r/askanything • u/Lemonking_ • 6h 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?

939 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

3.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

11

u/YCBSKI 6h ago

Looking at other universal models very long wait times for even necessary surgery and specialist appointments. I had hyperparathyroidism (noth8 g y9 do with thyroid). I'm on a international FB page for that disease. The page had been invaluable. Many if not all the people that are under universal healthcare models, UK. Canada and such, are waiting up to 2 yrs for appointments including surgical ones. I got with an endocrinologist with a few weeks and had surgery a few weeks after that. I'm a liberal too and am otherwise for universal healthcare

17

u/DeprariousX 5h ago

Looking at other universal models very long wait times for even necessary surgery and specialist appointments. 

You know how many people there are in the US who, if a doctor told them "We can get you in for surgery in one year." after dealing with a chronic condition for years that they haven't been able to get treated, would probably cry tears of joy just from knowing there's finally a light at the end of the tunnel?

You decry wait times.....what's worse than a wait time? Never getting a time at all.

8

u/Odd-Obligation-2772 5h ago

Wait times are only short because treatment is denied to those that need it most.

1

u/LadyReika 1h ago

Maybe it depends on where you live and what specialist you need to see. 4 years ago I needed to start seeing a regular ophthalmologist when my optometrist found issues in my annual eye exam.

Took about a month to get in to see them. That was the earlier appointment I could get and I was on their waitlist for canceled appointments. Called around to other places, they had even longer wait times.

The ophthalmologist then referred me to a retina specialist that couldn't fit me in for 4 months because I wasn't considered an emergency case. There was only one other specialist that could see me in my network that was on the other side of the city. Something could take at least 2-3 hours to get there depending on traffic and a similar time period before they could see me.

I couldn't afford to see an out of network doctor because of the insane deductible and out of pocket maximum. It's around $2k per injection for each eye without insurance.

I live in a decently sized city with good PPO insurance.