this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2023
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A great reminder of why we don't have universal health care here in the US.
Universal Healthcare is cheaper than the current US system. You could switch to it without having to cut anything.
Except you can't use medical coverage as a recruiting tool for the military.
Cheaper if you count what consumers pay for health insurance, but you'd still need to find a way to come up with the money.
The US government spends more per capita on healthcare than any nation does even though it doesn't cover their whole population, people pay for private coverage over that. Get rid of the inability for the government to negotiate prices with service/medication providers, make the government the sole provider of healthcare (meaning they can dictate how much they pay for medications because they have a monopoly) and ta-fucking-da, you just saved trillions every year.
US tax money pays for 7 separate programs and all that administration.
Medicare
Medicaid
Children's Health Insurance Program
Indian Health Service (IHS)
VA
Tricare
Then all the private insurances for federal employee
Then all the private insurances that corporations pay money to have even more administration.
So that's what 10 times the admin staff that a public program and private option would have?
Compared with Australia: Public (tax money) 1 program: Medicare Private several options such as: Bupas, Medibank, AHM.
Germany also has both public and private.
A crazy part of talking about single payer in America is the hang up over buying out public health providers with tax payer funds.
That never happened in Australia. They simply let private healthcare exist but built new public hospitals that became teaching and training hospitals. By slowly expanding pubic healthcare, which started in Queensland, they simply provided an option for more people to access local public healthcare.
Everyone gets stuck on trying to quick fix all this overnight. If we look at Oz Medicare didn't cover all Australians until 1984. But Queensland became the first state in Australia to introduce free universal public hospital treatment in January 1946. By building public hospitals one by one, training staff, and providing better care Queensland changed the way Australians thought about public va private care.
It costs more to have more administrative staff in America. But we refuse to train new doctors or build hospitals based on the needs of the communities they should serve. Therefore we end up with hospitals that serve shareholders, not doctors, not patients. We provide care for dollars instead of people.
Even if they had to buy all private hospitals, the US government is ready to spend tens of trillions on wars to find two guys hiding somewhere in the middle East, I'm pretty sure they could find the billions required to help them save trillions every year.
We don’t have universal healthcare in the US because of the HMO act and regulatory capture.
Ukrainian UAVs are why you don't have universal healthcare? Fucking Ukrainians how could they do this to you
Care to elaborate?
Because spending a trillion-plus per year on our own wars wasn't enough to satiate the greed of American war profiteers. Now, we pay for other countries' wars too.
So you‘re telling me, you had universal healthcare before Russia attacked Ukraine? I’m pretty sure you already had a fucked up healthcare system before. Don’t blame others for the shit you’ve done to yourself..
It's not our job to solve Ukraine's problems, especially when we have so many of our own that need to be addressed.
Except the US promised to defend Ukraine when it gave up its nukes to Russia. So yeah, it is literally our job. Don't promise things you don't follow up on if you don't want it to be your responsibility
Purged by creator
Pretty confident this is Ukrainian engineering and building. Not American.
Also, fuck off with the “we pay for other countries wars” when Ukraine was literally attacked in nothing more than a land grab. Help or shut the fuck up.
Furthermore it's an investment. It's lend-lease which has to be paid back by Ukraine. This essentially means that Ukraine will be USA's little bitch for a loooong time.
I will give astronomical amounts of my money to help Ukraine, but I don’t want them to be our bitch. I want a good regional ally. I want a regional partner with stability. I want them to be able to fight for themselves. They’re people and their own country.
I didn't say all Americans wants to fuck up the world. I just stated the obvious: The US supporting Ukraine with weapons has nothing to do with charity. It's a lend-lease. Eventually it has to be paid back. Before the debt is paid off Ukraine will do as USA wishes.
Not to mention the treaty we signed with Ukraine in exchange for them turning over their nukes.
This isn't true, lend-lease wasn't used, Ukraine is not paying back the assistance that was given so far. It could be authorized and used later, but hasn't been so far
Care to elaborate?
The full title of the act is “An act to provide enhanced authority for the President to enter into agreements with the Government of Ukraine to lend or lease defense articles to that Government to protect civilian populations in Ukraine from Russian military invasion, and for other purposes.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine_Democracy_Defense_Lend-Lease_Act_of_2022
It's only an investment for war profiteers, as always. If you're not invested in Raytheon, it's just lost value for your taxes.
Lost value for your taxes? Essentially Ukraine borrowed Americans tax money to buy weapons made in American factories where American workers get a monthly salary which they spend in American stores often buying American made products.
Sounds like American tax payers are benefiting and will continue benefit quite much from the lend-lease to Ukraine
They are not, unless you are Ukrainian
The US can count the number of nation threats to their National Security on one hand. The ex-ussr clown show is one of them. Consequently, contributing to the reduction in strength and power of said national security threat at no risk to yourself, zero chance of own casualties, and at bargain basement prices is an absolute no brainer. It's literally the best use of your taxpayer dollars for the one thing the Federal Government universally is accepted as being responsible for: self-defense/national security, and you're complaining about it? Give your head a shake. Also, don't be rude.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dilemma
The idea that the only options are defense spending or universal healthcare is a fallacy. It's a false choice. Common in propaganda.
In reality most (if not all) developed countries spend significantly LESS on healthcare than America. So if anything, having (near) universal healthcare would leave MORE money to spend on war.
In other words, America doesn't need to choose between military spending and universal healthcare. Certainly, you don't need to choose between supporting Ukraine (which might as well be a rounding error) and healthcare. America can choose to support Ukraine, maintain a huge defense budget, have universal (and superior) healthcare, and SAVE money.
The reason you don't have universal healthcare, isn't defense spending.
It's partly corporate greed and corporate influence.
It's partly an ideological choice.
It's partly American voters, voting against their own interests, because they've been lied to. Like you've almost certainly been lied to about healthcare.
Perhaps ask yourself who stood to gain from you thinking this was a binary choice.
Yeah, these are the usual excuses we hear, but I can look just to the north of us and see Canada, with universal health care, spending a mere 26 billion a year.
At the end of the day, enough of us support our own impoverishment, so it's never going to change.
That's the point. If the US could get spend less on healthcare, and get universal healthcare at that lower cost, then what does the amount being spent on the Ukraine war have to do with healthcare?
If we saved money on healthcare then we could send more to Ukraine?
Sounds like a plan.
Ukrainians paid for this
What does this have to do with conservatives?