The fact that so many messages in this thread are variations on "well this should be covered by insurance" to other stuff like "I understand they need to charge

The fact that so many messages in this thread are variations on "well this should be covered by insurance" to other stuff like "I understand they need to charge" makes me think we will never see a proper system of any kind in this country because everyone is just too heavily propagandized into thinking healthcare just must be expensive and that any attempt to have the Government in any way pay for it will quite literally destroy the United States, which is of course failing to take into account that insured Amercans spend vast, vast amounts more than anyone else on the planet while receiving... middle-to-low quality care. And that's just what the people spend, the insurance companies when they can be arsed to actually pay what they've agreed to are also paying through the nose for every last service and minute of a doctor's time. The only people actually winning in our health insurance system are the shareholders and the executives. Everyone else is being left worse off than they'd otherwise be. TL;DR: The arguments against socialized healthcare make sense if you believe healthcare actually costs what American providers charge. It doesn't. They just know you have to, you know, not die and that they can charge whatever they want for that service. That's why it's fundamentally unethical for medicine to be a for-profit industry.