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I am not American, but follow their politics closely and I think that many people over there became convinced over years of massaging that they shouldn't spend

I am not American, but follow their politics closely and I think that many people over there became convinced over years of massaging that they shouldn't spend taxes on anything that helps individuals, i.e. military is seen as composed of patriots who do the heroic work of protecting the nation and thus deserve to be paid by taxes, but when it comes to healthcare, many don't want to pay for what they perceive to be lazy people who can't pull themselves by their bootstraps and get a job good enough to pay private insurance, because they simply refuse to work hard enough - whatever that means. As an European, I find this kind of attitude towards fellow citizens really barbaric and strange, but this is my observation.

brightball 9y ago
That's not it. The issue is that government programs in the US have a history of being poorly run, abused, expensive and totally unable to be reformed once in place. There is a separation between "wanting healthcare" and "wanting government healthcare." It's a lack of faith issue combined with a history devoid of contrary examples.
- AsyncAwait 9y ago
  > The issue is that government programs in the US have a history of being poorly run, abused, expensive and totally unable to be reformed once in place. That is true, but isn't that because they're being used to play politics? ie. being poorly funded to prove that government programs don't work, or awarding massive contracts to private contractors that fail to deliver quality due to corruption, (campaign contributions etc. ) and lack of oversight?
  - brightball 9y ago
    Could definitely be a contributing factor. The lack of reform is politically based because you can't even have the conversation without somebody jumping to "they want to take away...!"