Comment by ankaAr | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ankaAr | Hacker News Reader

My fiance works as therapist in USA. I was born and raised in Argentina.

Sometimes when I see the healthcare system in USA I cannot believe how the country could be like that, how people cannot think for a moment about other people in needing, I really cannot believe why there is people that cannot want universal healthcare. It is beyond my worst imagination.

It is an human right, it is someone suffering. I know that is expensive, I know that there is a lot of things to do, but people is dying, because they are poor, because they cannot pay an insurance, because the insurance is for profit and is not hiring more doctors, etc.

Healthcare system and education system is something that I cannot believe how bad it is in usa. And is sad af.

It's not the people in general - many people, including every family member and friend of anyone who has ever been seriously ill while not being seriously wealthy, understands just how bad things are. However, when things are this bad, (and this is actually _the best things have ever been_ [1]), it's so easy to spread fear and anxiety that the situation could get worse, when you represent the people who profit from this situation. This effectively paralyzes public opinion. At this point, over half a million Americans work for health insurance companies _alone_, and health care spending overall is now over 17% of GDP [2]! Unfortunately, this rot is now structural.

[1] Before the Obama administration, your health insurance could be denied or cut off based on arbitrary reasons ("pre-existing conditions"), and if you did not have a job that provided health insurance, you had to pay this cost entirely yourself - unless you qualified for Medicaid through absolute destitution. The Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare"), despite being a massive compromise from universal health care, allowed the sick and poor to get subsidized insurance, shielding tens of millions of people from the worst outcomes of the system.

[2] https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hpb20220506.381195/

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