you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] 18 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

It really is the "everyone" that annoys people. I've asked conservatives to explain to me how insurance works as a business model. They pretty quickly realize two things:

  1. Monthly premiums of everyone cover the needs of anyone in need today. (Some seem to think it is like a bank account, but pretty quickly realize why that doesn't make sense. Framing it around car insurance instead of healthcare tends to help if they are struggling here.)

  2. As a for profit business, they need to collect more in monthly premiums from each customer than they will provide that customer with benefits. Otherwise, the business is not profitable.

Once they understand these two facts, then they are ready to understand why government sponsored healthcare is optimal. It maximizes the number of people paying into the monthly premiums, while minimizing the profit margin because the government doesn't need to be run at a profit. Many disagree with that last point, but will usually be satisfied by phrasing it as "bringing in a minimal profit. Otherwise, we wouldn't want to be overtaxed, right?"

  • source
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [โ€“] 12 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

    Once they understand these two facts, then they are ready to understand why government sponsored healthcare is optimal.

    In my experience they'll understand the two facts but still arrive at the unwavering conclusion that it's still better than the government running it.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [โ€“] 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

    Sadly, I've had similar experiences. Some people are so indoctrinated or have had such bad experiences with corruption in other countries, they just refuse to acknowledge how it would work in the US.

    Others are so committed to the identity of not letting anyone, especially the government, tell them what to do (pay taxes), but that is a dying breed in the era of MAGA and post-Covid. (I know COVID is still very much an issue for some areas, but I digress.)

    My main point is that while getting someone to understand these two facts may not change their minds, their minds will not change unless they understand these 2 facts. It opens up the door to a conversation that cannot be had beforehand.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment