Heavy question, I know. This is not intended to be political, please leave “taxes/government evil” out of it, I’m interested in a pragmatic view.

Infamously the US has mostly private health care, but we also have Medicare and -aid, the ACA, and the VA.

Most other nations have socialized health care in some format. Some of them have the option to have additional care or reject public care and go fully private.

Realistically, what are the experiences with your country’s health care? Not what you heard, not what you saw in a meme, not your “OMG never flying this airline again” story that is the exception while millions successfully complete uneventful and safe journey story. I’m also not interested in “omg so-and-so died waiting for a test/specialist/whatever”. All systems have failures. All systems have waits for specialists unless you’re wealthy, and wealth knows no borders. All systems do their best to make sure serious cases get seen. It doesn’t always work, but as a rule they don’t want people dying while waiting.

Are the costs in taxes, paycheck withholding (because some people pay for social health care out of paychecks but don’t call it a tax), and private insurance costs worth it to you?

  • r3df0x ✡️✝☪️A
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    fedilink
    130 days ago

    That’s why I feel like there should be both systems. Possibly public and private healthcare, but with the additional requirement that everyone has to have health insurance. Otherwise there’s going to be too much of a problem with young people not getting insurance and not paying in. You’ll also have NEETs and neckbeards who work 12 hour weeks and aren’t paying anything in to the system.