I want to know why I’m wrong- because this question has been eating at me for years- and I secretly blame the Democrats for all of the health insurance problems.

Why can’t California and New York bind together in an interstate compact, and create medicare for all of their citizens?

California and New York have GDP’s above most other countries in the world. In general, democrats hold majorities. Tell me why I shouldn’t blame the democrats for:

  1. Doing Obama care half assed, when something like 80% people wanted a public option.

  2. Not just doing it themselves. For instance even NYC by itself has a GDP above Denmark, and NYC is filled to the brim with the super rich.

  • r0ertel@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Does this imply that a state funded health insurance for all will operate at a net loss?

    • Snazz@lemmy.world
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      24 hours ago

      The state isn’t a business. Services don’t lose money, they cost money.

      Instead of paying your insurance and having them take a profit out of it before providing the service, you pay taxes and the money goes more directly into the service.

    • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Yes, of course. Health care generates revenue for health care providers, not the state. For the state it’s just another expense on the balance sheet.

      The problem with universal health care is that 70% of expenses go to treat 10% of the population. These are often very sick people near the ends of their lives. Frequently the money doesn’t appreciably improve their health or well-being, it merely provides many expensive (and often painful) treatments that extend their lives.

      This is the really ugly side of health care that we don’t like to think about because it involves difficult discussions about quality of life and death. We would much rather not think about these things and instead throw more money at the problem. Unfortunately, medical technology has advanced a lot in these areas and so there is an ever-growing array of treatment options to extend life without restoring quality of life.