Technically, my answer is, "WHAT DO YOU EVEN SPEND YOUR TAXES ON, 'MERICA?!?!?!" No healthcare system is perfect, but taxes should be paying for the bulk of health care. I think it is appalling that "the greatest nation in the world" won't even look after its citizen's health, and instead hands that task over to insurance companies. Insurance companies, for fuck's sake.

NZ is moving more towards privatisation because we have been run by rich centre-right business cunts for years now, and shit is hitting the fan. We still have free health care in our public hospitals though. It is not perfect, but there is always some form of safety net for the vulnerable.

^This

Yeah Australia's centre-right party of pricks is trying to privatise our wonderfully-functional healthcare system as well. The strong negative reaction from the public has made them realise that people would actually be bothered if working class people were allowed to just die from entirely preventable health causes. So now they're trying to do it stealthily instead 0:)

A few days ago, Pence said America had the "best healthcare system in the world" and I laughed my fuckin arse off, holy shit.

Anyway yeah pls amend ACA so that insurance companies can't charge grossly high premiums. Pretty simples. Instead they're getting rid of it entirely and putting in something worse, congrats.

I had affordable insurance. Family had doctors they liked. Then ACA kicked in. Plans lost, premiums doubled, deductibles skyrocketed, had to travel farther for different doctors, get fined for not being able to afford health care. Yay government.

It may look good on paper, but I have yet to hear how the ACA's actually benefited anyone I know. What I do hear are complaints about this year's $700 can't-afford-insurance fine, how they can't afford a doctor's visit even with insurance, and all the hoops they have to jump through thanks to this bullshit.

Repeal now. Replace later, should a decent idea be brought forth.

Obama's best idea came in the form of "affordable" by forcing a steep fine on people who wait for it...can't afford healthcare to begin with. Yeah, link

^^How will poor people and the chronically-ill pay for healthcare in the meantime?

^Did you miss the part about those who can't afford insurance now being fined?

And the solution is getting rid of it entirely so that even more people are uninsured? Even with Trump's shitty half-repeal, link are going to lose coverage, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.

"This will be catastrophic for the link who were previously uninsured but now have coverage! You can’t take away their health care!"

That article tries to argue against the claim that "20 mil more people are now insured". Do they really think that's what the CBO are basing their stats on? "20 mil more people insured therefore 20 mil more people uninsured if the Act is repealed"? The CBO are analysts. They used data, controlled for variables like price adjustments, ran statistical analyses, formed uncertainty values, and only then produced projections of how many people will be uninsured. Assuming Trump's half-repeal endures: number of people uninsured would increase by 18 mil in the first year. After eliminating subsidies and winding back Medicaid eligibility, that number will increase to 27 mil, and then to 32 mil in 2026.

The author also completely misinterprets a scientific study to argue that uninsured people have lower mortality rates than people on Medicaid. The study says the opposite. It found that mortality rates were higher for these two groups than the privately insured (no shit, they go through a comparatively under-resourced and under-funded system), but that being uninsured confers the highest adjusted mortality risk. The difference between uninsured and Medicaid isn't that substantial though, and it shouldn't be - they go through the same hospitals and doctors have the same duty of care to all. The difference is that the guy on Medicaid doesn't have to auction off his house afterwards just to pay medical costs.

I find that the quality of journalism from sites that unashamedly profess a political agenda ("conservative think-tank" Heritage Foundation, things with "Freedom" and "Liberty" in their name, left-wing equivalents like LeftHook, DemocracyNow. RedAlliance) usually isn't that great. I know mainstream media has its own valid criticisms, but certain outlets (reputable, established, non-sensationalist) like ABC News in Australia and its international equivalents are generally better at journalism. I mean it's still okay to use the former and we should judge an article on its individual arguments and merits - I myself have linked from ThinkProgress a couple of times - but I think this one has allowed its natural biases to come into play. From what I saw, at least.

^^ Try using a link from BuzzFeed next time. Gosh!

"Reputable, established, non-sensationalist"

"Try using a link from BuzzFeed next time. Gosh!"

I'm tired, so I can't figure out if this harmless or harmful sarcasm. If the former, my comment stands more generally.

Look... I understand that this healthcare stuff is stressful. It is incredibly complex and creates 'winners' and 'losers'. Some people want everything slashed; some people want everything covered; some people have no idea what they want. It is really tough to find workable solutions, whether discussing healthcare as we are here, or trying to work solutions at a government level. It is even tougher to discuss these things in a super-connected information age where the construction of 'knowledge' is even more fragmentary and embedded in fraught social contexts.

ThePrincesTale has explained fully her position here. She has detailed her engagement with the link provided. Clearly you have an opinion on that. Could you try explaining your position? Your own engagement with ThePrinceTales discussion? Your own take on DarkSarcasm's or ThePrinceTales various links?

I'm really just trying to understand this shit, ya know? And pretty much every time, people come in and let off the intellectual equivalent of a fart and then laugh at everyone else getting upset about it. I've done it too. This is all very tiring and sometimes you just have to fart! I get it! But the air is getting thick as fuck in here, guys. Lets open a window and let some fresh air in.

I'm not completely against it but as DS pointed out; there is a serious flaw. A $700 dollar fine for not being able to afford the Affordable Care Act. I wouldn't say get rid of it completely but I do think that there are some issues in handing heath care to insurance companies. Especially if there's a fine to go along with it. It's like forcing people to pay for it. And while I would want heath care some people don't want to have to pay for it because they can't, and they're punished for it? Idk totally flawed but we do need some kind of health care. I just don't know the first thing about how we could go about amending it.