Hacker News Reader

Comment by alexmingoia | Hacker News Reader

What does this have to do with universal healthcare?

We know how to make healthcare more efficient. We know how to remove the administrative overhead. Other countries already have these systems in place. Look at Taiwan for one example. They have digital medical records and an extremely low administrative overhead because of universal care.

Healthcare will continue to be broken no matter how many YC research programs there are - because the US population lacks the desire and political will for universal healthcare.

View on HN

If you look at polls that go issue by issue, you inevitably come to the conclusion that the "US population" at large (55-60%) would support a broad agenda of social democracy.

The problem isn't the people, it's the politicians. Specifically the Democrats, who refuse to push for anything but the weakest, most ineffective compromise policies.

Then why did people vote for Hillary Clinton and not Bernie Sanders in the primaries?

Honest question from a non-American (in the social democrat Europe, Sanders seemed like the no-brainer option to like 99% of the people I know...).

>If you look at polls that go issue by issue, you inevitably come to the conclusion that the "US population" at large (55-60%) would support a broad agenda of social democracy . . . the Democrats, who refuse to push for anything but the weakest, most ineffective compromise policies.

Might these two things be linked, though? If a specific policy is not often seriously proposed, it will be more rarely attacked, and therefore not tainted by the political back-and-forth that colors proposed legislation that has a more serious chance at becoming law.

You could instill the will for universal healthcare.

A website where you upload your medical bills and it compares the costs to costs in other countries (UK, Canada and Australia for example).

The main problem with the attitude in the US seems to be that not only do people not want to pay for other peoples healthcare but they also don't want other people paying for their own healthcare. By comparing both the individual and taxpayers costs across other countries people will see that not only do they pay less, but so does the taxpayer.

Would that website also compare wait times for procedures, referrals, and imaging? The average wait time for an MRI in Canada is almost 3 times as long as commonly found MRI injuries (take a stress fracture for example) take to heal.

So in Canada, I'd be jogging on a busted knee making it worse for 12 weeks, after I got to see an orthopedist (after a 20 week referral wait), before I found out I had destroyed my knee by not resting for 6 weeks.

Our system here in the US is really screwed up, but it does have its advantages (if you can afford it).

> because the US population lacks the desire and political will for universal healthcare.

Nailed it.

58% of Americans support universal health care: http://www.gallup.com/poll/191504/majority-support-idea-fed-...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com