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JustADudeBeingADood t1_j6yl981 wrote

This will create the same issue we have with high college prices. The government subsidizes the bill rather than attacking the inflated medical costs/greed which only makes healthcare CEOs more rich and kicks the problem down the road.

We saw the same thing happen with the government subsidized college loans/grants.

I'm all for loan forgiveness actually, as long as the root causes are also being addressed simultaneously.

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Pruedrive t1_j6yov8z wrote

I mean.. the goverment could move to a single payer universal healthcare system, like the rest of the industrial world.. then they can set the prices.

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JustADudeBeingADood t1_j6yq5a1 wrote

Hey I'm all for that too. Literally anything than the corporate greed infested healthcare system we have now.

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Pruedrive t1_j6yqim8 wrote

The way we pay for Healthcare is fucking ridiculous, and let's face it, it's pretty ghoulish companies profiting off of people's illnesses.

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Adventurous-Aide664 t1_j6za919 wrote

Exactly, for profit health insurance is a scam. Their only goal is to maximize profits for their shareholders, so that means they do all they can to avoid paying for care.

The system in other countries is much simpler because there are way fewer payers, sometimes only one and the goal of that agency is not to make profits.

Here we have thousands of middlemen that siphon off our money into their pockets while producing little to nothing of value and making everyone's lives more complicated.

By the way, the top 6 health insurance CEOs made $115 million last year. Just six people siphoned off over 100 million that could have gone to paying for healthcare. Disgusting

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Strat7855 t1_j6zj4bj wrote

Take it a step further; insurance should be for things that may happen. That's what the entire business model is supposed to be based on.

But everyone gets sick/injured at some point. There's no "may" about it.

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Educated_Eel t1_j6zdyrv wrote

Am doctor. completely agree. Great recent JAMA article on the subject. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2801097

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supermomfake t1_j71jde5 wrote

Nurse and case manager- left because my job kept becoming about “saving” money instead of caring for patients.

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[deleted] t1_j6zdxln wrote

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BobbyBuzz008 t1_j6zvugp wrote

That’s not entirely accurate. Connecticut did have a public option healthcare plan called the Charter Oak Health Plan. Every adult in CT could join and your premium was on a sliding scale based on your income. Governor Malloy killed the public option back in 2011 as he knew the CT Access Health insurance exchange couldn’t complete with it.

https://www.ct.gov/GovernorRell/cwp/view.asp?Q=422194

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[deleted] t1_j72n19v wrote

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Pruedrive t1_j72n8uw wrote

I wouldn’t use them as a comparison.. they have cut themselves off from the international community with brexit and our economy far surpasses theirs.

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[deleted] t1_j72okux wrote

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Pruedrive t1_j72rkkt wrote

I wouldn’t use Canada as an analogue either if we are being honest… they have a population smaller than CA. And you really can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

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[deleted] t1_j72trid wrote

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Pruedrive t1_j73286h wrote

There really aren't any peers that are scaleable.. or appropriate. That said though a whole host of other nations with nowhere near the same economic might as ours have figured it out.. surely we can. Also part of it probably will be a focus on preventative care.. tons of people would benefit from getting just annual checkups, more so when a medical professional tells them to put down the fork and do something healthy for a change.

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TreeEleben t1_j72b5a9 wrote

All medical industry spends a fortune every year on campaign donations. They are terrified of the government stepping in.

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Pruedrive t1_j72c35x wrote

Which should be the gold standard for.. this will probably help the broad range of us, while effecting the pockets of the wealthy.. ergo it must be good.

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Crombienator t1_j71trg4 wrote

First, the system absolutely needs to be fixed, and you do have greedy people abusing the system for profit no doubt. Second, there seems to be a massive misunderstanding about the difference between coverage and care. Simply erasing the fiscal woes in healthcare in no way guarantees universal "care." What good is having affordable insurance(or even free) when you have few doctors willing to participate in the government telling them what to charge, how much they can make, and what care they HAVE to provide. Is every doctor equal? Do they have the exact same qualifications? Do they all try the same? Do they all care the same? Pretending there aren't massive issues with the rest of the "industrial world" is just foolish.

