Hacker News Reader

Comment by School-Cotton | Hacker News Reader

> Why don’t you change it?

Who do you think should change it, exactly?

You’re making the classic mistake of assuming the US works like the average European country: a functioning democracy where if something makes sense, politicians will promise it in their manifestos, and then implement it once they get elected.

In reality the US works completely differently and is not a functioning democracy. Making any major reform in any area is, to a first approximation, impossible.

View on HN

As an American born to European immigrant parents I can assure you that the grass is not always greener on the other side. All systems have problems. I say this as the parent of a child with a chronic illness (t1d) who is extremely frustrated with our health(insurance)care system.

Not everything is better about Europe than the US, I agree (and the extent to which this is true depends on where in Europe you’re talking about - Bulgaria is not much like Switzerland).

But one of the things that I think is unambiguously better (at least in highly developed Northern and Western Europe) is the quality of democratic institutions and their responsiveness to the people’s will. In the US, it is structurally almost impossible for Congress to legislate meaningfully, so effectively no one is in charge.

As an American watching Brexit and other self-owns pouring out of the UK, I’m not completely sold on this. If our system is insane — and it is — I’d say it’s a family disorder we inherited.

I think a lot of the "insanity" we see in both the US and UK and probably elsewhere can be traced back to lies from the consolidated & ubiquitous conservative media (specifically, guys like Rupert Murdoch).

> I’d say it’s a family disorder we inherited.

A pre-existing condition? You’re not covered.

Funny, but pre-existing conditions are covered by default under the ACA.

In the US you are.

Spot on.

I saw this as an immigrant to UK from a developing country, who only recently understood what he signed up for

Ironically, Switzerland has a similar healthcare system to the US.

There are no free state-provided health services, but private health insurance is compulsory for all persons residing in Switzerland

Health insurance in the US isn't practically compulsory since SCOTUS struck down the individual mandate's fines for not having it in 2012. (It was then removed entirely from the law in 2017.)

That's not quite right. SCOTUS upheld the individual mandate fines. They didn't strike it down. [1]

Congress then set the fine to $0 in legislation passed in 2017, which went into effect in 2019. [2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Federation_of_Indepen...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordable_Care_Act

Agreed, I think private healthcare is the stronger similarity.

At very least the French and Italian people would disagree (I’m French and Italian).

Seems like folks across Europe were pretty upset with the number of asylum seekers and the problems that followed their migration into Europe in the last couple of years. Their governments didn’t seem to give much of a shit and that’s led to more right-wing support.

Classic diversion. Healthcare is better in Europe. That's the topic.

Europe is a big place. Which part of Europe are you referring to? There's a huge variance in cost and quality of care between, let's say, Copenhagen and Chișinău.

And even if we look only at the wealthier EU member states, "better" depends on which metric you look at. They're generally more cost effective. But the US is better for 5-year survival rates on most types of cancer.

Reading comprehension might not be your strong suit. The parent was arguing about the effectiveness of governments.

I wholeheartedly agree healthcare in Europe is better, but not everything is better there.

The only hope for reform in the US is to position it as furthering the transfer of wealth to the ultra-rich. Then, you might get some traction. But it’s hard to frame a legitimately good policy in these terms.

It’s a nice soundbite, but not really accurate to describe US economic history as a process of wealth transfer to the ultra-rich. Everyone has gotten wealthier over time, it’s just that the wealth of the rich has increased even faster than everyone else’s.

? it was 40 years during the height of the cold war. This statement doesn't hold true before and after

Richer how, and relative to who and when? Because you could say the same thing for nearly every country on earth purely through technological advancements. Wealth is always measured in relative terms, and relative to the top of society much of the US hasn't gotten any richer. The average American only gained wealth relative to the past through technological means. Home ownership isn't really going up for the average American, education standards have been falling behind many other parts of the world, and while we have recently had a little bit of wage increases, it doesn't really make up for the decades of wage stagnation and only really came with an accompanying large increase in inflation for nearly every other consumer good.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com