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Even Go Fund Me came out and said, uh, wait, funding health care isn't what we really intended for the platform.

I recall one of the coaches of a major league baseball team had some major illness and had set up a GoFundMe for it...the team decided to cover it, fortunately, but...come on.

I don't know how anyone can seriously claim there's nothing wrong with our system, but they do.

One guy said, in earnest, that it's a good thing that our medical system is so expensive - because that means it's a good system. (This was in response to me saying that I think our technology and care are pretty good; it's how we pay for it that's the main issue.)

How do you even respond to that? I just ignored him. Does he think Europe has cut-rate health care? Canada?

Off the top of my head, these are the kinds of things my conservative family members or distant acquaintances would say and agree with:

What if somebody else gets more than me?

What if somebody who doesn’t “deserve” benefits gets them?

Why should I give a shit or have to pay for other people? (Unaware of how insurance itself works)

The economyyyyy!

Friend of mine became extremely sick. Doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong, but his life became pain and insomnia. After many torturous years, he was tired of being bedridden and miserable. He couldn't end it; his wife would lose her health insurance through his employer. So he walked off into the woods.

He's been legally missing for a few years now. He made sure to bring his ID with him, in case he is found one day.

That's the American healthcare system.

Why do we still live here: if we could leave, we would. We've been trying.

Americans surely must understand by now that they're only seen as consumers, statistics, a unit from which money can be extracted. They're not seen and treated as humans.

Americans who lived abroad, what do you think about this?

Why would anyone live there? Let alone believe it's the best country in the world

There's a certain irony between people having insurance who also need a gofundme... It begs the question, what exactly is the purpose of the insurance?

Sparing loved ones of financial hardship is one of the noblest reasons to die. What a fucked up sentence.

The US healthcare system is a hostage situation.

My father told me he would retire himself if he ever had to go to a nursing home

Everybody in this country needs to lift themselves up by the bootstraps and do what I did: have a chronic disease that is so ridiculously expensive to treat that the pharma company pays your deductible and out of pocket max for you so that you’ll stay on it. Then you get actual coverage for the rest of the year!

I’m a software engineer and my health insurance pays out significantly more than my gross pay every year. U-S-A!

My roommate lost his job and his insurance (which both he and his husband rely on) with it. Coverage under COBRA would cost $700 a month, which he's actually considering paying since they at least hit their deductible. Otherwise the marketplace plans are all about as expensive and/or have an $18k deductible (yes really) before they cover even part of the cost.

Currently trying to get approved for Medicaid, but it's difficult since he has income for this year on paper.

We're not lacking in "system", that's part of what we're overpaying so much for. It's the "care" part that's lacking.

US healthcare is extortion.

Fucking hell, this is brutal

I've already had this talk with my daughter. I'm not presently ill or anything, but I see this as the new American version of estate planning.

Somehow, I've managed to build up a few meager assets to leave to my daughter and I'll be damned if I let American healthcare take it all.

(And please refrain from bringing up misinformed statements on estate tax. I'm a tax accountant. I'm more astute on that stuff than most of the population, and my little pile of shiny trinkets is well below any threshold for any of that to kick in)

This is my plan when a major illness rears its head.

It's designed that way and I hate it.

That's my exit plan too. Once my joints only allow me to pull a pin, I'm going to eBay to find me a nice unused WW2 grenade or maybe a tank mine.