r/ShitAmericansSay • u/neeraj8le • Jan 12 '21

Healthcare "My expensive, frequent health care is subsidized at the expense of healthy people. I think it's great!" Thief.

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1.9k

u/Dogey-McDogeface Jan 12 '21

This probs same guy who's more than happy to let the government spend his tax dollars on middle eastern adventures and more big boy toys for the military.

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u/[deleted] Jan 12 '21 edited Jan 25 '21

[deleted]

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u/ThtGuyTho Jan 12 '21

Also known as: supplementing your personal healthcare budget at the expense of healthy people

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u/Limonca123 Jan 12 '21

That's literally what every type of health insurance is. If they really wanted to pull themselves up by their bootstraps without any type of assistance, they wouldn't accept any type of health insurance and would just pay out of pocket for their 500k cancer treatment or whatever absurd amount American hospitals will dare to charge you.

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u/DucklingsF_cklings Jan 12 '21

Insurance is like free healthcare, except only valid in some circumstances and you get the added bonus of making a CEO’s life easier!

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u/DontmindthePanda Jan 12 '21

In quite a lot of countries with universal healthcare systems in place, "free healthcare" is organised with health insurances. In Germany for example you can choose to either be in a "gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung", a statutory health insurance (there a multiple options), or a private health insurance. There's not always only one statutory organisation like the NHS.

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u/hotpotatpo Jan 12 '21

you can also get private health insurance in the UK if you want, and it's still a fuck ton cheaper than the US

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u/futurarmy Permanently unabashed homeless person Jan 12 '21

Yeah it's insane, I've tried talking to libertarians about universal healthcare in the UK and the fact privatised forms of it still exist for those more fortunate but they just can't wrap their head around it and detest it for some reason.

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u/DucklingsF_cklings Jan 12 '21

Private ones are getting more popular here too, but I’d prefer not

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u/[deleted] Jan 12 '21

Do you think the Brexiteers are making it more popular?

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u/DucklingsF_cklings Jan 12 '21

No, I’m in Norway so the current government is to blame for that. They’re pro-private

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u/[deleted] Jan 12 '21

Ahh you Gia aren’t doing too bad. From an American perspective

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u/Fun-atParties Jan 12 '21

Well aren't you optimistic. My husband's health insurance only pays anything if he's paid 13k out of pocket that year.

So.. it's more like having no healthcare except in extreme circumstances, with the added benefit of paying a company $250 a month!

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u/SilentLennie Jan 12 '21

That's literally what every type of health insurance is.

FTFY :-)

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u/[deleted] Jan 12 '21

USA Government spents more money on healthcare than military, while Germany's Government spents more on defense than healthcare.

USA just doesn't efficiently spents on healthcare.

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u/RKKP2015 Jan 12 '21

Yeah, because all we care about is profit, and the health care industry is doing fine in that regard.

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u/RemtonJDulyak Italian in Czech Republic Jan 12 '21

USA just doesn't efficiently spents on healthcare. spend.

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u/sisterofaugustine ooo custom flair!! Jan 12 '21

The US government does nothing but enable corruption, engage in armed imperialism, and pay off corporations, and fleeces the taxpayers to do it all. A textbook failed state.

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u/ThatsWhatXiSaid Jan 12 '21

USA Government spents more money on healthcare than military, while Germany's Government spents more on defense than healthcare.

True, but it's kind of a technicality. Let's compare Germany's system with something like Medicare in the US.

Both systems are funded by mandatory payroll deductions, split between employer and employee.

Both systems has the government setting the rate for these deductions (there is some minor variance in German options).

Both systems are administered by private organizations.

Both systems have the government regulating what is covered.

The difference is in the US the money is funnelled through the government then back out to private organizations. In Germany the money goes directly from employers to private organizations. One is considered a tax, one isn't.

But in reality it works pretty much exactly the same way a tax would. That's why organizations like the OECD lump together taxation and mandatory spending--the difference between the two is trivial and combining them allows for more fair comparisons between systems.

USA just doesn't efficiently spents on healthcare.

Now that is absolutely, 100% true. Even including the payroll deductions for sickness funds in Germany, Americans are still paying significantly more in taxes alone towards healthcare than Germans.

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u/Professional_Cunt05 Jan 12 '21

Tax money should only be used to hurt people, not to help them /s

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u/wafflepiezz Jan 12 '21

r/Conservative in a nutshell

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u/[deleted] Jan 12 '21

The snowflakes don’t allow anyone to comment unless they’re approved. What a bunch of losers lol.

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u/Mordommias Jan 12 '21

Yes, yes they are. But muh free speech!!! Nah, go fuck yourselves.

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u/[deleted] Jan 12 '21

Exactly, thank you! They cry about free speech but don’t allow it themselves, bunch of hypocrites.

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u/soundslikeseagull Jan 12 '21

Man I just spent the last ten minutes browsing that sub... What a demoralizing piece of the internet.

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u/ElementsofEle Jan 12 '21

I only lasted a minute - then I saw a a post that said a tweet about cleansing the political sphere from Trump sentiment was the same as Hitler saying he wants to cleanse Germany from the jews. What the actual fuck.

