I really wish Bernie would enter the presidential as an independent. Not necessarily as the presidential pick but maybe as VP, given his age. Although if you see how the annoying orange has been doing recently I think Bernie could take over even in 4 years from now and be better.

Yes he hasn’t signed on wanting Schumer to be replaced.

Either has AOC.

That’s it IMO. That’s the death of it all right there.

First we need actual progressives to run.

The biggest problem with leaving it up to the states is that the party that is always harping on about states' rights is a bunch of disingenuous liars who immediately start restricting states' rights the second the state doesn't do what they want.

I’m thinking that the US needs to go back to A/B testing.

Like the Civil War?

well because 3 times the premium cost is still far below the cost of surgery. i am currently recovering from the removal of a cyst in my jaw that ate half my jaw leaving bone barely 3 playing cards thick in some areas. there was nothing i could have done to avoid it. the surgery too make the marsupilisation to drain the area alone was $3500, with only pain numbing. still awaiting the final surgery cost, but the anastegeologist is $1500 that i have to pay. and the stitches from my mandolin accident costs me an additional $1500.

this is ALL what i have to pay, while i have silver level coverage

What if all American’s cancel their insurance. Why are we paying these people for a service that they don’t provide!?

Because then that annual physical goes from costing you 20 dollars out of pocket to almost 900 once the bloodwork is added.

If I’m going to be sick and broke because my insurance is too expensive to actually use,

And that is the real crux of it and why we need single payer/m4a. You, like most people, are approaching health insurance as something you need when you are sick.

The reality is that health insurance is something you have so you don't actually get sick. You engage in preventative care whether that is vaccinations or just getting that lump checked out while it is still "you are either fat or have cancer" rather than "if we don't cut out a large chunk of your leg, you are going to die" and so forth. Get your teeth cleaned rather than filled with epoxies and so forth.

And... that is also a big chunk of why it is so expensive. Because hospitals are generally staffed by people who give a shit (even if they often aren't owned by folk that do...) and needing to care for people who don't have insurance is a thing (at least in emergencies. But it isn't like we live in a country where there are one or more mass shootings a day...). So the idea is that Mr Wilkerson, who has insurance, will pay out the nose on aspirin so that Mr Carey, who doesn't, can get a hit of the mediocre stuff.

Which also leads to the complete fuckery of insurance companies being aware of that and more or less insisting on a system where they are billed something truly insane (10k for a tablet of aspirin!) so that they can use the power of collective bargaining to get that down to something "reasonable" (50 dollars per tablet of aspirin!) that they then have a co-pay on. Whereas people who don't have insurance get that insane bill and need to fight for themselves and/or go bankrupt.

This is not coming from a mean spirited place, but "what if all American's cancel their insurance?" Well, it will never happen unless there's a practical, immediate, and acceptable alternative available. So, we can feel free to play through the scenario in our heads, but if I'm going to go day dreaming, I'm going to dream about stuff that's way more fun to think about than health insurance (like what if I had superhero powers or what if I won the lottery jackpot).

The hard reality is that healthcare without some kind of medical coverage (insurance, medicare, medicaid, etc) in the USA is not practical. Younger and healthier folks, people without kids or other dependents, and things like that can make do without, and many do.

However, there's already a huge pool of people who get free or significantly reduced cost coverage via programs like the VA (for veterans), Medicare (for seniors), and Medicaid (for poor and disabled). Another giant pool of people receive heavily subsidized health insurance via their employers, because the employers pay some or all of the premiums. Although that group often complains about the cost and quality, many/most of them still know that it's very risky to go without and that there's at least some level of return on investment there that makes it still worth it. Then sandwiched in with that group are the young adults who are on their parents' insurance so they don't really pay for it themselves anyway.

While those groups are full of people who are like minded and want to see reform, you'll never see significant push back and willingness to stop paying from those groups. So, it's really only a relatively small block of Americans who are bearing the entire brunt of their health insurance costs and who could potentially get by without it, who would also be willing to. And that pool isn't likely large enough to affect significant change on its own. You'll basically get half the country telling them to get a job (completely ignorant of the reality of the situation), another third of the country telling them that it's a choice they made and others shouldn't have to pay for it, and the bulk of the remainder that aligns ideologically but who aren't in a position to drop their healthcare coverage.

Keeping in mind that I've obviously glossed over a lot of details and caveats because at the end of the day this is just a long assed comment and not a dissertation.

Because insurance doesn’t work like a normal product or good.

What ends up happening is they charge as much as they possibly can. The book “an American sickness” explains all the problems if you’re interested.

The ACA was never going to be great. It was the best that could get passed.

Cause then those companies would have less to kickback to their government cronies

So insurance companies have to pay back out to their insured 85% of all money they collect each year. Been that way since the 1970's.

What this means is that they WANT medical costs to be as high as possible. 15% of a $2,000 ambulance ride is a lot more than 15% of a $500 ambulance ride.

So the insurance companies have spent decades forcing hospitals to increase costs (charge more or we'll make your hospital out of our network and no one will come to your hospital).

What this means is that as long as insurance companies exist, there isn't really a "compete on costs" possibility. They're already paying back out 85%. At most they might be able to make things 5% cheaper. There's no competition because there's no real areas to cut costs, by design.

The only fix is to eliminate insurance all together and go single payer, or to legally force hospitals to drop all their billing costs down to levels on par with the rest of the world, and both those options will be fought tooth and nail by insurance companies, since one would make their business disappear and the later would make their 15% cut for profits and overhead vastly smaller.

The Republicans know the free market is a myth and the only way to win in a capitalist system is to start rich and cheat. This involves convincing the plebs to believe in a free market.

The simple answer is that they would make less money if they did that, so it's very important to convince the American public that it isn't necessary and we should vote for people who will not enact it.

Mostly because:

A) Insurance companies collude with each other

B) are only half the problem (the other half being hospitals and pharmaceutical companies cranking prices up)

C) Most Americans get their insurance through their employer

and

D) Healthcare costs are complicated because they're split between insurance premiums and out of pocket expenses and typically raising one lowers the other and vice versa

Insurance was always a terrible way to handle healthcare expenses because healthcare costs are generally non-discretionary and have far too many moving parts and payers.

Cuz health insurance and health care are both very expensive fields, and they’re in opposition to each other, so they both tend towards monopoly.

And from the consumer’s perspective:

• It’s hard to predict your health care needs
• It’s hard to comparison shop during a health emergency
• It’s hard to predict how your health care will get coded to the insurer

Because as usual, it's a crime against humanity to pay gamblers to rob us of our healthcare.

This is ancient news that will never accepted in the phony capitalist/hegemonic narrative of "insurance" and "markets".

https://web.stanford.edu/~jay/health_class/Readings/Lecture01/arrow.pdf