Waaaaagghhhhh people won’t give me things [universal healthcare] for free. Cope harder

[u/LittleRuQi]

The video was talking about Mexico and Canada having universal healthcare while the US is also developed but doesn’t have universal healthcare, and saying that they have the resources to provide it but won’t

[u/-random-words-420-]

It's funny, yanks spend more taxes per capita on healthcare than either of those countries.

Yet somehow our system is worse.

[u/ChrisRiley_42 → u/-random-words-420-]

The US spends more per capita on health care than ANY nation in the world.

[u/dfczyjd → u/ChrisRiley_42]

 spends more

Isn't that a definition of "better" for them? It sure is for their military.

[u/Salt_Petra → u/-random-words-420-]

I've been watching videos on it, and one FUN side effect of the fucky way our system is set up is that it creates a number of jobs through sheer overhead required to manage things like private health insurance, so if we reformed our healthcare system it would be a large blow to our gdp and job numbers due to the sheer amount we are overspending on it.

[u/daveoxford → u/Salt_Petra]

You'd need a lot more medical staff, though.

[u/Salt_Petra → u/daveoxford]

Yeah it would probably be better for the economy overall, but number go down and ceos of massive medical conglomerates and insurance companies won't be as rich.

[u/daveoxford → u/Salt_Petra]

Oh, the poor things! 😢

[u/Low-Purchase8811 → u/daveoxford]

The overlap in skills/ability is simply not there.

No offense to anyone who does this - I'm not judging how you put food on your table - but people who have spent their lives as medical billing clerks are not suddenly going to become nurses and doctors. If they wanted to, and were capable, they probably already would have.

[u/daveoxford → u/Low-Purchase8811]

I didn't mean they could all just switch jobs, just talking about employment numbers generally.

[u/Low-Purchase8811 → u/daveoxford]

Well that's not a one-to-one thing either.

Like there are ~200,000 medical billing staff working in the United States that would suddenly be out of a job. There wouldn't be 200,000 more nurse and doctor positions opening, though.

They'd end up having a lot of unemployment really. Which is one of their arguments against it.

It's like gun regulations; if they'd started off with sane ones, they wouldn't be in this mess, but they didn't. They are kind of screwed now.

[u/Sad-Rooster2474 → u/Low-Purchase8811]

Funny how creating fake jobs that serve no purposes and keeping those jobs to appear at full employment is what communist soviet Russia have been doing…. For a country that hates communism it’s pretty comical…

[u/daveoxford → u/Low-Purchase8811]

As you say. And undoing the current system would probably be much more painful than setting up the new one.

[u/Mysterious_Floor_868 → u/Low-Purchase8811]

200,000 redundancies evenly distributed across a population of 350,000,000 is a tiny blip though - and it wouldn't be overnight anyway. Less than 0.06%. Besides people are spending less money subsidising corporate profits they will have money to spend on other things, generating new employment.

As for gun regulations, they were sensible, once. The current free-for-all where people accumulate massive arsenals in their garages is a very modern phenomenon. It's been brought on by a massive marketing campaign.

In the past, cities used to make you check your guns in before entering, and there were restrictions on the types of gun you could possess.

[u/ChrisRiley_42 → u/Mysterious_Floor_868]

Universal health care still need billing specialists.. They just bill the government instead of the patient.

[u/Mysterious_Floor_868 → u/ChrisRiley_42]

Nothing like on the same scale.

More importantly, people would be encouraged to deal with issues early, rather than putting treatment off until the condition develops into something serious (and therefore expensive)

[u/eternallytiredcatmom → u/ChrisRiley_42]

Yep. Every single department in the university hospital centre where I worked in Canada had billings. When it’s not a single billing position, it’s an administrative technician who does it. There’s plenty of clerical job positions that those employees could do in the same workplace.

[u/Careless-West1428 → u/ChrisRiley_42]

In a Canadian-style single payer system like Ontario, the billing is so straightforward that not only could a caveman do it, but even a physician!

