• ERROR: Earth.exe has crashed@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    13 days ago

    I don’t like the term “free healthcare”, because most of us would be paying for it in taxes, it would be more accurate to call it “socialized healthcare”.

    Saying “I want free healthcare” allows the media to twist your words and make you look like some “entitled brat” that “want everything for free”.

    • dohpaz42@lemmy.world
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      13 days ago

      Keep it simple and call it “healthcare”. No need to qualify it with anything.

      • BossDj@lemm.ee
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        13 days ago

        The ones who still think Obamacare and ACA are different things definitely need a catchy label and marketing if they’re gonna vote for it.

        Or just lie to them, their own leaders have learned it doesn’t matter what you tell them. Call it the “everyone gets a puppy” Bill or whatever. Then tell them they got a free puppy. They won’t know they didn’t.

        • Scubus@sh.itjust.works
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          13 days ago

          This is exactly what we need to do. Its literally the only way to combat a populace that simply does not want to be educated. Just fuckin lie, then post your actual platform online. People who actually care will read it, everyone else will think that the dems are campaigning on eliminating the sun to cool the earth during the summer, and during the winter well just tow a new sun to orbit.

          • BossDj@lemm.ee
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            12 days ago

            That was a bit of hyperbole. But we could always say “if you didn’t get a free puppy, it’s because Trump and his Republicans hate puppies”

      • Empricorn@feddit.nl
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        13 days ago

        Counter-point: calling it universal/single-payer distinguishes it from what we have now. Which I would argue isn’t actually healthcare, at least by modern standards in other countries…

        • MrVilliam@lemm.ee
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          13 days ago

          Yeah, we don’t have healthcare. We have profit-motivated health insurance. We pay in case we get injured or sick, and they only profit if they find a legitimate way to not cover us when we get injured or sick, so they try their damnedest to do that.

      • Akasazh@feddit.nl
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        12 days ago

        It healthcare has a own risk (literal translation, I’m not sure about the English term) in which the first costs are out of pocket until you reach a certain amount (400-800 depending on your insurance package).

        So it’s not ‘free’ as you don’t pay for all of it, but you can’t go into crippling debt over medical payments.

        • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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          12 days ago

          I think you’re talking about deductibles. But in the truly socialized healthcare system you wouldn’t have deductibles anyway because you don’t pay out of pocket for anything.

          Under the UK system you do pay for some drugs as an outpatient, but we’re only talking like £6 (honestly it makes you wonder why they bother). But you never pay for in-house medicine and you don’t pay for procedures at all.

          • Akasazh@feddit.nl
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            12 days ago

            I was just arguing against the ‘free’ bit of the argument. But I agree with you.

      • Empricorn@feddit.nl
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        13 days ago

        The government doesn’t have any money. They decide how to spend our taxes…

        • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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          13 days ago

          The government doesn’t get money from taxes. It prints money, the taxes are how it removes money from circulation.

    • Sc00ter@lemm.ee
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      13 days ago

      Thats the problem. The media and too much of the usa wouldnt accept “socialized healthcare” becuase that sounds like socialism and enough people arent educated enough to know what that really means

    • credo@lemmy.world
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      12 days ago

      Insurance is already a socialized program- just a private one. Creating public health care simply removes the profit incentive.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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      12 days ago

      It sort of is free though.

      With private healthcare your coverage price goes up with medical needs. So the one time you need healthcare is the one time that you have to pay more for it.

      With socialized healthcare you just pay the same base rate as everyone else, regardless of if you have complicated medical needs or not. Also in socialized healthcare if you don’t have a job you don’t pay anything, but you still get medical care.

      • Impound4017@sh.itjust.works
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        13 days ago

        Let’s not forget that they create charitable ‘foundations’ which then work with lawmakers to create legislation, thus giving themselves greater influence over the relevant laws as well.

  • Maple Engineer@lemmy.world
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    12 days ago

    To be clear, it isn’t free healthcare. In Canada we pay our taxes and the government administers the health insurance system. In Ontario where I live it’s the Ontario Health Insurance Plan. It covers most doctors visits and most treatments. I have Hodgins Lymphoma and am nearing the end of my treatment. Dozens of doctors visits, CT scans, x-rays, an echo cardiogram, a respiratory study, two PET scans, and all the drugs and the only thing I’ve paid for out of pocket is parking, and the hospital where I’m being treated just put in free parking for cancer patients and gave me a parking pass. Our government negotiates the price of drugs at the national level and regulates drug prices. Companies aren’t allowed to raise the price of a drug that is on the market unless there is a corresponding improvement in benefit to the patient. They can’t add a coloured band to a capsule, rename the drug (Losec to Prilosec, for example) and double or triple the price. Generic drugs are the same. That’s why epipens are $100 here and not $600 like in the US. There has been no substantion improvement in their benefit to patients so the price can’t go up.

    Universal healthcare isn’t perfect but 22 of 23 highly developed countries in the world have it and the US profits before people system is grotesque.

    • 𝕾𝖕𝖎𝖈𝖞 𝕿𝖚𝖓𝖆@lemmy.world
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      12 days ago

      I don’t think many Americans in favor of universal healthcare think it’s going to cost nothing. Of course, taxes will increase. But we already pay for private healthcare. Most of us via a payroll deduction.

      • Maple Engineer@lemmy.world
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        12 days ago

        We do as well. I have private coverage for things that OHIP doesn’t cover like a private hospital room, massage, physio, and other therapies, eye glasses, dental, and prescription drugs. It’s much, much cheaper than in the US because it is single payer and heavily regulated.

      • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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        12 days ago

        we not only pay for healthcare, compared to what the world pays, we pay for gold plated health care and get delivered garbage that bankrupts us.

  • Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works
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    12 days ago

    I think their issue is everyone getting it. In American culture and Christianity, love must be conditional.

    Only correct behaviour would mean you get rewarded/supported.

    Their issue isn’t giving it away for free, their issue is not being able to classify certain members of society as a underclass that don’t deserve anything unless they conform to their values.

    So it’s about power and control. Universal health care means you have no power over these individuals and what values they live by.

  • HowManyNimons@lemmy.world
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    13 days ago

    In countries with government provided healthcare for all, we still do dance marathons to pay for bits of it. Ugh maybe it’s just the UK.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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      12 days ago

      The marathons and stuff are to raise money for research more than to raise money for healthcare.

      • smokebuddy [he/him]@lemmy.today
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        13 days ago

        the last Leafs game I was watching had an ad from Scarborough General Hospital begging for money and a Dug Ford ad big upping how easy it is to get care in Ontario in the same commercial break

    • Demdaru@lemmy.world
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      12 days ago

      In my country there are multiple foundations and charity events, but these mainly aim to equip hostpitals rather than fund care. New equipment costs a lot in quantity hospitals need, and on gov money it would slowly trickle in. Meanwhile such events and foundations can greatly boost the speed of modernization.

      There are aims to help with care funding, but that’s pretty much explicitly cancer cases where we need top-of-the-line treatments that are not available on public healthcare.

  • verstra@programming.dev
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    12 days ago

    Don’t call it “free”, it sounds like you are so out of touch with reality that you don’t know that healthcare has costs.

    The word is “universal”. In my country, I paying for healthcare, but not as much as wealthly people here do. That’s the main argument for it: the rich subsidize healtcare for the poor.

    • myplacedk@lemmy.world
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      12 days ago

      In my country I pay for health INSURANCE through income tax. I get healthcare for free. I call it free because I don’t pay to go to the doctor or the hospital. ** So why is this distinction important to me? Because this means I don’t have to worry about paying for healthcare. I don’t save any money by not going to the doctor. I don’t loose access to health care if I loose my job. As long as I am a citizen here, money and healthcare are two unrelated concerns.

      I know that money is going from my salary and in some way to the hospitals etc, there’s no way around that. But this way I don’t have to worry about it. Not when paying my bills, not when needing health care.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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        12 days ago

        Exactly if it comes out of tax technically it isn’t free but at the same time you also don’t really notice it.

        Saying that you pay for health care through taxes it’s a bit like saying that you pay to walk down the street through taxes, technically of course you do pay to walk down the street through taxes, but it is such a bizarre thing to say.

        • myplacedk@lemmy.world
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          11 days ago

          That’s actually a really good analogy. Most people would accept that going for a walk is free, and that tax money (in most cases) paid the path.

          • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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            11 days ago

            In the UK everyone would say that healthcare is free. Obviously it isn’t but it’s not like you get a breakdown on your taxes so you don’t really notice the fact that you’re paying for it.

            Even the belligerent idiots that try and move us over to a US style insurance system don’t really articulate that healthcare costs money. It’s such an abstract concert here.

  • 2ugly2live@lemmy.world
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    12 days ago

    They don’t want the possibility of helping everyone, there could be someone they don’t like in there!

  • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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    12 days ago

    Yeah why dance all night when you can go join a mob and shout angrily at passersby all day?

  • Endymion_Mallorn@kbin.melroy.org
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    13 days ago

    Charity is our choice. Taxes are the force of the government. Everything you want funded by others should be funded by charity. We shouldn’t be forced to pay for each other’s choices.

    • snooggums@lemmy.world
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      13 days ago

      Don’t use roads or sidewalks or parks or eat food or buy anything that has to follow safety regulations then.

      And never sue anyone ever. Courts are expensive!

      • BossDj@lemm.ee
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        13 days ago

        The stuff the government does that he likes is the will of the people. The parts he is trained to think are bad are forced on him.

        • Endymion_Mallorn@kbin.melroy.org
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          13 days ago

          No, it’s all done by force if it’s paid for by taxes, whether I like it or not. It’s just whether I’d have chosen to contribute or paid a private business.

          • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
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            13 days ago

            Paying a business to do everything is how we got mining towns that paid their workers in company money that can only be used at company stores.

    • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
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      13 days ago

      Nobody chooses to get cancer. But everybody benefits from a society that lifts others up instead of kicks them when they’re down. If you don’t believe in helping other people then you’re just a sad individual.

    • PapaStevesy@lemmy.world
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      13 days ago

      Then why are my insurance premiums paying for other people’s illnesses? Why don’t I get to decide how and when my insurance pays out? It’s my insurance paid with my money. Also, who keeps building all these roads and bridges with my tax money? I shouldn’t be forced to pay for infrastructure I don’t use just because someone chose to live somewhere else!

      • Endymion_Mallorn@kbin.melroy.org
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        13 days ago

        Insurance is a protection racket made to benefit a small cadre. They just managed to sneak it in to law and make the government require it. And you’re correct, you shouldn’t be forced to pay for something you’ll never use.

        • PapaStevesy@lemmy.world
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          13 days ago

          So your plan is to let poor sick people die, the same plan as the insurance companies, interesting. And it’s safe to assume you only use roads that you personally build and maintain, right?

    • Bilb!@lem.monster
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      13 days ago

      This is an acceptable thing to believe if you’re a teenager or younger. Past that it’s just embarrassing.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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        12 days ago

        It’s what most MEGA supporters believe. Well, I say believe but that rather implies that they’ve thought about it, it’s what they’ve been told to parrot.

        Which I suspect is what we’re dealing with here.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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      12 days ago

      The problem with being a sovereign citizen is that in order to tell everyone about it you have to use government funded infrastructure which rather dilutes your message. Not that it was particularly coherent to begin with.