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Americans are unhappy with the state of health care and insurance

https://lemmy.world/post/23273386

Americans are unhappy with the state of health care and insurance - Lemmy.World

Summary Polls show a majority blame insurance and pharmaceutical companies for high costs, denied claims, and access issues. Only 44% rate U.S. health care quality as “good” or “excellent,” a 20-year low. Support for government intervention is rising, with 62% favoring federal responsibility for universal health care. Meanwhile, satisfaction with the Affordable Care Act has grown, with 54% approving. Trump’s unclear health care overhaul plans are entering a polarized environment where Americans remain split on private versus government-run systems.

Dec 18, 2024 at 11:57amWeb
Show threadapfelwoiSchoppenDec 18, 2024
We want universal healhcare. Those who “suffer” due to lack of income after it rolls out can tall to a therapist for low to no cost.
Show threadbluGillDec 18, 2024

Some of you want that. Some of us do not want that.

I want to eliminate company provided healthcare. There may be better programs for me, but if I try to look elsewhere I discover that my company pays more than $1000/month for my insurance and if I go elsewhere I lose that all. As such no other plans can compete with what I get. In turn that means my insurance reports to and cares about my company and not what I think.

Show threadapfelwoiSchoppenDec 18, 2024
I don’t want a company for which I work being in the middle of me and healthcare either.
Show threadUpperBroccoliDec 18, 2024
Just one more chain, isn’t it.
Show threadglimseDec 18, 2024

You don’t want universal healthcare but you agree that tying health insurance to a private company is awful.

So what’s your hangup? You don’t want your taxes to go up? If so, I can assure you it won’t be $12000/year.

Show threadbluGillDec 18, 2024
I want health insurance from a private company of MY choice. I don't want to choose my job based on what health insurance they provide. Right now nobody reports to me - there is no incentive anywhere for me.
Show threadglimseDec 18, 2024
So that still doesn’t tell me why you don’t want universal healthcare…
Show threadbluGillDec 18, 2024
Because I believe in the free market. But what we means I'm not actually in the market and so the free market isn't serving me.
Show threadglimseDec 18, 2024
But private health insurance can coexist with universal healthcare
Show threadbluGillDec 19, 2024
Maybe, but generally universal has subsidies and so private cannot compete. Or universal has limits on coverage thus making poor who really need help unable to get good care
Show threadglimseDec 19, 2024
That second sentence isn’t true
Show threadbluGillDec 19, 2024
Why would someone in a universal system get prikate insurance anyway
Show threadAceticonDec 19, 2024

As somebody who has by now lived in 2 countries with Universal Healthcare I can answer that:

  • It’s for people who want faster access to non-emergency medical treatment than the public system will provide.

So if you want to not to have to wait months for specialist appointments and surgery and you can afford it, you get Healthcare Insurance. This even more so for aesthetic and run of the mill dental treatment - the Public isn’t going to, for example, give you and implant unless it’s deemed necessary because of your health-

Mind you, the whole thing is still backed by the Public Healthcare System: if during a surgery at a private hospital you have massive complications they’ll generally transfer you to a Public Hospital.

Anyways, the single biggest benefit of Universal Healthcare which the “free market is the best” (in this case it isn’t: in general the free market optimizes for profit, not for outcomes, and further, in this domain people will pay whatever it takes to survive and don’t actually have the expertise to judge the quality of treatment and know the availability of other options, so there is no natural free market here) crowd forgets is the peace of mind and freedom Universal Healthcare gives:

  • if you lose your job, you’re still fine even if you have and accident or get sick
  • if you want to change jobs you have total freedom as you won’t be without Healthcare for you and your family in the period between jobs
  • if you need or want to stop working on a regular jobs (because you want to start your own company or want to take a sabatical or want to go back to school and get a degree) you can without losing your Healthcare coverage during that period and it’s going to be way cheaper than if you had to pay Health Insurance (and copays) during that time.

Private Healthcare Systems are very much prisons that keep people tied to traditional jobs,

Show threadbluGillDec 19, 2024
All of your bullets are specific to company provided health care. Which is why I oppose that.
Show threadAceticonDec 19, 2024

Not at all - re-read the last one.

Not having to pay for Healthcare Insurance means it’s significantly cheaper for a person to do personal life projects that take months or years with little or no income, like getting further education or starting your own company, because your savings (or income from part time work) mainly have to cover housing and food, not Healthcare.

