But what you're asking to be "understandable", is that someone else should pick up the tab because you like to play wild in the snow and couldn't be bothered to get properly insured first. Now that is a poor argument for socialized anything.
Secondly, I find it very typical that you've ignored the insane and mind blowing amount. Too many healthcare discussions are focused on "who" should be paying, instead of asking "why so much"?
There is no way in hell they should be charging $250 for a "recovery kit" containing a can of apple juice, 5 crackers and 4 pills of ibuprofen. My Humana policy is STAGGERINGLY expensive.
And finally, I paid more taxes (state+fed) here in California this year than most EU residents did. In my view, I already paid for my healthcare, they're just not delivering it to me, spending my money somewhere else.
> "at this very moment I am sitting on $41K in medical bills"
Uh-Uh. I think you're playing very fast and loose with the language here. I doubt anyone would read that as "my insurance company is settling a bill for $41k for me". Especially when your anecdote does nothing more than confirm what is mentioned in the article: That healthcare in CA is stupidly expensive.
For a broken arm. I think we had a lower bill for my kid's childbirth costs.
Child birth costs some friends paid for their kid: ~$60
Child birth costs I paid for my kid (poor insurance plan): ~$3300
I think that the total bill for the child birth (in my instance) was around $18K. I'll note that if you were uninsured, that would probably be significantly more. That $18K cost is negotiated between the hospital and the health plan I had at the time.
Universal health care, along with fixed prices, will cause everyone's rates to decrease, and will also lower the anxiety level of the general population. No more "oh shit, something's wrong with me, but I can't go to the doctor because it'll cost X" or "I need this medicine, but it's expensive". I've experienced first hand how great universal health care is in Canada. I don't worry that I need to pay a thousand dollar bill for visiting the doctor, and the waits have never been horrible.
Being forced to choose between getting the treatment that you need or eating is the worst decision, and nobody should have to take it.
| someone else should pick up the tab because
| you like to play wild in the snow
The problem with socializing risk is that you get the tragedy of the commons when some people choose to take high risks (skiing is definitely in the moderate end of "extreme sports") and pass off the risk to the "commons".
In Denmark, where health care is socialized, the argument that "society is justified in regulating activity X because we will pay for your hospital stay if/when it goes wrong" is absolutely a part of political discourse. Unhealthy foods, not exercising enough, smoking, mandatory bicycle helmets etc., it's pretty universal.
Are you kidding me?!
Even less palatable is the argument that healthy long living citizens spend more time on the labour market, generating more tax revenue.
What, do you think you'll be going bankrupt if your taxes contribute to the health of all people with a few cents, heck, even a few dollars?