Heavy question, I know. This is not intended to be political, please leave “taxes/government evil” out of it, I’m interested in a pragmatic view.
Infamously the US has mostly private health care, but we also have Medicare and -aid, the ACA, and the VA.
Most other nations have socialized health care in some format. Some of them have the option to have additional care or reject public care and go fully private.
Realistically, what are the experiences with your country’s health care? Not what you heard, not what you saw in a meme, not your “OMG never flying this airline again” story that is the exception while millions successfully complete uneventful and safe journey story. I’m also not interested in “omg so-and-so died waiting for a test/specialist/whatever”. All systems have failures. All systems have waits for specialists unless you’re wealthy, and wealth knows no borders. All systems do their best to make sure serious cases get seen. It doesn’t always work, but as a rule they don’t want people dying while waiting.
Are the costs in taxes, paycheck withholding (because some people pay for social health care out of paychecks but don’t call it a tax), and private insurance costs worth it to you?
In Australia we have fully socialised medical care, but you can have private health care if you want.
I paid $0 for my kidney transplant and cancer treatment.
We also get no-interest loans that only increase with CPI from the government to go to university, which is paid back via a percentage of our income once we earn over a certain threshold.
This allows people to actually raise their social status, such as our current Prime Minister, who grew up working class in a single parent family in a poor part of Sydney, before going to university and succeeding.
If I was in the US I would definitely be bankrupt and most likely dead already.
I also earn more (as a teacher) and pay less tax overall than in most US states.
I live under singlepayer health care. I like it, but it does have its downsides. For example, let’s say you have something really severe going on, and you’d like to try a hail Mary. Well, you can’t, as the only treatments that are available to you are whatever treatments have been deemed effective and reasonably safe by the regulatory agency. Experimentation, in lack of a better word, is a no-go.
I never experienced this as a problem myself, but I can easily imagine that someone could.
So I think the best is to have single payer available to everyone, but with private for profit doctors available if you need or want something a little more unorthodox and you have the means to pay for it.
EDIT: Seeing as I may have come off as a bit gloomy, I think I should list why I wouldn’t want it any other way.
- My dad had cancer. Chemo and everything covered.
- My kid broke his arm this spring. The only expense was me buying a sandwich while they inserted a titanium rod into his arm.
- Same kid has ADHD. I can show up to any pharmacy in the country and fetch his meds (stock pending) without paying anything.
- His brother also has ADHD and poor eyesight on one eye. Meds and glasses covered.
- All of my kids were born in a hospital at no expense.
- I didn’t learn until last year what the hell “copay” is, and the more I learn about it, the more thankful I am that it’s not something I have to think about.
I don’t live in Costa Rica, but I have family there and they have combined. They complain that the private healthcare systems lobby to underfund the public heathcare system in order to turn people away from public healthcare, and off to their services where they make more money.
So combined systems cannot exist, if you want public healthcare then it should quickly phase our private.
EXACTLY!
I like to think of this way: If society has two boats (one private for profit one and the other public) wealthy people will always seek to pay extra to ride in and fund the upgrades of the private boat rather than the public one. By simply offering a paid alternative, they prevent the public boat from being improved upon for the good of everyone. Offering a paid choice effectively torpedoes the free standard for others.
If we’re all in the same boat, society as a whole will unite and work towards improvements to that communal boat.
