7 ms·

Wanting publish healthcare is "extreme left"? Isn't the US pretty much the only first-world country that doesn't have it yet?

droidist2 12y ago
Single payer healthcare? No, only a handful of countries have it (Canada, the UK, a couple others). The majority of first world countries have a mix and public and private.
- itsybitsycoder 12y ago
  Canada and the UK have a mix of public and private healthcare available as well... having public health care doesn't necessarily preclude private healthcare. I guess I was caught up on the distinction between "government paying for everything" (single-payer) and public healthcare, which most developed nations besides the US do have. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publicly_funded_health_care#Varieties_of_public_systems http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publicly_funded_health_care#Var...) I'm in BC which is apparently the only province to not have single-payer. Instead we make mandatory insurance payments that are adjusted based on income. In a "left vs right" context though I'm not sure there is much of a practical difference between public health and single-payer health. Either you give a government-determined amount of money to the government who passes it on to the healthcare system, or the government requires you to give a government-determined amount of money to the healthcare system directly. I would imagine any conservative against one would be against the other? What am I missing that single-payer health care is considered so crazy left wing?
  - droidist2 12y ago
    > Most developed countries, with the exception of the United States, have partially or fully publicly funded health systems. I don't think this line from the article is correct, unless it was written before the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)? Doesn't the US have partially publicly funded healthcare? Of course conservatives don't like this, but they'd be way unhappier with something more extreme like single-payer or socialized medicine.

droidist2 12y ago

Single payer healthcare? No, only a handful of countries have it (Canada, the UK, a couple others). The majority of first world countries have a mix and public and private.

itsybitsycoder 12y ago
Canada and the UK have a mix of public and private healthcare available as well... having public health care doesn't necessarily preclude private healthcare. I guess I was caught up on the distinction between "government paying for everything" (single-payer) and public healthcare, which most developed nations besides the US do have. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publicly_funded_health_care#Varieties_of_public_systems http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publicly_funded_health_care#Var...) I'm in BC which is apparently the only province to not have single-payer. Instead we make mandatory insurance payments that are adjusted based on income. In a "left vs right" context though I'm not sure there is much of a practical difference between public health and single-payer health. Either you give a government-determined amount of money to the government who passes it on to the healthcare system, or the government requires you to give a government-determined amount of money to the healthcare system directly. I would imagine any conservative against one would be against the other? What am I missing that single-payer health care is considered so crazy left wing?
- droidist2 12y ago
  > Most developed countries, with the exception of the United States, have partially or fully publicly funded health systems. I don't think this line from the article is correct, unless it was written before the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)? Doesn't the US have partially publicly funded healthcare? Of course conservatives don't like this, but they'd be way unhappier with something more extreme like single-payer or socialized medicine.