[kishinmanglani]

It’s incredibly disappointing the government has shown little interest in lowering the cost of healthcare. Instead, elected officials seem obsessed with talking about breaking up big tech and the associated political grandstanding.

[peteretep]

That’s a weird framing. One party would introduce single-payer in a heartbeat, the other demonises it. Let’s not pretend we’re talking about “government” as a whole here, rather than the GOP

[bigbob2]

The democratic party essentially stood in unity opposing single payer during the primary. I see two parties which demonize it.

[fennecfoxen]

It’s a weird framing when the only way you propose to lower costs is through a revolutionary change which sees major political barriers to actually happening.

How about lowering costs anyway? I assure you, there are real and meaningful ways. Start by removing anticompetitive Certificate of Need laws, at the state level.

[Auracle]

And for prescription drugs, tie the prices to what some other countries pay.

Some of the solutions are really easy but it’s hard to get done when some politicians are paid off, some want the system to fail so they can do single payer, and some are vehemently anti regulation.

Something more drastic would be making all health insurance plans be high deductible (as in, make it insurance again), and ensure that prices are up front and transparent. You’d see prices plummet relatively quickly.

[kcatskcolbdi]

Didn't President Biden say he would veto Medicare for All if it came across his desk to sign?

[peteretep]

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/mar/10/facebook-p...

[bestcoder69]

Well he’s president now and has not only not pushed for M4A (duh), he also has not pushed for the public option he campaigned on as an alternative.

[maxpert]

Agreed. The development plans, break big tech, taxing, and other political stunts are useless if foundational issues around education and healthcare are not addressed.

[TheAdamAndChe]

There's more than one major political issue in the country, and only so much political capital that we can focus.

[matthewdgreen]

Comments like this one are depressing. Many in government are passionate about lowering the price of healthcare. A number of politicians support some pretty dramatic proposals for solving the problem. The issue right now (to put things politely) is that the voting population does not agree on the solution, and our political system makes it very difficult to get anything done unless the voters are willing to express their preferences by voting for politicians that support one approach, giving them a super-majority and control of multiple branches. Last time that happened was 2008.

TL;DR: If you actually care about this issue, you shouldn’t be offering vague platitudes blaming it on “government”. You should advocate for your preferred solution and name the politicians/party you think we should vote for to get it passed. I know this is political and not loved on HN, but this is how the system works.