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All of that just points out how bad it is, even with 'insurance'.

• TuringNYC 6y ago
  Exactly. One of the really bad things about US health insurance is that you dont know how bad it is until you have a John-Q type event (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Q. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Q.) or a difficult pregnancy or a surgery. Healthy people go in for annual visits and think "wow, this is great" not knowing what exception scenarios are like. Then people vote for politicians who uphold the status quo thinking everything is fine.
  • oneplane 6y ago
    Not sure where I read it, but a theory was that since there is some sort of extreme self-reliance doctrine at the base of many sociological and political concepts in the USA it's frowned upon to ask for help, or help each other, or create a system where everybody agrees that helping each other by default is a good thing. Keeps most things as-is, keeps people fighting over who gets to proxy-kill sick people and what the best way to screw each other for perceived personal gain is. Edit: here on HN there was a comment from someone along the lines of "from the outside looking in, the USA looks like people fighting over who gets to punch babies and you're not allowed to not want to be on either side because that's taking a side as well".