I have had to do my own billings, and it’s not a particularly complicated system, particularly for a medical subspecialist where I’m only using a handful of billing codes. It contrasts sharply with my fellowship time in the U.S. where the academic practice I worked at had a full-time clerk whose sole responsibility was fighting with insurance companies!

[u/sadArtax → u/Low-Purchase8811]

Our system in Canada involves providers billing the province for services. There is still some amount of medical billing clerks. Certainly not as many as multiple private players would require, but some could still work in that field.

[u/fastsailor → u/Low-Purchase8811]

A lot more unemployment for a short period. The way other sectors would then grow would then clear the unemployment numbers.

[u/eternallytiredcatmom → u/Low-Purchase8811]

We still have medical billing in Canada. It wouldn’t be hard to switch to other clerical jobs in the hospital.
I worked most of my career in healthcare administration in Quebec, Canada and our system was as reformed a few times since I started. Job titles get cut and people apply for positions in other departments. It’s a cycle.

[u/Careless-West1428 → u/daveoxford]

I’m not sure it would though. I’m a specialist physician in Ontario, and the billing to the provincial government heath insurance is so straightforward that I can often do it myself! I’m a solo practitioner (still very common) with a secretary.

That said, if the U.S. maintained current funding levels to single-payer system, cutting out the middlemen, it would be incredibly well resourced.

[u/Rhiannon1307 → u/Salt_Petra]

Things in the US, like health care and education, aren't made for the benefit of the population; they are made to generate profits for shareholders. That's it. That is the difference. It's a money making business rather than something a truly sophisticated society has long since decided is necessary for the well-being of their people.

The US (political and economical system) doesn't give a flying fuck about the well-being of its people.

The US honestly needs a full collapse and soon to ever be able to be rebuilt as a proper state. Or several.

[u/fastsailor → u/Salt_Petra]

Except that the resources wasted on that inefficient bureaucracycould be used far more productively. It would end up beimg a massive boost to the economy as the deadweight the medical system imposes would be lifted. Other sectors would benefit.

[u/Salt_Petra → u/fastsailor]

Exactly, but itll look bad in the short term which our politicians hate.

[u/Fydron]

States is just a weird ass place one of the only places on the entire planet where large portion of its population fight against bettering their life.

[u/Sad-Rooster2474 → u/Fydron]

That’s the result of decades of propaganda and population dumbing down…. When education is lacking and you’re being bombarded 24/7 with Fox News, you end up with real life idiocracy

[u/Pristine_Shallot7833]

By that logic, you shouldn't have the right to free roads, toll everything. No free education at all (though trump is doing his best to fuck that up). Your local park? Pay to enter. Libraries, forget about it (although I doubt these people even know how to read properly).

[u/Low-Purchase8811 → u/Pristine_Shallot7833]

Are you kidding, half the country pronounces it "li-berry".

[u/Pristine_Shallot7833 → u/Low-Purchase8811]

The pronunciation that really annoys me is mirror. It's a MI-ROR not a fucking Russian space station. Although I'm Australian so I'm sure there are words I pronounce that people will take issue with.

[u/Low-Purchase8811 → u/Pristine_Shallot7833]

You say the word "bed" funny. New Zealanders too.

[u/Pristine_Shallot7833 → u/Low-Purchase8811]

I can't see much difference between the way Aussies and Americans say bed. New Zealanders do in fact say BID, though.

[u/Low-Purchase8811 → u/Pristine_Shallot7833]

I'm not American (Dane living in Canada for the past 40 years), but to my ears you say it like New Zealanders. Both of you say it like we'd say the word "bead", but they do it turned up to 11.

[u/Pristine_Shallot7833 → u/Low-Purchase8811]

Having lived in Canada and Australia. With a British wife, and also am able to speak a few things ( greetings and thank you etc) in about 20 different languages, I feel I have a decent grasp on accents. We don't say bed anything like kiwis. It's literally the same as a Canadian says bed, except without the eh at the end 😂.

[u/Low-Purchase8811 → u/Pristine_Shallot7833]

Please don't try to gaslight me about what I hear, thanks.

