If we as a country were willing to let people with treatable illness die simply because they were too stupid to buy health insurance or save money for health care, that would work.
But I doubt you could get 5% of the public to support such a concept. We are happy to make stupid people drive crappy cars, eat cheap food, live in run-down rental units.
But we aren’t ready to let them die of treatable illness.
That skews things, but it isn’t unmanageable. The current system simply isn’t set up to provide appropriate incentives to counter the “free lunch” philosophy that stems from knowing that nobody is going to let you die of a treatable illness, at least if the treatment isn’t hundreds of thousands of dollars.
It’s not just government, look at how thousands of dollars are raised for individuals who come down with treatable diseases. Nobody who donates seems to be asking why the family didn’t spent a hundred a month for a catastrophic care insurance, rather than waiting until they had hundreds of thousands of dollars of bills and then expecting strangers to donate money to fix it.
Nobody is expecting them to die of treatable illnesses. Treat them, bill them, and let them sort it all out. If they can't pay, then they'll be on the hook for the rest of their lives or until they can raise enough money through private sources. They'd even be eminently qualified to get hired by insurance companies as subjects of advertisements warning people what NOT to do when it comes to medical care.
It’s not just government, look at how thousands of dollars are raised for individuals who come down with treatable diseases. Nobody who donates seems to be asking why the family didn’t spent a hundred a month for a catastrophic care insurance, rather than waiting until they had hundreds of thousands of dollars of bills and then expecting strangers to donate money to fix it.
That's exactly my point. There are plenty of resources in this country for people who don't have the werewithal to pay enormous medical bills. We tend to be very generous as a nation, though it's certainly worth noting that those in Washington who are the most ardent supporters of big government also tend to be the least generous with their own resources.
I had a 17 yo nephew die waiting for a heart transplant, in 2000. If his father had been unable to put up 100K in escrow, he wouldn't even have made the list. Trouble was, no hearts. He was an athlete, a straight A student, and he got the wrong kind of flu, the kind that destroys the heart. One of the 30K plus who die from influenza every year.
Lots of people posting here who don't know much about the system OR medicine.