Omg lol those commercials are perfect. You’re making fun of them, but have you considered that that approach to healthcare maximizes GDP 🫠. Big pharma, big companies in general, really does run the show here. Send help, please.
I’d say it’s getting worse here, and more worryingly, it’s getting worse faster. My doctor friends are very clear about this: Our healthcare system has already collapsed, but you only know about it if you’re in it in some way.
Every year, my health insurance goes up in cost some ridiculous amount. This year, my partner and I had to spend some 4000 USD for our annual premium (that is in addition to what her employer is already paying for “employer provided” healthcare [itself a scam]), plus our deductible, or the total amount we have to spend before our insurance covers virtually anything, is 8000 USD. After that, there’s “co-insurance,” which I’m pretty sure didn’t exist 10 years ago and is a concept I don’t fully understand, but it’s some cost sharing arrangement with insurance companies before you finally hit your “max out of pocket.” I don’t even know what my max out of pocket is anymore.
The billing is similarly insane. Every time I interact with any healthcare system, I don’t just receive a single bill, but instead I receive a stream of confusing letters, each with differing amounts, and they trickle in for months and months.
I and many of my friends no longer pay our medical bills. I really just ignore them. When a healthcare debt collector call, I inform them that they are the most vile bottom-feeders and absolute scum of the earth, and that my payment plan is the revolution. So far, that hasn’t been a problem for me, which is only because I live in Vermont, and we do have some laws regulating healthcare debt, plus all our hospitals are not-for-profits. In much of the US, most hospitals are for-profit, and not paying your bills means you end up in a bad legal situation really quickly.
To add to all that, somehow, hospitals are perpetually low on funds, and wait times to see a new doctor are easily a year.
The situation is plainly unsustainable. We tolerate it because we are a stupid, pathetic, illiterate, and completely dominated population, terrified of each other and of change, but also too afraid to admit to ourselves that our pride at being the world’s most special country is a lie, because it’s the only thing we have left as the rest collapses around us.
Oh my god, I knew it was bad, but this sounds god aweful. Why is the US so broken in so many ways? Is it all to due with the 2 party political system? That would be my best guess for a root cause.
I’m not sure. I think the two party system is itself a symptom of a citizenry with very little political education, because ultimately we could exert power collectively if we had the consciousness to do so. There’s a small but very active leftist population in the US, but for whatever reason, we struggle to organize and break into mainstream.
The average American thinks Karl Marx is almost literally a demon from hell, socialism is when free stuff, communism is when government owns everything, and anarchism is when bombs.
Our state legislators, at least here in Vermont, and I’ve interacted with many of these, are generally landlords, and they themselves have little background or even interest in political theory. Our news rarely even covers other countries. As a result, we don’t even have the vocabulary for how things could be different.
I’m actually a dual citizen. I’m currently in Spain visiting my family, and it’s just shocking to me how much better things are here. I come about once a year, and by comparison, the US is just uncivilized. I don’t know how else to put it. It’s a huge comfort to me that I have a place with family and whee I speak the language to escape if/when things finally end in the increasingly inevitable violence that is coming.
I’d venture to say the political system is what made the citizenry. Genetically people in the US aren’t so different. My guess is that somehow your political system got fucked and that fucked the rest. I’d be interesting to know how it got to that point.
In terms of socialism, yeah I know people over there are totally brainwashed to vote against their own interest. It was just amazing to see how much people rallied against Obama when he tried to introduce some type of universal health care. “Health care for everyone? How dare you!!”. Lordy lord. People are so dumb. Not just americans though, it depends so much on the system.
Here in the Netherlands we have a surplus of PhDs. Not that we are genetically superior. We just have affordable universities and a culture that stimulates learning.
I genuinely don’t know. I used to think it all goes back to the cold war, but I don’t know anymore. I’m in my mid thirties, and the only hope I have is that the generation after us seems more radicalized by climate changes, school shootings, and so on. They’re our only hope. In my activist circles, I’m starting to meet 22 and 23 year olds, and they’re so young and already so active and politically educated. I really truly hope that’s a trend and not just a fluke.
