Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by jacob2484 1883 days ago
Majority of Americans do NOT support Medicare for All. Please reread your article - they want a public option, which differs from Medicare.
4 comments

When we poll with what Medicare for All will do, support is massive.

Health care in the US is an increasingly brutal, over the top expensive mess.

Frankly, a quick look at why they want a public option is exactly why they would easily support Medicare for All.

Nobody loves their health care insurance company. And where they may be stoic to positive, it is only because they are insulated from the mess, or just have not actually had to receive significant care of any kind.

Tons of people, myself included, have seen serious financial ruin, and in my case it boiled down to basically trading my home and financial future for my spouse.

We got past it, but will never see the future I worked very hard for.

Health insurance companies do not actually add any value. Most of the developed world understands this, and how a market approach for primary care conflicts with fixing sick people.

Right now the priority is making money, not fixing people, and it shows.

More people experience it, or know someone who has every day. I make damn sure to educate others any time, any day, any place.

Once people actually experience Medicare, they love it. I have watched even the most staunch advocates for our current system age in and then change their tune.

There are exceptions, and those people buy Medicare Advantage plans and often seek help getting back to plain old Medicare, which is very difficult, by design. Ever wonder why that is?

> they want a public option, which differs from Medicare.

Medicare is a system by which (currently, a subset) of Americans may select[0] either publicly subsidized private health plans or a purely-public[1] option.

The difference between this and the ACA plus a public option is...not that much.

[0] well, except for many Medicare/Medicaid dual-eligibles, for which a single plan (often fully-publicly-subsized private) covering both programs is selected for them by their state.

[1] actually administered by regional private contractors under federal rules.

Medicare is a specific example of a system. Just because Americans are overwhelmingly thirsty does not mean they want to drink pineapple juice.
From the article: “55% of voters support Medicare for All”

and 70 percent support a public option. 55% is a majority.

The federal government is horrible at competing in the free market when it comes to pretty much any good/service. For medicare to have a chance, they would need to eliminate the private market for healthcare. No one that can afford private healthcare would opt for government healthcare. Those who truly rely on government healthcare I assume wouldn't pay the monthly premium. We could defund the war machine but neither party wants that. There is the option to just printing the money but there's no free lunch and that inflation will show up in healthcare prices and the broader economy. Lastly, This type of top-bottom control of the healthcare market is not pragmatic and will lead to a whole host of inefficiencies and other problems that would create a worst situation then what we have right now.
Primary health care, as a market, is illegal in much of the world.

Most of the world disagrees with what you put here and performs better than the US.

False. America’s healthcare quality is the best in the world despite current issues with affordability. Most developed countries with socialized medical care are far smaller then the US. Most are smaller then just LA or NYC alone. Every market the government enters by subsidizing cost creates market distortions that have contributed to multiple financial crises in this country(mortgage and higher education).

My comprise would be let the states implement socialized medicine. My hunch is that with within a few years every economically productive person in those states would move states within 2-3 years. The tax burden and lack of choice in health care would be a no brainer to leave. Most people think socialized medicine will fix everything overnight put don’t think about what rights they are takin away from individuals to achieve their goals.

Quality does not equal performance.

For a few, the quality is amazing, but even Cuba does better at keeping its people healthy than we do.

Cuba regularly contributes to medicine same as we do and doctors are a national export, recognized around the world.

And just what is an "economically productive" person?

You do realize those numbers come from tons of other people, who work hard and too many of whom have no meaningful access to that quality medicine?

No, probably not.

Finally, there is how health care is funded, who has access, and how care, medicine is delivered.

Socialized medicine is the VA, and that is not what Medicare is.

Medicare is funding health care, not socialized medicine.

It is hard to consider your other points given these basic misalignments.

I think a lot of Americans want neither.
People don't know what they want, or rather, they know what they don't want, and it is what we currently have. "most" Americans would like a reasonably priced open market for healthcare, not the currently entrenched healthcare monopolies. Going any control over healthcare to this government is foolish, has already resulted in what we have today.