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How many of those 62% voted for the guy who wants to let insurance companies deny even harder?
too fuckin' many, and how many sat this one out?
Here's the thing... having health coverage doesn't mean jack crap.
I've told my story before, it got best of'd on reddit and such, but it bears repeating why we need Universal Health Care:
tl;dr lost my doctors due to an insurance change 4 weeks in to a 6 week open heart surgery recovery...
In 2018, my company was in the process of being sold. No big deal, above my paygrade, nothing for me to worry about.
Then I got sick right after Thanksgiving. Really bad heartburn that lasted 5 days. It wasn't heartburn. I had a heart attack. 12/3/2018 I had open heart surgery, single bypass, and that started a 6 week recovery clock.
On 1/1/2019, the sale of my company closed and we officially had new owners. I also officially lost all of my doctors because the new employers don't do Kaiser in Oregon. They do it in WA and CA, but each state has to be negotiated and they never had presence here.
1/2/2019 I start working with Aetna to find doctors, hospitals, etc. Beyond the cardiologist I need a new pharmacist, podiatrist, diabetes care and a general "doctor" doctor.
Fortunately, my new employer is a big enough fish, they have their own concierge at Aetna and she gets me into the Legacy Health system.
On 1/3/2019 I start developing complications, but I don't know it at the time. It starts with a cough. All the time. Then, when I try to lay down, like to sleep, I'm drowning, literally choking and gagging.
The concierge and I try to get an appointment, we're told 2-3 months. For a dude still recovering from open heart surgery? Best they could do is 2 weeks. 1/14/2019.
I can't lay down to sleep so I buy a travel neck pillow and sleep sitting up.
I get to see the new doctor at the "official" end of the 6 week recovery. He doesn't know me or my history so he wants to run tests.
I'm sitting at home playing video games and waiting on test results when the call comes... Congestive heart failure. Report to the ER immediately.
My heart developed an irregular heart beat, which caused fluid build up in my chest. They admitted me and were getting ready to pull fluid off me.
"What happened to your foot?"
"I dunno, what happened to my foot? I can't feel my feet."
Remember when I said I was sitting around playing video games, waiting for test results? Yeah, my foot was touching a radiator and I didn't know it. 3rd degree burns, first four toes. Pinkie was spared.
So I'm in the hospital a week. I lose 4 liters of water per day. 50 lbs. of water. No wonder I was drowning. Regular bandage changes.
So now I'm facing two procedures. Electrocardio version to fix my heart, skin grafts to fix my toes.
This whole time the new insurance covers 80% until I reach the out of pocket maximum of $6,500. Then it will cover 100%.
The old insurance? ER visit for heart attack, hospital admission, 8 days in the hospital, open heart bypass... $250. $100 for meds and all the oxygen bottles I can carry.
So we hit the out of pocket maximum almost immediately. My wife had a problem with her foot running through the Seattle airport. The doctor who did her toe amputation was decided to be out of network so that was another $1,100.
I was never unemployed through all this. I had enough vacation and sick time banked to cover it. Cobra didn't apply. Continuity of care didn't apply because the new hospital DID have a cardiac department. Buying my old insurance wasn't an option, it was far too expensive without employer backing. Income is too high for assistance (thank god) and I took steps to max out my HSA account, which is good because we drained it twice.
Three 1 week hospital stays (2 for me, 1 for my wife), multiple ER visits, two more major medical procedures... That would be enough to break most people even with good insurance.
So if you read any of that, let me ask you something... Why does the quality of my health care and my quality of life have to depend on who I work for and what insurance companies they choose to work with?
Why does the quality of my health care and my quality of life have to depend on who I work for and what insurance companies they choose to work with?
Because Nixon was in bed with big business, then Ford fumbled the gas crisis, and finally Carter naively trusted Congress to transition from employee mandates to single payer.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_health_care_reform_in_the_United_States
How is it only 62%?! Who actually looks at their medical bill and thinks, "Yep, this is accurate and absolutely worth every penny"? I have health insurance, and I still avoid going to the doctor unless I’m practically dying because I simply can’t afford it.
