There's a book where a bunch of people who have terminal illnesses form a kind of terror cell to suicide bomb health care boards to force the system to change. I'm almost surprised it hasn't happened yet.

In a country where guns are famously accessible.

It's just a symptom of the fucked up system we're in. Something like >70% of the americans want universal healthcare. Having a representative instead of a direct democracy already neuters the population's power, and then you throw in everything else like the first-past-the-post system that ensures two parties, and rich fucks controlling both parties easily, and thus both parties having no incentive to meaningfully help the population, and so on and so forth ad nauseam.

Blaming the population as a whole is accurate, but also denying the way the system is set up.

Over 90% of Democrats, 50% of independents, and even 30% of Republicans want universal healthcare. (check your favorite poll there are many).

The citizens of the USA have constantly, democratically, and collectively voted FOR universal healthcare, repeatedly, in the only ways they can legally do so.

If our system was democratic, we'd have universal healthcare already. Unfortunately, it's not.

Democratic leadership has ignored 90% of their own registered voters (and the 30% Rs and 50% independents).... just as they ignore 70% support for higher minimum wages. Republicans also ignore their own constituents.

Anyway, massive public support for universal healthcare, higher minimum wage, ending support of Israel, and so on. There's nothing democratic or collective about any of this. Open your eyes.

Universal healthcare was never on the ballot.

Careful,

That sounds a lot like the world would be better if we all worked together to improve things for everyone, regardless of their station in life...

Health care is especially terrible as a "market" because it doesn't work like other markets.

For example, if you have a 50% chance at something costing $100 happening, you'll probably make sure to have $100 available. If it's a 20% chance you probably have a plan, just in case. But, what if it's a 0.1% chance of something costing $100,000 you might take a gamble and not even bother with insurance. If you do get insurance, how do you calculate what is a reasonable price for that insurance? An extremely rare chance at an extremely expensive thing isn't the kind of calculation people do when they're shopping. The result, of course, is a lot of medical bankruptcies -- a phrase that simply doesn't exist in most countries.

Then there's the ridiculous idea of trying to shop around for health care. If you're having a heart attack, are you going to check to see which hospital has the best rates? Are you going to look up ambulance services online to see which one has the highest reviews? Even if it's something that isn't urgent, are you really capable of spending your money wisely to figure out which hospital offers the best price to performance ratio for a condition you can't pronounce, let alone understand? Markets only work when the shopper is informed, and it's very hard to be an expert on health care without being a health care professional (and even then, you might only really know your own specialty).

In addition, when you mix in preventative care, health insurance gets complicated. If you're healthier, you don't need as much insurance, which hurts the profits of insurance companies. On the other hand, once you do have insurance, they want to keep your premiums high without using their coverage, so they want you to live healthy... but not so much that you change or cancel your insurance. When health care is provided by the government, it's much simpler. It's best to keep everybody healthy and do as much preventative care as possible.

Finally, there's the issue of externalizing costs. If someone doesn't get insurance, they don't get left to die on the street. They get taken to a hospital and they get treated. Often, they're presented with a bill after that, which then can result in a medical bankruptcy. Who is ultimately on the hook? Taxpayers. It's just that responsible people who are able to afford medical insurance pay for their own care, but then through their taxes they also pay for health care for people who don't / can't get insurance. And, even though it's not financial, there's also the externalized cost of not getting treated.

Say you live in a city like NYC where everybody takes public transit. You really want to make sure that everyone else there showers, avoids too many perfumes, and doesn't take the train when they have a contagious illness! If someone doesn't have health insurance, so they can't go to the doctor when they get a cold, the flu or some kind of flesh-eating bacteria, they're much more likely to be on the train with that untreated illness with everyone else. In addition, things like a pandemic are much more likely to spread if someone can't afford to go to a doctor when they get sick. You're more likely to need health care in a country without universal health care simply because you're around people who don't have health care and might pass whatever they have to you.

Most economists agree that maybe a market is a great way to generate efficiency for things like pencils and tee shirts, but it's just not suitable for healthcare.

Good point! Everyone start making contingency plans now!

so did the Wermacht.

Everyone, even evil people, have kids. Their kids will probably grow up to be evil so what is your point exactly?

And most people can sympathize with the low level workers at the actual physical location, while the ceo and others at the top aren't necessarily easy to track and find.

I'd be curious to hear what the 'acceptable targets' are from people who casually talk about what they would do if they were in the situation described. I know I would hesitate at every single one. It's too easy to imagine how someone has been fucked over by our society's system, and the pain it will cause for them to die. Doesn't even matter if it's a rich fuck bastard like the asshole with two kids and an estranged wife that was popped the first time uhc got its teetee slapped.

Find the biggest investor, and name them CEO.

Pavlov's gun