It’s easier to change your career when you don’t have that extra cost of Health Insurance (and hence a longer “runway” as your money will stretch more).

Show threadglimseDec 19, 2024
The other reply answered your question better than I ever could so I’ll leave it at that
Show threaduisDec 19, 2024
Maybe private insurance is problem then? Because they used to not have viable alternatives? Or how would ancap phrase it “used to not have competetion”.
Show threadbluGillDec 19, 2024

The problem is tax law! The money my company pays for my health insurance is not taxed. If instead of giving me their insurance they give me that $1000/month what I get (after taxes) is around $700/month.

As such private insurance as learned to serve their customer: the company I work for. Since I'm not the customer they do not serve me. There is plenty of competition in private insurance, but I don't get too look for it, I'm limited to whatever my company gives me as options, which works out to two different plans from the same company with tiny differences.

Show threaduisDec 19, 2024

what I get (after taxes) is around $700/month.

Is it not subtracted from taxes? In Europe paying for healthcare generally counts as pre-tax expence, so you pay taxes as if you did not receive money that you paid for healthcare. Basically less direct private healthcare subsidy.

Since I’m not the customer they do not serve me.

Yep. That’s also why having UHC is better.

Show threadbluGillDec 19, 2024

US tax law around health care is bad. That is my point.

UHC the customer is the government, not you. Well indirectly you since you own the government, but you then have to figure out if you vote for the person who wants UHC like you or the one who [something else unrelated to health care].

Show threaduisDec 19, 2024

UHC the customer is the government, not you. Well indirectly you since you own the government,

True, goverment does not exist in a vacuum. Even Putin’s authoritarianism can’t ignore dissatisfaction. And goverment is not just owned by people, it IS people.

but you then have to figure out if you vote for the person who wants UHC like you or the one who [something else unrelated to health care].

I’m thinking how to reply for 15 minutes, and still have no idea. Almost all people who want to be elected are either in support of UHC(left, most nationalists), want to be seen as supporting(right, Putin’s oligarchs) or would not care, but opposing UHC would contradict their ideology(pirates). And opposing single-payer models in general… It’s a suicude.

Show threadbluGillDec 19, 2024
You appear to be somewhere in the EU from you comment. So what if you want to make a small change to UHC?
Show threaduisDec 19, 2024

Returning to this. Tax law by itself is least problem. Recent example is Canada, where they zeroed taxes for month, and prices got increased as result. Private companies will charge as much as people are willing to pay.

I will expand my other reply and tell how and why UHC will make even private healthcare better. Right now in USSA alternative to private healthcare is dying. While in developed countries alternative to private healthcare is healthcare. When even worst national insurance(other kind of single-player system) provides functioning healthcare, asking 1k for spit-and-pray healthcare is not a viable buisness model. If you really want competetion for patients, then UHC is it. Without it yoir healthcare is race to the bottom - minimum healthcare for maximum price.

Show threaduisDec 19, 2024

“Subsidies”, lol. USSA subsidised its private health insurance companies more, than any other in the world. Private companies are great at double-charging. That’s why healthcare should be single-payer system.

Or universal has limits on coverage thus making poor who really need help unable to get good care

What do you even try to say? Let’s say I break leg. In country with UHC I will:

  • Be transported by ambulance
  • Get x-ray
  • Get surgery if needed
  • Get cast
  • Get stay in hospital if needed
  • Get cast removed
  • Go home happy and healthy

    • In country without UHC I will:

  • Pay
  • Pay
  • Maybe see a doctor
  • Pay
  • Pay
  • Pay
  • Maybe get cast
  • Pay
  • Got sent home and pay
  • Pay more
  • Maybe get bone to heal, but neither be happy, nor healthy due to malnutrition
  • Get cast removed for extra payment

    • In first example I spent about 1$ for metro ticket back home, while in second one I would be bankrupt 12 times.

    Show threadbluGillDec 19, 2024
    What if you have a tumor that needs to be removed but the doctors determine it isn't cancer. How long do you wait?
    Show threaduisDec 19, 2024
    As long as you are not willing to adopt and maintain UHC. And as long as it takes to remove that kind of tumor. Or do you really think privatizing healthcare will make those tumors disappear?
    Show threadjatoneDec 19, 2024
    why do you give a shit about your insurance? its the hospital that matters. insurance is just a middle man and an expensive one at that. best insurance i’ve had is state run.
    Show threadsnugglesthefalseDec 18, 2024
    So what would happen if you stopped working at this place for whatever reason, or the company itself ceased to exist? Just wondering how that situation would affect things.
    Show threadbluGillDec 19, 2024
    A big mess. I generally can pay full price to keep the current insurance but now I need to come up with that $1000 per month while I don't have a job.
    Show threadRubberDuckDec 19, 2024
    You’re rolling 16tons… And what do you get.
    Show threaduisDec 19, 2024

    I want to eliminate company provided healthcare.

