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Leaving aside the politics of a universal basic income, would a UBI have helped or hindered this person? Do most UBI schemes assume that healthcare subsidies wo

Leaving aside the politics of a universal basic income, would a UBI have helped or hindered this person? Do most UBI schemes assume that healthcare subsidies would stop for instance, and the money be redirected to the UBI? Or would the income be on top of whatever healthcare subsidies already exist?

rfugger 8y ago
I think the article is a good example of why universal healthcare would have to remain in place when UBI is implemented. UBI is unlikely to be enough to afford quality healthcare.
- ghaff 8y ago
  Or even some base level of healthcare for anything remotely serious. It's implicit in UBI that it would have to be paired with something along the lines of universal Medicaid. Otherwise, an income that is truly base--say $8K/year in the US--is not going to have any real slack to cover healthcare.
- _bxg1 8y ago
  Agreed. There are two types of healthcare expenses that insurance is important for: 1) massive, unexpected ones, which $1000 a month would be useless towards, and where the word "insurance" actually makes sense 2) recurring costs like doctor appointments, prescriptions, and teeth cleaning, which could arguably (but still probably shouldn't) be lumped in with UBI #2 can still wreck someone who's truly poor, to be clear, but the author's case sounded more like #1
  - majewsky 8y ago
    #2 should not be lumped in with UBI since the costs wildly fluctuate between people. A 25-year-old person will have fewer preventive checkups than a retiree or a small child. And people with chronic diseases have way higher recurring medical expenses than people without. My bookkeeping shows that I spend two weeks' worth of salary per year on medications, most of which is for keeping my chronic ailments in check.
- hopler 8y ago
  This is what insurance is for, to smooth out risk. UBI is a concept, not a specific dollar amount. You don't need universal healthcare, just regulation of the risk pool.
0xcde4c3db 8y ago
The author is Canadian, in which case the assumption would probably be that universal single-payer insurance is in place rather than individualized subsidies.
fucking_tragedy 8y ago
> Do most UBI schemes assume that healthcare subsidies would stop for instance, and the money be redirected to the UBI? Most UBI schemes position UBI as supplemental income in conjunction with public assistance. There's a small, but vocal, minority who wants to replace all public assistance with UBI.

rfugger 8y ago

I think the article is a good example of why universal healthcare would have to remain in place when UBI is implemented. UBI is unlikely to be enough to afford quality healthcare.

ghaff 8y ago
Or even some base level of healthcare for anything remotely serious. It's implicit in UBI that it would have to be paired with something along the lines of universal Medicaid. Otherwise, an income that is truly base--say $8K/year in the US--is not going to have any real slack to cover healthcare.
_bxg1 8y ago
Agreed. There are two types of healthcare expenses that insurance is important for: 1) massive, unexpected ones, which $1000 a month would be useless towards, and where the word "insurance" actually makes sense 2) recurring costs like doctor appointments, prescriptions, and teeth cleaning, which could arguably (but still probably shouldn't) be lumped in with UBI #2 can still wreck someone who's truly poor, to be clear, but the author's case sounded more like #1
- majewsky 8y ago
  #2 should not be lumped in with UBI since the costs wildly fluctuate between people. A 25-year-old person will have fewer preventive checkups than a retiree or a small child. And people with chronic diseases have way higher recurring medical expenses than people without. My bookkeeping shows that I spend two weeks' worth of salary per year on medications, most of which is for keeping my chronic ailments in check.
hopler 8y ago
This is what insurance is for, to smooth out risk. UBI is a concept, not a specific dollar amount. You don't need universal healthcare, just regulation of the risk pool.

0xcde4c3db 8y ago

The author is Canadian, in which case the assumption would probably be that universal single-payer insurance is in place rather than individualized subsidies.

fucking_tragedy 8y ago

> Do most UBI schemes assume that healthcare subsidies would stop for instance, and the money be redirected to the UBI? Most UBI schemes position UBI as supplemental income in conjunction with public assistance. There's a small, but vocal, minority who wants to replace all public assistance with UBI.