this post was submitted on 02 May 2024
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

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[–] [email protected] 111 points 6 months ago (3 children)

the math has already been done. we pay more for less care in the united states than places with universal health care.

health insurance companies only profit by denying claims. profit only comes when humans suffer.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 6 months ago

This is the root of it.

Piled on top of that are layers upon layers of middlemen rent-seekers. The amount of parasitic corporate bullshit that goes on behind the scenes whenever you go to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription would blow most people's minds.

The good news is, awareness is growing, and there are a few good actors in government trying to do something about it. It's very much an uphill battle, though.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The suffering keeps the working class busy.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

Keeps them knee capped.

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[–] [email protected] 90 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Congratulations, you just figured out how healthcare works in the rest of developed countries

[–] [email protected] 31 points 6 months ago

Yup. Everything is better when everyone is doing better. It’s weirdly simple.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago (1 children)

And also in some of the non developed countries (Cuba, Brazil)

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

"Cuba is such a shit hole."

Consistently has some of the best doctors. Also, healthcare workers from Kenya? Some of the best in the world.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

I'm just speaking from personal experience. If I was given adequate health care 20 years earlier there is no telling how different my life may have been. Instead I had to achieve impossible feats to get insurance which then made those seemingly impossible things trivial.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

Its so weird living in a country where healthcare is a right, and seeing how E everyone in USA is against public healthcare until their insurance stops covering expenses.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 6 months ago

And preventive medicine makes us live healthier for longer, making sure we can keep sustaining the system and reduce the amount of more complex and expensive care needed.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 6 months ago (2 children)

That would be logical and we don't do that here.
Stop that.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Entrepreneurs and small business would benefit tremendously. More people could follow their ideas and dreams as small business owners and entrepreneurs, and boost economic output and innovation. All are hindered by this surfdom.

I had my own business and my health insurance was crazy expensive and had a terribly high deductible. Ultimately I went back to being an employee. Then back to contracting with terrible excuse for health care. The compay I’m contracting for will lose me as soon as I land a job with good healthcare, so they’re effected too and they’re not small.

Anyone who is not for universal healthcare is anti-small business, the economy, the countries’ innovation and security in the global economy, and the people.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Same applies to housing the homeless, but benefiting society isn't the point. It is not enough to win, someone else must also lose.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

Welcome to Capitalism where you have to pay for basic human rights.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 months ago

Well… that just sounds like socialism to me; so now we’re friends.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 months ago (2 children)

We have health care in Canada yet still lots of street homeless people. They aren’t getting adequate care at all, yet the cost of caring for them exceeds the average person by many times. Many of them are on a first name basis with all the paramedics and other first responders due to how often they’re taken to the emergency room.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

Ok, but, I never said universal healthcare would solve homelessness. In America we have the same cost except we've made it illegal to be homeless and pay to keep them in prison.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Same in the UK :/ although I’d never want an American style healthcare system

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago (1 children)

How does that help the shareholders gain more wealth to hoard though?

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

Yes, that’s how it works in many countries.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Not having preventive health care if like having a car, hear it make too many strange noises and not fixing it until it breaks and you end up on the side of the road upside down. You "didn't spend money" in minor fixings but you end up paying a lot more.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

As someone in the final stages of a masters degree in healthcare management and economics:

Almost. It doesn't entirely cover the costs (at least from the data we have available worldwide, which is somewhat insufficient) but a focus on mental health(which always includes workers rights, women's rights and a few more social issues that create long term health problems on a massive scale) and prophylaxis in general is FAR cheaper than what most industrial nations currently do.

We do have a few issues that are not addressed in these concepts (e.g. end of life care and costs associated with that, new types of personalised medication, accessibility in rural areas,etc.) that still make a healthcare system like that something society has to pay for...But it does improve things massively, especially the quality of life of people that are not the actual patients.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

That's how you can see the true nature of the system. It isn't designed to maximize production, it is designed to subordinate production.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Imagine how much we could save on policing if we didn't have outbreaks of mental health issues and shootings.

Just kidding, don't think about that, back the blue. /s

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I bet the benefit of free school lunches would also pay for itself. And there's been studies that show that funding early childhood education has a huge ROI.

But that's not how things work here.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Yeah, but it wont pay back within the quarter.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

how are we going to know we're better than other people though, this is the most important thing.

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