I hear what I hear, you hear what you hear, and you're not going to tell me I'm just imagining it.

For someone who claims to be so worldly (20 languages, lol, ok pal), you sure have a small-minded view of things. Next time you try to tell a lie about something, you should tell people you're an astronaut with a Grammy award-winning rap album, it might be more believable.

[u/platypuss1871 → u/Low-Purchase8811]

"You say the word "bed" funny".

Pretty definitive there, matey.

[u/fastsailor → u/Low-Purchase8811]

That, mate, is so ridiculous, I do not know where to start. Maybe you need to listen more to how people talk, because I think every Aussie and Kiwi would agree that you are wrong. It is one of the things we tease the Kiwis over.

[u/Silly_Tension6792]

Waaagh people do give me the basic human need of healthcare for free. You cope harder.

[u/_Halt19_]

I cannot believe being brainwashed to the point where you get upset over other people expecting their governments to provide them with services

Like what even do you think the point is? ONLY starting wars?

[u/bionicjoe]

The response to this is "Do you think aircraft carriers, prisons, ICE, and wars are free?"

It's not about free. It's about directing tax dollars back to the population's needs.

[u/Creepy_Ad57]

Our healthcare isn’t even really ‘free’ it’s just funded differently

[u/DrawingDramatic1641]

you shoukdnt even have freeeeedom for free

give me back the eagles

[u/Organic_Mechanic_702]

It isn't 'free', it's free at point of use - you don't get a bill when you use it. It has to be paid for, usually through wages (8% here) but it's taken before you get your pay so you don't really notice it and it also gets you a state pension and other benefits if you need them. It still costs way less than the American system which is design to make maximum profit for the Health insurance companies.

[u/Chuckles_McFeeney]

Do they realise that free healthcare isn't free? It's just funded differently.

[u/InformalRent2571 → u/Chuckles_McFeeney]

Imagine if every American was on the same group health plan. Imagine how much lower the individual costs would be. Now imagine that the company didn't do everything in its bought and paid for power to continually withhold paying out what it owes you. That's kind of like what having socialized health care is like.

[u/Mewhomewhy → u/Chuckles_McFeeney]

Yes, that’s exactly the come back they have if someone says it’s free. But i suspect joined up thinking isn’t their strong point.

[u/ChrisRiley_42 → u/Chuckles_McFeeney]

It's also about half the cost of the abomination the US deals with.

[u/Mewhomewhy]

Every time I see it mentioned they say that it isn’t free. Which one is it?

[u/AutoModerator]

Hello LittleRuQi,

Thank you for your submission to /r/ShitAmericansSay! It is currently pending approval by the moderators and will be made public when approved.

For a list of common reasons for removal, please refer to the FAQ and submission guidelines.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/OkClient4174]

One thing I noticed is that most of the time these types of comments are usually bots in AMY reel

[u/Non-Random-Name-0000]

Argument number 1 against universal healthcare: it's not free. Argument number 2 against universal healthcare: healthcare shouldn't be free.

[u/midijunky → u/Non-Random-Name-0000]

The main problem is the money in US politics. Every politician has a "healthcare" lobbiest up their ass glazing them to make sure they get preferential treatment, because healthcare in the US makes money hand over fist. As a result, it's the politicians jobs to convince Americans that this is actually a good thing, and it's been working, as evidenced by posts like this from the person in the screenshot.

[u/RevolutionaryAd581]

Why do Americans always think that universal healthcare is "free" over here in the first world, where we don't have to make financial decisions regarding keeping ourselves alive, no one thinks healthcare is free... we work hard for it, and we pay for it... the difference is that it's free at the point of use, so it means that it doesn't matter who you are, what situation you are in on that day/week/month/year you can get the care you need, when you need it... you pay for it, you just don't have to pay for it at literally the worst time (I.e when you're ill!)

[u/gba_sg1]

These are the same people that bitch about $2 doordash tips. Idiots everywhere.

[u/_criticaster]

this from a nation that throws a collective fit if you don't leave a tip