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Pruedrive t1_j71uys8 wrote

I’m not sure how many people go into the medical field solely for financial gain… I would hope medical professionals are there cause they want to help people first and foremost. If this dissuades people from that line of work because, the government steps in and says, hey you really shouldn’t be making people go into debt for the rest of their lives, over circumstances that often are outside of their control just because you can.. well then fuck fuck those people. What’s even the point to having a Hippocratic Oath, if you are going to put a financial barrier between you and your patients. Now understand, I’m all for medical professionals being well paid.. but we pay stupid amounts for our healthcare in this country that a multitude of our other peer nations don’t, and there are huge factors to that, mainly how we pay for our healthcare.

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Crombienator t1_j71wrdx wrote

The best doctors in the world aren’t gonna work 60 hours a week for cheese. Can’t they care, and want to make a good living for there time and investment?

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shotpun t1_j73ws60 wrote

teachers are literally doing that right now and have been since the 80s

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Crombienator t1_j77zr1r wrote

With all respect to teachers. These two not even in the same stratosphere for comparison.

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D-a-H-e-c-k t1_j6z8dha wrote

At the state level sure. Don't agree with a national single payer health plan. Perhaps a federal network and framework, but I don't trust the Fed to manage such a service properly

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maybe_little_pinch t1_j6zfvu8 wrote

Eh. But then you will have red states refusing it and gutting it like they did with the Medicaid expansion. This whole “the states do it better” schlock needs to die when it comes to stuff like human rights. Healthcare is a human right.

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RWMach t1_j7137q3 wrote

The bigger issue I see is that no state even ATTEMPTS to implement a system like that in their own state. States like CT, NY and CA say it's such a good idea and the only way forward Yada Yada, but that never try making a state system despite every republican in the federal system saying it should be up to the states.

Well, if it's up to the states and no state implements anything, what does that say?

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D-a-H-e-c-k t1_j6zh0b7 wrote

No one has rights to other people's labor.

The closer the government the more accountable to its constituents. State level healthcare is on the same population scale as most other healthcare systems around the world.

To get right down to it I'd rather just have it at the municipal level.

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blumpkinmania t1_j6zmu56 wrote

That cant work because poor and sick people will just move to places that have universal care and bankrupt those places. It must be national.

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D-a-H-e-c-k t1_j6zpeeq wrote

Property values will accommodate demand.

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blumpkinmania t1_j700437 wrote

Yeah. I’m not sure keeping the poor and sick out by turbo charging already high housing costs is a viable let alone desirable idea.

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D-a-H-e-c-k t1_j709vsr wrote

That's a separate issue. Same with education. Housing values follow school performance.

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Pruedrive t1_j6za8qw wrote

Sure there is a lot of distrust but the federal goverment is perfectly capable of running large agency's and programs, as long as they properly fund them and give them enough autonomy to do their own thing. Can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

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shotpun t1_j73wosj wrote

imagine how fucking horrible the USPS would be if you made it a state by state thing. some things just need to be able to communicate internally on a national scale

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ertebolle t1_j6z1ssy wrote

Connecticut has very limited power to address that, though, unfortunately.

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bryanhealey t1_j71qp5g wrote

band together with MA, pass single payer.

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ertebolle t1_j71t0fi wrote

Would be the perfect thing to do the day after Aetna announces they’re abandoning Hartford.

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Nyrfan2017 t1_j6yzn1h wrote

I have been saying that for years they should start renaming laws to bandaids .. they aren’t fixing any issues just putting Band aids on it

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Alert-Ad687 t1_j6ywu5b wrote

Not really. For college, student loans and aid pay for tuition and fees at a $1:$1 ratio. There’s no discount.

This is “forcing” hospitals to negotiate perhaps $2 Billion in debt down to $20 Million. It’s a bargain.

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AtomWorker t1_j6z5jl5 wrote

I'm not sure what you mean. Tuition is massively overpriced because you're paying for schools to squander money on fancy new buildings and frivolous athletic programs. Even finance companies don't build such lavishly furnished facilities as your average university.

Personally, I think college sports should be decoupled from universities. Go with a European model where soccer academies are backed by pro teams instead of schools.

