With it’s lack of public option and its complicated hybridization of public and private entities, Obamacare is the most “market friendly” universal healthcare system on the planet. Obamacare was conceived of by republican think tanks and implemented by a republican governor. These facts prove just how radicalized the current conservative movement has become. Despite its glaring and recent failures, “Market fundamentalism” is ascendant. It’s become a panacea for just about every problem we face.
Conservatives acknowledge that there is a healthcare crisis, but the solution is not more government, but less. For them, the crisis itself is due to too much government in the first place. Just like Computers and microwaves have gotten cheaper as a result of the free market’s competition, so too could healthcare be made affordable for everyone. …After all there was a time when only rich people had refrigerators.
This conclusion is catastrophically wrong. For one thing one does not know in advance whether and when a large medical expense is coming. Few people can afford to pay for major surgery out of pocket. Healthcare is not sold like consumer goods; by and large it is paid for with insurance. And for people who are below 65 and above the poverty line, it is with private for-profit insurance companies. The goal of insurance companies is to make money. If they are not forced to do otherwise, insurance companies will try 1) avoid taking the risks covering cover unhealthy people and 2) attempt to deny as many insurance claims as possible.
Ask yourself this:
why would you trust unregulated, for-profit corporations with your healthcare,
….when your treatment is their cost