I was having a discussion with a friend of mine who is over 50 and works as a general contractor. He was complaining that he was paying $125/month for his health insurance.
Sorry but your friend is an idiot. The problem isn’t that we have to pay for healthcare, it’s that you can pay and pay and pay for years and then they can just kick you off the moment you get sick. Or deny you coverage from day one because you have a pre-existing condition. Or charge you outrageous premiums because you have been sick in the past.
As for those who think it should be a government benefit, it’s understandable considering how much we pay in tax. I’ll never forget my shock when a Swiss couple working in the US told me – “I can’t believe how much tax you pay here, and you don’t get anything for it!” Their taxes are lower than ours and they get subsidized (not free) GUARANTEED health care that can’t be denied from private insurance companies, university tuition paid, social security, etc… But of course they are Europeans and therefore they must be socialists and we can never have that sort of thing here.
The health care issue can be solved with a highly regulated private insurance system as in Switzerland. But that will never happen here because it would mean that the government could tell insurance companies what they can and can’t do. Here it is the other way — companies tell the government what it can and can’t do.
Things will never get better here, it is hopeless.