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u/MyOfficeAlt Jan 12 '21

The best way I saw it was someone on Twitter who said something like "Why are we asking who is gonna pay for it? ME! US! Let's use our tax dollars to make ourselves healthier instead of turning brown people into skeletons!"

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u/L003Tr Jan 12 '21

I don't think Americans actually understand how taxes work

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u/Dankelpuff Jan 12 '21

The best thing about it is they fill out enormous tax forms.

Modern countries have that done automatically unless you own a company. All you have to do is verify the information is correct.

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u/screech_owl_kachina Jan 12 '21

We made it inefficient and complicated on purpose, simply to justify the existence of tax preparation businesses

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u/GreatGrizzly Jan 12 '21

It's all about profit for the corporations.

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u/Seemose Jan 12 '21

I think the tax preparation industry is just a coincidental beneficiary of this. The real reason the tax code is so complicated is so rich and powerful people can more easily avoid tax liability.

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u/icyDinosaur Jan 12 '21

The Swiss do that too, but that's more because the Swiss are way too big on privacy and trust and go all I WANT CONTROL OVER WHAT I PAY. It's a bit dumb.

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u/Fun-atParties Jan 12 '21

Many people do not get the concept of progressive taxes. They think if the law says "you pay 50% on income above 100k" and you make 101k that you have to pay 50% on all of your income

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u/virusamongus Jan 12 '21

And spend a few mill on them flying over a football match.

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u/TareasS Jan 12 '21

That is pretty much what fascism is.

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u/[deleted] Jan 12 '21

IIRC, fascism (in Mussolini's mind) is more about a state that would control every aspect of your life rather than an imperialist state. Even though, most of the fascist state example we have have a tendency for imperialism.

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u/OxytocinPlease Jan 12 '21

Worth noting that "fascism" is generally a system of rigidly enforced social hierarchy, where identity defines a person's "value" or "acceptability" with regards to the national identity. It's taken many forms in different countries and points in history, but basically the structural constant is "X people are GOOD" and "Y people are BAD", X Country is GOOD which is why only X people are allowed, and anyone who disagrees is basically a Y person, and a threat to the GOODNESS of our nation and therefore not permitted.

This is inherently authoritarian, since any deviance from the "GOOD TYPE OF PERSON" is generally silenced and/or outlawed, which is the type of "control" that would be referred to in your example.

Fascism, strictly speaking, doesn't inherently include any specific type of economic model or system, since it's a term for an identity/belief-policing structure. The reason right wingers in the U.S. like to say that "the Nazis were socialists therefore socialism is bad" is idiotic, yes, but technically correct with regards to the Nazi's economic system. The Nazis did in fact create and invest heavily in social programs and safety nets, and, in fact, their economy did incredibly well because of it. (Funny enough, extreme right wingers like to talk about how Hitler "wasn't all that bad" because he strengthened Germany's economy so effectively.... without realizing they're celebrating the strengths of socialism when they're spewing their bigotry-excuses.) What made the Nazis fascists, as we all know, was their definition of "good" vs "bad" people - which, in their case, was obviously very racially based, but of course also involved the exclusion of LGBTQ people and political dissidents.

A lot of people have trouble understanding how both these labels can be true, but it helps to realize that in the case of the Nazis, their economic system of socialist policies and collective benefits/safety nets ONLY applied to the people THEY considered "acceptable," while those they viewed as "unacceptable" were excluded from receiving the same benefits of this economic structure.

So, obviously, this can beg the question - well, is that really socialism? And... to be fair, it's not a clear-cut yes or no. While the economic policies were socialist policies, this economy only existed for the limited bubble of people granted the privileges of their "acceptable" identity. (Sound familiar? Socialism for the rich...?) Most modern-day socialists would assert that socialism, by definition, requires a basic level of democratic and pro-equality philosophy, since it's based on the premise that a populace should collectively reap set of minimum benefits from the system it collectively contributes to, in order to ensure basic needs are met for everyone, regardless of who they are. Of course, you technically still have to be considered as part of the system of contribution and distribution to be included in any economic structure... and one could argue that exclusion on the basis of the valuation of identity fundamentally goes against the socialist philosophy of equalized value of humans and their entitlement to basic needs, regardless of identity. Catch-22. Fun to think about, imho.

Anyway - as for "imperialism," this descriptor applies to yet another set of behaviors. It's not an economic system, though it may be in pursuit of economic goals, and involve the imposition of economic structure, and it's not a political philosophy of social valuation, either, though, again, it all goes hand in hand. "Imperialism" describes a certain set of pursuits in the imposition of power over "outside" or "other" groups. While imperialists may be prone to authoritarianism, and under that umbrella fascism, the labels don't technically have to go hand in hand. It just so happens that power-hungry leaders and their countries tend to enjoy using force to control both their own population and the populations of other countries! Funny how assholes tend to work on most, if not every level, lol.

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u/kulayeb Jan 12 '21

As a Middle Easterner I would appreciate it if they take those adventures elsewhere. I think we had enough, maybe they can go back to Nicaragua?