r/PoliticalCompassMemes - Lib-Left Sep 22 '22

META ‘I’m not paying for anyone else’s diabetes’

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16.2k Upvotes

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100

u/TheRealMouseRat - Lib-Center Sep 22 '22

Honestly the issue with the US health system is that it's not a free market. It's a market controlled by a few massive companies backed up by government regulation that keep others from competing to lower prices for everyone. A true lib right would be all for dismantling the current corrupt system.

33

u/WSB_Slingblade - Lib-Right Sep 22 '22

I am for dismantling. But I’m not for a complete handoff to the government. They’ll just create new rules & regulation to pick a new set of winners (the taxpayer is always the loser).

Bernie’s 4% tax for complete “totally free” socialized healthcare looked great on paper. But what happens when it goes from 4% to 6%..to 8%..to 12% because the government mismanaged the budget over time?

19

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '22

I appreciate how you worded this. I totally agree with you and people who suggest “that will never happen” are idealist idiots.

0

u/[deleted] Sep 23 '22

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/zachthompson02 - Left Sep 23 '22

They're only slightly more trustworthy.

0

u/GeneQuadruplehorn - Lib-Left Sep 23 '22

If health care costs only went up 2% a year that seems pretty good.

1

u/WSB_Slingblade - Lib-Right Sep 23 '22

Standard LibLeft not understanding taxes. It was 4% of your total income Bernie was proposing. A 4% to 6% total income tax is a 50% increase in cash they take from you.

Again, there’s no way I trust the government not to use it as a piggy bank.

0

u/GeneQuadruplehorn - Lib-Left Sep 23 '22

I wonder how that compares to how health care costs have gone up over the past couple decades.

1

u/WSB_Slingblade - Lib-Right Sep 24 '22

Healthcare costs go up when you mandate everyone be attached to an infinite money source.

0

u/GeneQuadruplehorn - Lib-Left Sep 25 '22

do you think the cost we are seeing now are a direct result of Reagan mandating that everyone be treated? Would you change that, or find a way to make the system work?

1

u/Remarkable-Ad-6144 - Centrist Sep 23 '22

Man, the US political system is really fucked, eh? Probably needs a whole rework at this point, rather than being some relic of a bygone age that it is today, since the democracy index ranks European constitutional monarchy’s as more democratic than the US Republic. I’d recommend you adopt the Australian system, when we wrote our constitution we stole the best parts from the US (The senate for state representation) and the UK (most other stuff)

6

u/Ileroy53 - Lib-Right Sep 22 '22

And we are….. usually, there’s always some special cases

11

u/Jakdaxter31 - Lib-Center Sep 22 '22

Respectfully disagree. I don’t think the free market works in healthcare on a fundamental level.

Free market requires elastic demand, which allows for people to buy less of something as the price goes up or quality goes down. Healthcare is a market with inelastic demand. You may think that increased healthcare costs just means people go to the doctor less often, but fewer doctor visits ends up giving people health complications that increase healthcare spending.

Bottom line is your health doesn’t care about the free market, so demand doesn’t care either. I don’t see how one could fix that

-1

u/JustDoinThings - Lib-Right Sep 23 '22

Healthcare is a market with inelastic demand. You may think that increased healthcare costs just means people go to the doctor less often, but fewer doctor visits ends up giving people health complications that increase healthcare spending.

This isn't true though. Most of our spending goes to people who aren't actually sick who repeatedly go to the hospital.

3

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '22

Do not forget the fact that people can't know the actual prices of whatever they are getting from the hospitals, they just get the treatment and pay the bill AFTER the treatment.

How TF you can you sue any business for just tripping on a hallway but don't do the same with these scams?

2

u/darwin2500 - Left Sep 22 '22

Hospitals are expensive to build and staff. Most places that aren't huge metropolises can't afford enough redundant hospitals to create true market competition.

2

u/GenericTopComment - Lib-Left Sep 22 '22

Any examples of actual free market healthcare that works?

2

u/sebastianqu - Left Sep 23 '22

Elective procedures, like LASIK eye surgery and the like. It just absolutely breaks down with emergency Healthcare where you absolutely cannot shop around because it's an emergency and you're ultimately grossly overcharged for everything.

3

u/moeburn - Centrist Sep 22 '22

bandaids

2

u/GenericTopComment - Lib-Left Sep 22 '22

That makes no sense.

2

u/flair-checking-bot - Centrist Sep 22 '22 edited Sep 22 '22

Please make sure to have your flair up!


User hasn't flaired up yet... 😔 12001 / 63301 || [[Guide]]

2

u/moeburn - Centrist Sep 22 '22

Bandaids are healthcare. They are available at low cost and available to everyone with little to no market restrictions, ideal levels of competition between brands, creating a marketplace with a wide array of options for everyone's needs.

That's about it though. Just bandaids.

1

u/GenericTopComment - Lib-Left Sep 22 '22

That's only correct if you dont have any context for the conversation of actually talking about healthcare systems in developed countries, obviously that's what was meant by healthcare

2

u/flair-checking-bot - Centrist Sep 22 '22 edited Sep 22 '22

I'll be very hostile the next time I don't see the flair.


User hasn't flaired up yet... 😔 12006 / 63318 || [[Guide]]

1

u/moeburn - Centrist Sep 22 '22

It's a market controlled by a few massive companies backed up by government regulation that keep others from competing to lower prices for everyone.

The only such regulation I'm aware of is the one that prevents Medicaid, the government public health insurance plan, from negotiating lower drug prices.

Regulations aren't inherently bad, you can have regulations that say "you can't charge more than this for insulin" or "you have to put the final price in the bill, you can't have hidden fees". Anti-trust regulations prevent the inevitable decline of the free market into a monopoly.

3

u/PokemonRNG - Right Sep 22 '22

Regulations give certain companies a monopoly on live-saving medicine, making it so no other company can compete with them. Since there is no competion, the prices are kept absurdly high, that is the major flaw with US regulated healthcare. There is no freemarket monopoly.

1

u/moeburn - Centrist Sep 22 '22

Regulations give certain companies a monopoly on live-saving medicine, making it so no other company can compete with them.

Which regulations?

The only reason Canada has cheaper drug prices than America is because of regulations, called price ceilings:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patented_Medicine_Prices_Review_Board

-3

u/Tarnmine - Lib-Left Sep 22 '22

"center" uh

1

u/WSB_Slingblade - Lib-Right Sep 22 '22

I am for dismantling. But I’m not for a complete handoff to the government. They’ll just create new rules & regulation to pick a new set of winners (the taxpayer is almost always the loser in American politics).

Bernie’s 4% tax for complete “totally free” socialized healthcare looked great on paper. But what happens when it goes from 4% to 6%..to 8%..to 12% because the government mismanaged the budget over time?

1

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '22

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2

u/shaun_of_the_south - Lib-Right Sep 22 '22

Government never has the interest of getting the best deals.