I didn't know that. I have to say, this is a crazy system. Why not just have a single payer rather than saddle people with debts that they cannot (and will not) pay off? It's got to cause a lot of stress.
We don't trust the government to manage it appropriately and will instead use that money for vanity projects or to line the pockets of whoever is running that program.
Then for the people, we consider "failures" such as debt, homelessness, etc as moral failures, rather than failures of the system. The leading thought is "Why are MY tax dollars paying for someone else's knee surgery? They should have planned properly!"
Any change to this system will require a societal shift within America which isn't going to be happening anytime soon, if ever.
This one kills me. This is almost literally the definition of insurance.
This is a very bad faith take on what groups opposed are saying and I don't even agree with them. You don't need to do this to effectively argue against this stance.
[0]https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/jonathan-m-metzl-dying...
Tying into personal experience. When I paid for my mom's knee surgery which left her wheelchair-bound for 2 months afterward, I had many proudly conservative family members ask me why I would do that. The knee surgery was to help with damage done from obesity (which she had beat before the surgery and is now at a healthy weight). I was told that I was rewarding her "bad" behavior. That she needed to suffer the consequences of her actions. That her health is not my responsibility.
All of those statements reflect my earlier statement of American individualism and our belief that these issues are moral failings, rather than societal failings. This individualism runs so deep in our society that a son is chastised for helping his mother.
I think the rest of your point, about Americans in general not trusting the government to do things efficiently or competently, is true though.
The US can't "just" do anything because the political system is completely deadlocked. It's not really like well-functioning democracies where a coalition can win an election with a particular set of proposals for reform and then get those implemented.
Not disagreeing. Actually, the Republican party these days is capable of gridlocking itself. I've never seen such a high level of dysfunction -- enough so that I suspect we are living in some transition period, although what we are transitioning to I am uncertain. I don't think the current Republican party is stable.
sure, it can crumble economically etc but that's a lot slower process and gives plenty of time to materialize the spin.
Because a job "with benefits" is a badge of honor. Because the "gubment" is wasteful. Because people believe people will scam any system like that (although most people who think this assume it's "certain" people who do the scamming and can't be bothered to realize it's people like Rick Scott who do the scamming.).