Omg lol those commercials are perfect. You’re making fun of them, but have you considered that that approach to healthcare maximizes GDP 🫠. Big pharma, big companies in general, really does run the show here. Send help, please.
I’d say it’s getting worse here, and more worryingly, it’s getting worse faster. My doctor friends are very clear about this: Our healthcare system has already collapsed, but you only know about it if you’re in it in some way.
Every year, my health insurance goes up in cost some ridiculous amount. This year, my partner and I had to spend some 4000 USD for our annual premium (that is in addition to what her employer is already paying for “employer provided” healthcare [itself a scam]), plus our deductible, or the total amount we have to spend before our insurance covers virtually anything, is 8000 USD. After that, there’s “co-insurance,” which I’m pretty sure didn’t exist 10 years ago and is a concept I don’t fully understand, but it’s some cost sharing arrangement with insurance companies before you finally hit your “max out of pocket.” I don’t even know what my max out of pocket is anymore.
The billing is similarly insane. Every time I interact with any healthcare system, I don’t just receive a single bill, but instead I receive a stream of confusing letters, each with differing amounts, and they trickle in for months and months.
I and many of my friends no longer pay our medical bills. I really just ignore them. When a healthcare debt collector call, I inform them that they are the most vile bottom-feeders and absolute scum of the earth, and that my payment plan is the revolution. So far, that hasn’t been a problem for me, which is only because I live in Vermont, and we do have some laws regulating healthcare debt, plus all our hospitals are not-for-profits. In much of the US, most hospitals are for-profit, and not paying your bills means you end up in a bad legal situation really quickly.
To add to all that, somehow, hospitals are perpetually low on funds, and wait times to see a new doctor are easily a year.
The situation is plainly unsustainable. We tolerate it because we are a stupid, pathetic, illiterate, and completely dominated population, terrified of each other and of change, but also too afraid to admit to ourselves that our pride at being the world’s most special country is a lie, because it’s the only thing we have left as the rest collapses around us.
Oh my god, I knew it was bad, but this sounds god aweful. Why is the US so broken in so many ways? Is it all to due with the 2 party political system? That would be my best guess for a root cause.
I’m not sure. I think the two party system is itself a symptom of a citizenry with very little political education, because ultimately we could exert power collectively if we had the consciousness to do so. There’s a small but very active leftist population in the US, but for whatever reason, we struggle to organize and break into mainstream.
The average American thinks Karl Marx is almost literally a demon from hell, socialism is when free stuff, communism is when government owns everything, and anarchism is when bombs.
Our state legislators, at least here in Vermont, and I’ve interacted with many of these, are generally landlords, and they themselves have little background or even interest in political theory. Our news rarely even covers other countries. As a result, we don’t even have the vocabulary for how things could be different.
I’m actually a dual citizen. I’m currently in Spain visiting my family, and it’s just shocking to me how much better things are here. I come about once a year, and by comparison, the US is just uncivilized. I don’t know how else to put it. It’s a huge comfort to me that I have a place with family and whee I speak the language to escape if/when things finally end in the increasingly inevitable violence that is coming.
I’d venture to say the political system is what made the citizenry. Genetically people in the US aren’t so different. My guess is that somehow your political system got fucked and that fucked the rest. I’d be interesting to know how it got to that point.
In terms of socialism, yeah I know people over there are totally brainwashed to vote against their own interest. It was just amazing to see how much people rallied against Obama when he tried to introduce some type of universal health care. “Health care for everyone? How dare you!!”. Lordy lord. People are so dumb. Not just americans though, it depends so much on the system.
Here in the Netherlands we have a surplus of PhDs. Not that we are genetically superior. We just have affordable universities and a culture that stimulates learning.
I genuinely don’t know. I used to think it all goes back to the cold war, but I don’t know anymore. I’m in my mid thirties, and the only hope I have is that the generation after us seems more radicalized by climate changes, school shootings, and so on. They’re our only hope. In my activist circles, I’m starting to meet 22 and 23 year olds, and they’re so young and already so active and politically educated. I really truly hope that’s a trend and not just a fluke.