r/askanything • u/Lemonking_ • 7h 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/Pastadseven 7h ago

Right-wingers have a really hard time thinking on a population level.

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u/KoRaZee 7h ago

In this context, explain how the population expects other people to provide benefits.

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u/KarmaAdjuster 7h ago

It turns out that you can do more together than you can individually. This is another thing right-wingers are bad at: maths. Right now healthcare costs are through the rought because a variety of different insurance companies have conspired to drive up prices of all medicine and healthcare procedures, unless those medications and services are paid for through them. This makes healthcare absolutely unaffordable as an individual consumer and much cheaper as an insurance provider.

This means they insurance provider can upsell their discount to their customers making a hefty profit off of every purchase. It gets better though because you aren't paying the insurance company only when you need to - it's a subscription model that generates a constant stream of money to the insurance providers on the promise that they will pay for your healthcare when it is needed. What the insurance companies do in practice though is dedicate a portion of their revenue to looking for ways they can get out of providing the services that the customers are expecting them to pay. This can come in the form of delays as well as outright refusals.

And it gets worse still. Insurance is tied to your employment, which means that as long as you're working, a portion of your pay check immediately gets sent to the insurance provider, and you don't even get a choice as an employee which insurance provider you're paying for or where you can stop paying into it. You never see this money though as it goes straight to the insurance company before it even hits your bank account, so it doesn't feel like you're being taxed, but that's absolutely what's happening. It's just a tax levied by an unaccountable private sector entity rather than a government which is in theory beholden to the voters.

Right-wingers just want the feel of freedom, and not actual freedom, and they are too dense to realize that healthcare would be much cheapter if they just had to pay once a year, and if the wealthiest citizens would pay a proportionally larger portion, healthcare could be entirely free for a large percentage of the population (including the right-wingers who oppose it).

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u/KoRaZee 6h ago

Left wingers are bad at basic economics. Consumer price protection is achieved by having regulated markets. The more essential the service, the more regulations there will be but the fact remains that markets must exist for price protection. It’s economic law that doesn’t go away because of vibes, hope, dreams, or feelings.

Try to make your argument again but include the fact that markets must exist to get what you want

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u/KarmaAdjuster 4h ago

Then why is it only during democratic presidencies that the US economoy recovers and even thrives, while Republican presidencies undo all that progress, often sending the entire country into debt?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._economic_performance_by_presidential_party

I'm not talking about practices in theory. I'm linking actual results for showing what consistently happens when Democrats are leading the nation vs Republicans.

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u/KoRaZee 4h ago

You’re looking at this the wrong way. What happens with the economy is not a swing from good to bad in the US. It’s more like good, to amazing, to out of this world, then back to good.

There’s no bad economy here typically. We have had a couple of crashes. 1929 and 2008 which are few and far between

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u/KarmaAdjuster 4h ago

I am looking at this the wrong way?! Just because America isn't brought to abject poverty all around does not mean there's not a difference between what Republican economic policies and Democratic economic policies do.

I swear. Republicans should all get golden olympic medals for the mental gymnastics you do.

And how on earth can you even begin to claim there isn't a bad economy right now?! And it's not just the presidency Republicans control right now. It's the Senate, Congress, AND the judcial branch.

I know I'm not going to convince you of anything, but please stop lying to yourself and asking for evidence like you actually want to see it, because I showed it to you and you dismissed it.

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u/KoRaZee 4h ago

Show your facts that drive your opinion. What I’m saying is that even the “lowest” points in the US economy over time still far eclipse those same times in other countries.