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Guy_Buttersnaps t1_j703wss wrote

> Tuition is massively overpriced because you’re paying for schools to squander money on fancy new buildings and frivolous athletic programs.

That doesn’t have much to do with it.

Tuition is inflated because of the government’s half-assed involvement - they use their power to make sure that pretty much everyone can get loans for education, and they underwrite those loans, but they don’t use their power to actually invest in education or to implement any sort of price control.

Imagine you have something for sale. You know that everyone wants / needs what you’re offering. You also know that it’s pretty much guaranteed that everyone will be able to finance what you’re offering, and you know that money is guaranteed and that whatever happens after will have no impact on your bottom line. You’ll charge whatever the hell you want.

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hamhead t1_j72upvj wrote

The problem is that fixing this basically requires that everyone *not* be able to get loans... which is "unfair"

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ImpossibleParfait t1_j6zae4m wrote

This is kind of a good idea, but 99% of college athletes don't go pro and most of them only play sports because of the scholarships. This wouldn't be a good idea in America unless college became affordable. It's a cart before the horse situation. In the US more people play sports in college to pay for college then they do with an intention of going pro.

College has become so expensive because goverment guaranteed loans allows colleges to charge more.

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AtomWorker t1_j721rww wrote

I get what you're saying, but schools have full control over the cost of tuition. Athletic programs and associated scholarships are part of massive marketing strategies to entice prospective students. They're not doing it because they're trying to alleviate financial burdens; it's all about revenue.

Plus, it's the upper middle class who most consistently take advantage of those scholarships. They're the only ones who can consistently afford the youth programs that typically unlock those opportunities.

Everyone seems to overlook the fact that corporate and political leaders serve on the boards of all these schools. It results in universities being corporate America's wet dream. Massive tax breaks and significant financial backing by the government.

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Alert-Ad687 t1_j6zcqjp wrote

What I mean is with Lamont’s proposal, hospitals/collectors would be giving a 90% discount on debts owed. $20 Million to pay off $2 Billion.

With student loans and financial aid, the college isn’t giving a discount.

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JustADudeBeingADood t1_j6yypsw wrote

I'm not saying there is a discount (well, there are with grants like Pell). I'm saying the government offers loans to 18 year olds that no private bank will offer outside of our current financial aid system. It has created a student loan crisis so bad the government is now forgiving loans...effectively creating a discount.

Because any 18 year old can and will sign up for any amount of government backed loans for college, colleges simply inflate their prices because they have no shortage of customers.

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jon_hendry t1_j6z0gcq wrote

The hospitals have already sold off the debt to bill collectors.

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Alert-Ad687 t1_j6zchjz wrote

What do you mean there is a discount with Pell? If the student brings $5k in Pell Grants to the university, their student account is credited $5k and not a penny more.

Yes, student loans have probably caused tuition inflation. But the government wiping out medical debt at a 90% discount is definitely…a discount. Not really a good comparison.

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[deleted] t1_j6zecud wrote

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Alert-Ad687 t1_j70nk41 wrote

Ehh, not sure that’s been the case. Most federal student loans for the past 10+ years have been Federal Direct loans, not funded by a private bank.

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No-Coast-Punk t1_j6zrqcc wrote

> only makes healthcare CEOs more rich

You're missing the part, where this is the entire point of the American medical system.

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WhittlingDan t1_j6zzyo8 wrote

>I'm all for loan forgiveness actually, as long as the root causes are also being addressed simultaneously.

You read my mind.

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Background_Steak t1_j702xsr wrote

to be fair a lot of for profit colleges are now defunct. And there's a sweeping relief package for defense to repayment applicants that's working its way through the court system. college prices are still to high but there has been a lot of action on the student loan front under biden.

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falconk27 t1_j705q12 wrote

It's completely different for the simple reason that college can be a optional cost, but medical debt is often not optional. Plus these are loans already taken out being purchased at a substantial discount.

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dicassano t1_j71g893 wrote

I absolutely agree with you on addressing the root causes, but I assure you that it will never be addressed, thanks to capitalism and power of lobbyist.

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