And yet, I’m stuck paying nearly $10k a year for insurance—just in case something catastrophic happens—only to still face massive copays, out-of-pocket costs, and coverage denials. It’s completely counterintuitive.
The system is broken.
Screw the insurance industry.
Screw the state of medical care in the U.S.
Healthcare shouldn’t be a privilege—it’s a human right. Normalize that.
The other 38% are either young and healthy enough to have never have had to deal with the healthcare industry or are just so staunchly individualistic they’d rather die than let someone else get a ‘handout’. ‘Taxes are theft’, ‘why should MY money go to blah’, me me me. Lack of empathy and/or a very naïve understanding of what society is actually for.
Red state here - the biggest argument I hear all the time is that if we get public healthcare the care quality will go down and we will have to wait 8 hrs to get seen for a heart attack. They point to Canada's system and say most Canadians wish they had our system. So the answer, as always, is brainwashing.
. They point to Canada’s system and say most Canadians wish they had our system.
Most Canadians are extremely glad they don't have our system.
Yeah, I mean... You ain't getting shit with Trump.
I vote blue out of harm reduction, but don't kid yourself.
The single greatest acheivement Democrats crow about was a healthcare band-aid originally conceived by the Heritage Foundation and instituted by a Republican governor designed to further enshrine private, for profit insurers like United Healthcare cut in as the entire point.
When the people screamed "Help us left wing from this for profit deathcare hell! Here's a supermajority!" they protected the profit motive in what gets covered and declared victory.
They can make excuses, there's always several, but as the decades go by and nothing changes, advocating patience starts to sound like "well just be patient, maybe my nepo great grandkids will magically decide to start being civil and equitable with your peasant great grandkids, lol."
Sounds like 62% of Americans should have voted for the candidate that might have actually made that possible.
Bernie Sanders tried but did not get enough votes when he ran for president because the government paying for your healthcare is apparently bad for some reason.
and yet a good portion of y'all voted for trump and the republicans...
And a lot of people who want healthcare didn't bother voting.
Your inactions have consequences.
"but I couldn't vote for the Democrats in good faith!!!"
Well now you've helped elect Trump. Hope that aligns with your morals!
(General "you", not you specifically)
The average American is stupid and thus easily confused. Hell, half of us read at a 6th grade level...
Not "coverage", "affordable coverage". I don't want coverage through whatever capitalist exploit insurance company. I want affordable healthcare without lifesucking middlemen
What about unaffordable healthcare only available to the top 1% -- project 2025
And the other 40% rely on the help and care of others every day while blabbering on about being “self-made” which actually just means “selfish asshole”.
Were the 38% against, neutral, or just didn't answer?
They have some form of decent coverage through work and no one in their personal sphere is overly sick to the point of causing them pain. They wish to block others from getting adequate access least they lose some advantage over them. They're squarely in the F U I have mine camp. Of course as soon as something happens and theirs isn't good enough, they'll have a change of heart, while everyone else still in their camp holds them down.
Yet, they keep voting for the opposite. People seem too dumb to be allowed good things.
It's good that the majority support it, but it's also concerning that 38% didn't. The USA should have universal healthcare. I don't want to say where I live or where I don't live but if you live in a country which doesn't have universal healthcare I genuinely feel bad for you.
It's because they don't understand how the system works. Most people I know who are against it always go straight to "how could we pay for it". Not understanding that countries that do it work directly with the manufacturers of the medicine and hospitals so they get much better rates. 2022 showed 6500 per person for full coverage in Canada. 12,500 per person in the U.S.... with no coverage for the most part.
We know some Republican candidates know this as well, which is why Desantis promised lower health care costs in Florida by cutting a deal with Canada to import their lower cost drugs by trying to skirt buying them from the companies the are giving tax breaks to and not addressing.
