Getting rid of insurance companies is only part of the equation, as far as I can tell. It could help quite a bit. But until we address the adversarial position that providers themselves take towards their patients, we're going to have galling and disgusting outcomes.
Apart from that, I wonder why the society in the USA is so adversarial. It is apparent in many aspects and it is damaging for the society. There are ways to reduce to adversity, but it seems that many people support and favour an adversial system. Is that a cultural curse of the USA?
It's been this way for a very long time, and it's only getting worse.
In a nutshell, there is no unified US society - Americans fear and hate their neighbor, which has resulted in societal dysfunction.
You probably don't really want to know how deep the ugliness goes, but here's several reported reasons:
- holdover from the first European settlers, the Puritans, where the word "puritanical" originated
- half the voters are often stereotyped as "people afraid of somebody else getting more." See Fox news.
- "Just society" belief (the poor or unfortunate must have deserved it)
- lack of homogeneity. See "salad bowl."
- mobile population causes isolation from families
- "at will"/feudal employment and ruthless healthcare system
- anti-intellectualism, with Trump as the poster boy
- tax policies designed to help the rich, and strip the middle class
- otherwise, lack of policies at all levels of US government
- rulers more concerned with controlling foreign countries than actually governing their own
- "anybody can be sued for anything"
- "I got mine." attitude
- rich people saying "I wouldn't mind paying more taxes, as long as I get to choose what it's spent on."
- in California, Prop 13 and 8% pensions starve school districts and social services with mathematical certainty
It's not unheard of for people who are lost using a door bell or driveway and getting shot to death. In other words, homeowners are sitting in the dark with loaded weapons, waiting to proudly kill anybody who passes by. See "castle doctrine."
It would take leadership to admit there's a problem and to steward policies rather than engage in empty rhetoric.
Instead we have special interests and lobbyists, and the invisible hand of the wealthy writing our laws and pulling the strings.
When you look at the existing divisions in American society, you can see how a few thousand "fake news" accounts could do a lot of damage to magnify those divisions.
It is definitely the horse needed before the cart, and expecting a pharmaceutical/insurance funded government to pass the requisite regulations against its own interests would be cart first.
Unless of course, we could somehow acquire a government that acts on the interests of the people.