Most Americans are too distracted by work life and family life to have enough bandwidth left over for analyzing complex issues.Especially healthcare issues.
Like most things, healthcare needs to be kept simple and fair. Our brains just don’t grasp all the nuances and implications of most healthcare plans. Then, with our brains confused, we default to our biases (usually party loyalty) or to a simple metric such as how many people are covered.
Our government has been amazingly robust for hundreds of years, but it seems to fail under some conditions. One is when an issue gets too complicated for the public to understand. And the other is when corporations distort the system for profit.
Here’s a solution that might work in America today. I heard it from an older doctor, I’m not sure if it’s his idea or not, but it’s straight forward and simple: Everyone would be responsible for the first $2000 of their medical costs and the first $500 of their prescriptions each year. After hitting those maximums, the government would pick up the tab.
Maybe those numbers should be a little different, but they seem pretty reasonable. Each citizen would have some skin in the game but also know they’d be covered if things go south.