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[–] HuggableBear 0 points 9 points 9 points (+9|-0) ago
The alternative is detaching health care from health insurance. Universal health insurance is not a bad thing and should probably be something we look at. Getting in a car wreck shouldn't ruin you financially for the rest of your life.
Health care, on the other hand, is just a normal part of life. Expecting someone else to pay for your health care is literally no different than expecting someone to buy you a car or a house or clothes or food.
[–] AncientArachnid 0 points 6 points 6 points (+6|-0) ago
Agreed in principle. But what happens if a loaf of bread costs $35? A steak $300? Rent on a trashy apartment $50,000 per month? There's a huge problem when normal, working people cannot buy something they need on a decent salary because the cost of that thing is simply too high.
Reducing cost drastically is the core issue.
30 years ago I paid $45 for an annual wellness exam, somewhere between $5 and $50 for a couple of routine tests, and maybe $15-$20 for a prescription. I paid for that myself. I made $17,500 a year back then, too, so maybe I paid it over two months' time. Fine.
Today the same might be charged out at $600-$1000, depending on how the tests were "coded" and what the prescriptions were. That's complete and total bullshit. The last car I bought didn't cost six times what my very first one did!
Costs are the core issue imo. The American people and American economy are being massively ripped off. But that's a rant for another day.
[–] Malthrax 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago
One possible solution is to lower the financial barrier for smart people to enter into medicine as a career. Costs are high because there ISN'T an over-abundance of doctors. Costs are high because medical school is expensive as fuck. Costs are high because doctors don't have to compete with one another in the "free market". Nobody does comparison shopping based on cost when picking a doctor for routine stuff.
You need enough doctors and nurses that everyone who needs one can get one easily, but not so many that its impossible for those doctors and nurses to earn a living (and pay back their student loans).