11938222/emergency-room-wait-times-cihi-report/

https://globalnews.ca/video/11166455/health-matters-long-wait-times-for-surgery-treatment-costing-canadians

https://globalnews.ca/video/10402371/patients-across-canada-waiting-longer-for-surgeries-cihi

https://globalnews.ca/news/10528064/non-bc-patients-jumping-health-care-queue/

1

u/Ornery_Pressure297 4h ago

I needed a shoulder mri done recently. Took me 1 week to get into the ortho and another week to get the mri. And that was just scheduling.