Years later... No drugs have been shipped from Canada and no deals were settled because Canada doesn't want to ship their drugs to Florida and have shortages.
Much like an insurance company can say, I'm only going to pay $150 for that MRI instead of the $1,600 quoted, the government can do the same, and instead of lining the pockets of middlemen, it comes back as savings to the people. In general I believe I saw if we implemented a plan like Canadas, the average American would save 20% on their income taxes, and have full coverage. Meaning no longer having co-pays, deductibles, out of network doctors, etc. etc.
To me it just says, if you want further specialists outside of the ones provided, you can pay for them just like you do now. And the government could pitch in only the cost that they would pay towards a standard patient procedure.
Again, there’s that 30-40% Party Of No crowd that is likely the same starve the beast pro-Trump voters we’ve seen in polls time and again. The ones probably going to need those very same services, if they already aren’t using medicare/-aid.
That is why universal healthcare risk pools need to start at the state level. The goal needs to be to lock out the subsidization of those who are voting for predatory policies. This accomplishes a few important things.
It will systemically punish Republican voters in Republican led states.
Over time it will (in theory) massively shift the public consciousness in those areas around how badly they are getting fucked.
It removes the necessity of reliance on a federal change in order to begin the process of legislative reform.
This is obviously not a perfect solution, but I don't see this happening in any other way. There is roughly a (0%) chance we see universal healthcare implemented at the national level first.
somehow this doesn't correlate with the > 50% that just voted against it.
Show me where Kamala or the DNC were promoting Medicare for all (or any improvements to healthcare for that matter) in this election cycle? And don’t say negotiating prices on 10 more prescription drugs or I’ll know you’re completely unserious.
The midterm campaign should literally just be, "Death to Health Insurance, Public Health Now".
No other issues. Campaign on that as a mandate. If we can only change one big thing at a time then we should only promise one big thing.
Too bad it only takes 30% of the population to control the government and the Reich wing has those people under control. :/
That's nearly 2/3 of Americans, a pretty strong majority. Those other 38% of Americans can go fuck themselves, right along with the corporate oligarchs they worship.
too bad it only matters what the 1% want. can't wait to see what those 62% will do when their retirement money gets pillaged too. spoiler alert: nothing
Shame that Americans are stupid and voted in racists, fascist, classist grifters that believe healthcare is only for the ultra wealthy and will make sure the next United Healthcare CEO can deny now medical coverage.
Too late with the Orange Man in the White House...
Only 62%?
Why would you want to deny another person health coverage? How does denying another person health coverage help you?
Maybe they should have voted then, last election most people couldn't even be bothered.
I think part of the problem with that argument is that only a small percentage of Dems want real coverage and the rest want status quo insurance crap- and this coming from someone who did vote.
I still remember when ACA happened. The smart people who wanted single payer or similar were shunned out the room. If I was a slightly stupider or slightly more vengeful men, I too might have gotten disengaged from the political system.
Except if the dems had solid majorities for years they could be pushed left easily. Look at California. Not as left as Lemmy wants obviously but so much further left than the majority of the country.
Why though, many of them voted for Trump, next month antivax RFK Jr. will be health minister. Trump has claimed a healthcare plan will be ready "next week" for the past 8 years. People wanted Obamacare gone. So what do you want? Healthcare or no healthcare?
I tried to explain to a luddite like 10 years ago that their healthcare costs would go down. He said he doesn't care, he doesn't want to pay for someone else's healthcare. He had insurance through work. I tried explaining to him that THAT'S the whole point of insurance, you pay for other people's healthcare, you're not just paying into an account that you then draw from. Your premium goes to someone else's cancer treatment. He said I didn't understand insurance. Dude had 3 kids too. So his healthcare costs proportionally to mine would have been waaayyy lower.
Like, it's a no brainer.