• lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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    2 days ago

    That is the job of the government. Everyone needs healthcare to one degree or another. If we’re all going to be pooling money anyway it shouldn’t be filtered through a for-profit system first.

    On another note, unless an insurance is mandatory you can usually opt to pay yourself.

    No I can’t. Everything is too expensive because insurance being involved has inflated the costs.

    • julianwgs@discuss.tchncs.de
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      2 days ago

      I believe the main problem in the US is the focus on shareholder value. Some people invest into shares of healthcare companies to turn a profit. That is just insane. In Germany (which‘s healthcare system is not perfect) there are many private health insurance companies, but there are not allowed to make a profit (or pay out dividends to shareholders, because there aren‘t any). If there are profits they need to be reinvested into the system. It leads to much better outcomes in my opinion.

      If we’re all going to be pooling money anyway it shouldn’t be filtered through a for-profit system first.

      Not to sound like someone who wants a small government, but instead paying money to shareholders you can also pay tons and tons of government workers. In Germany when you work for the government you can‘t get fired which leads to a lot of overcapacity. In the tax department it is very often the case that there is only work for less than half a day. A friend of mine actually quit their (very safe) job there, because they couldn‘t stand being bored half a day and being mocked for working too fast.

      Again I believe everything is better than the system in the US, but there is some nuance to the alternatives.

    • Boomer Humor Doomergod@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      The cost of insurance goes down the larger the pool of people. The largest pool in a country is everyone, so like utilities it becomes a natural monopoly.

      Natural monopolies should be the purview of the government as they allow for abuse.