Blogging this tweet because this explains SO MUCH about the mindset of pretty much all the folks Iโve known whoโre against single-payer, itโs not even funnyโฆ
Thisโฆ.
This never occurred to me. Not once. That Americans are against Health Care because they think it actually costs tens of thousands of dollars for a broken arm, hundreds of thousands for a complicated birth, millions for cancer treatment.
Because theyโve never known anything different. The idea that a broken arm is only a couple hundred bucks; a complicated birth a couple thousand; cancer treatment only tens of thousands; all easily covered by existing tax structures.
This explains a lot. ย And itโs a good example of what I was talking about in my post on scarcity being used to prop up ableism โ always question the idea that a resource is genuinely scarce. ย Even if it seems obvious that it is, quite often thatโs the result of careful manipulation and misconceptions that youโre not even aware of. ย
And never think youโre too smart to be fooled by that kind of thing, it doesnโt work like that. ย Similarly, donโt think people who are fooled by something are stupid. ย Nobody can have all the information about everything, and nobody has the time and energy to investigate and put together conscious conclusions about every piece of information theyโre given. ย It doesnโt take being stupid, or even just gullible, to believe something like this.
I currently live in a country without free medical care and still, itโs enormously cheap compared to the USA. An American expat wrote a piece for our English language paper about how she paid more for parking at the hospital than giving birth to her baby thatโs pretty interesting:
https://grapevine.is/mag/articles/2016/01/06/healthcare-in-iceland-vs-the-us-weve-got-it-so-good/
Yesterday I had to go to the hospital cause I injured my eye, Iโm frankly dreading what the bill is going to be, but what made me balk was being told in the pharmacy that my insurance was denied for the antibiotic eye drops and itโd be over $100 out of pocket. So I didnโt get my eyedrops.
Iโve had these same drops before living in the UK. They cost me seven GBP.
Itโs the exact same drug, same steroid, same strain of antibiotic. But somehow the US gets away with charging $100 for a generic non brand version of a drug which is easy to create and widely used. Itโs downright robbery, but also a form of eugenics through poverty and class warfare. You keep the poor poor by making sure basic necessities remain unattainable and then you make it seem like the norm so no one fights it.
The rest of the world is not like this.
Eat the rich. Resist.
Itโs downright robbery, but also a form of eugenics through poverty and class warfare.
THIS. THISTHISTHIS. THIS IS WHAT I KEEP TRYING TO TELL PEOPLE.
My blood pressure medication (Candesartan) costs between $40-$125 USD for 30 tablets in the US. Here in Germany, 98 tablets costs me 5 Euro.