    That is what universal healthcare for.

    Show threadbluGillDec 19, 2024
    You need to go back and read what I said, not make a comment that completely ignores my argument. Yes universal healthcare is for that, but there are other options that I support instead.
    Show threaduisDec 19, 2024
    If tou really want go to private clinic, you still can. Even somewhere like Belarus. And private clinic there will be better than private clinic in country without UHC. Guess why.
    Show threadThe D QuuuuuillDec 18, 2024
    no!? really!? wow!!
    Show threadDudeImMacGyverDec 18, 2024
    Yeah, no shit.
    Show threaderan_moradDec 18, 2024
    How could you tell?
    Show threadMajorHavocDec 18, 2024
    That’s some ace reporting. I wonder what clued them in?
    Show threadOptionalDec 18, 2024
    One of the desk editors read about it on facepals.
    Show threadBronzebeardDec 18, 2024

    How could this be?!

    You mean even after Congress slapped a [$35] band-aid on the problem…checks notes…16 years ago, and have only picked away at it since then, they still want more?

    Show threadLadDec 18, 2024
    But nothing will change.
    Show threaduisDec 19, 2024
    Welcome to Russia - country with underfunded healthcare. Wait, was you talking about USSA - country without any healthcare?
    Show threadGorkDec 18, 2024

    But… but the main health insurance industry association, AHIP, says that 9 out of 10 Americans like their employer provided health insurance! Surely they can’t be wrong!

    /s

    Show threadthesohoriotsDec 18, 2024
    A whole 1,000 people polled too!
    Show threadvonbaronhansDec 18, 2024

    I mean, I generally do like my employer health insurance, but it’s also genuinely a really good plan that I’ve largely had zero issues or outright denials. (I do sometimes have to get my doctor’s office and insurance to talk to one another appropriately, but that’s just as much on the doctor).

    But I would gladly give up my health insurance for a nationalized healthcare system. Not even a question.

    Show threadUpperBroccoliDec 18, 2024

    They should be unhappy with capitalism, as this shit is just a symptom.

    All Capitalists (and their minions) Are Bastards.

    Show threadOptionalDec 18, 2024
    Damn, ABC News, look at you out here dropping such a huge scoop on everybody. You’re a credit to modern journalism ABC News and totally not a bought-and-paid-for corportate psyops firm run by republiQans for shackling the poors.
    Show threadHubertManneDec 18, 2024
    why wasn't this a headline two months ago? what has changed?
    Show threadHubertManneDec 18, 2024
    this is with them hamstringing the aca during the last trump administration and with the mistake of allowing one company to own multiple sectors of the industry (hostpitals and insurance and pharmacy and manufacture and provider)
    Show threaduisDec 19, 2024

    Only 44% rate U.S. health care quality as “good” or “excellent,” a 20-year low.

    It’s quite high. In Russia it’s 39%[1], 28% in lowest income bracket, 59% in highest income bracket and 41% in median-like bracket(sadly, it is not median). And USA citizen in Russia will receive more healthcare, than USA citizen in USA.

    I think, just like Varlamov said about public transport and urban planning, the less people happy with healthcare - the better it will become. Or as it was in his example: in good cities residents say “LMAO, look how shitty my city is, here’s photos”, while in bad cities residents say “this is not shit on streets, this is fecal traditions”. I think it applies to all goverment policies.

    Оценка качества медицинской помощи

    Мнения россиян о работе системы здравоохранения разделились почти поровну: 39% опрошенных удовлетворены работой системы здравоохранения, 43% не удовлетворены. За прошедшие десять лет удовлетворенность заметно выросла. Оценка последнего обращения к врачу выше, чем оценки системы здравоохранения в целом. При этом почти половина опрошенных (48%) считают маловероятной или совершенно невероятной возможность получения лучшего доступного в России лечения.

    Show threadSmashfireDec 19, 2024
    In other news, water is wet! More at 11
    Show threadGHiLADec 19, 2024
    Americans are unhappy with *
    Show threadNastyNativeDec 19, 2024
    Unhappy…understatement of the millennia