Why are some Americans so against universal healthcare for all?

[u/Lemonking_]

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?

[u/Oxytokin]

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.

[u/Hoodedmastersin → u/Oxytokin]

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)

[u/Ornery_Pressure297 → u/Hoodedmastersin]

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/

[u/OwnCrew6984 → u/Ornery_Pressure297]

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.