The main problem with the US healthcare system is....

[guillaumeb]

that big money is in charge of that system.

And big money has essentially monetized the US healthcare system. Money is made in a variety of ways, and all at the expense of US patients.


1) the insurance industry skims billions off the top and calls them administrative costs and profits.

2) Big Pharma overcharges US patients, mainly because they have rigged the system to enable it. And that rigging includes purchasing politicians.

3) Hospitals can charge whatever they wish to charge for any of the services they provide. And that is why patients can receive bills that include charges of $5 per tablet of generic aspirin.

4) Medicare is forbidden to negotiate drug prices.

And on and on.

The problem with the ACA, or any system short of a single payer system, is that these supposed fixes allow the very entities that are the cause of the problem to remain in charge.

And to any who speak of the supposed huge cost of Medicare for All, consider these 2 numbers:

1) $5,782, and
2) $11,916.

Those represent the amount spent per person of the Canadian and US systems respectively.

[Wounded Bear]

1. We don't have a healthcare "system"...

We have a for profit healthcare industry.

[guillaumeb]

2. And it is very profitable.

And the US ranks 37th in the world, in spite of being 1st in spending.

[elleng]

3. Profit

Nixon signed into law, the Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973, in which medical insurance agencies, hospitals, clinics and even doctors, could begin functioning as for-profit business entities instead of the service organizations they were intended to be.Mar 19, 2017

http://healthoverprofit.org/2017/03/19/for-profit-health-care-used-to-be-illegal/

[guillaumeb]

4. Qui bono?

Always, follow the money.

[X_Digger]

7. No, you could profit from health care before that. It was never illegal to do so.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/healthcare-profit-1973-hmo-act/

[Trailrider1951]

8. This current healthcare model got its start with the Nixon Administration

See this transcript:

Transcript of taped conversation between President Richard Nixon and John D. Ehrlichman (1971) that led to the HMO act of 1973:


https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Transcript_of_taped_conversation_between_President_Richard_Nixon_and_John_D._Ehrlichman_%281971%29_that_led_to_the_HMO_act_of_1973:

[X_Digger]

10. For-profit hospitals, doctors' practices, pharmacies, clinics, insurance, etc- existed before 1973.

Nothing in that transcript refutes that.

[zipplewrath]

5. Nationalization of the Health Care industry

Basically, what the ACA did was to nationalize the regulation of the health care industry. That allowed them to do things like prevent them from denying coverage to preexisting conditions as well a few other the industries worst practices. And it enabled the federal government to increase the coverage of US citizens from about 85% or so into the low 90% range. It would have been higher except that the USSC prevented the feds from forcing medicaid expansion upon the states. Unfortunately, it also gave the insurance industry as well as the health care industry the ability to score very good profits. They have done very well since the ACA. And the reality is that the rate of inflation of health care has changed very little, as well as the reality that the US spends anywhere from 3 to 5 times the amount other western countries spend on health care.

We spent an incredible amount of "political capital" on passing the ACA to increase the amount of people covered from 85% to 93% (feel free to modify those numbers as you wish, the fundamental point won't change). But all of the underlying problems remained. It costs too much, too many people who need to be covered the most aren't, and the costs are going up around 2 to 3 times the general rate of inflation. And I'm sorry, but these aren't "alternative facts", they are the reality,

[guillaumeb]

11. Very well argued.

And the ACA was designed to allow the for profit industry to continue profiting by denying access to health care. This denial is both direct, by denying or delaying payment for services, and indirect by allowing Big Pharma to price rig.

The ACA was supposed to ne an outreach to the GOP, and it was modeled after Romneycare, itself based on a Heritage foundation idea. And the GOP responded by opposing everything.

[Blue_true]

6. It is more complex than that.

We are the fattest, least active developed country in the world. Our own eating and fitness habits contribute mightily to our massive healthcare outlays. We are also the most violent developed country in the world.

Don't get me wrong, I like my cookies and ice cream, it is just that I try to strike a balance and control my weight with exercise (not over doing it, but staying fit). I have never been one who believe that people should give up things that provide comfort to them, but I also am a lifelong believer in the power of a rational fitness regimen.

[guillaumeb]

12. Obesity is also caused, in part,

by a food industry that loads processed foods with fat and sugars. And in many food deserts, health food is expensive.

[msongs]

9. medicare for thos who want it will show there is a better option available, thus

speeding the transition to single payer and/or MFA. then again, it may also show the current system to be better