@MrGrimm888 Actually, the hospitals get the money, because they raise prices on people and insurance companies that do pay to cover that you didn’t. It’s already a social system in that we ALL pay for each other, because hospitals can’t run at a loss for very long, they need to get the money somewhere. So, your financial life is negatively affected and the medical system still gets their money.
I always think if the system was more honest and reasonable in its billing, maybe more people would pay. People who get a $100k bill who make $50k a year might think fuck it, I’ll pay nothing. What if the bill was $10k? Then they might pay it over time. I feel like the huge numbers are so ridiculous and intimidating that people feel it’s not worth even trying.
If you were making $12k maybe you could have been on Medicaid? In that case I feel like the government should make it retroactive and cover your bill.
The banks were bailed out, and I don’t fully agree with what was done to save the banks, but most of the banks paid the money back. It was a loan from the government.
I’m in favor of socialized medicine, so I’m basically on your side with that, but a lot of people in big medical debt I find didn’t have insurance for many many years when they could have, they paid in nothing. You were in your early 20’s and that I completely understand, most 20 year olds don’t expect to get sick, and you were making very little money. Also, buying insurance has become more and more expensive. However, @Jonsblond, for instance, I think her husband could have been paying for insurance through his job, she can correct me if I’m wrong, but anyway the average person working for a large company can do that. Now, those people will be paying via taxes under Bernie. Even Bernie thinks it’s only fair that people pay. All people will pay except the very poor. I hope to God Bernie or Biden, whoever wins, gets after the medical pricing and costs, that’s the biggest problem. Even if we pay through taxation for medical care, if it’s too expensive it will be a fortune for everyone, which is unacceptable. Although, I do think everyone needs to participate (pay) for it to really work. I wish Bernie was giving examples of how he will lower costs, examples of where the gouging is happening, that would make me feel better about him. Instead, he just talks about how he will pay for it. I never liked Warren very much, and I always felt she would not relate to the average person and so it would be hard for her to win, but maybe someone like her should be appointed to analyze the data and get down to the details.
People thought ACA would be great and a lot of Democrats talk about it like it is so great, but there are all sorts of details about it that suck. People like @Jonsblond could have bought insurance through ACA too. In her defense, it most likely would have still been expensive. My husband didn’t want to buy insurance when we were business owners, but I bought it for us through ACA against what he preferred, and it became much more expensive every year, it was ridiculously expensive. My only point with that is a government plan can sound good, but then when it really is rolled out we find where it doesn’t work well. I hope Bernie has really thought it all through.