Congress is set to ban most surprise medical bills

Does the NHS not cover treatment for documented, debilitating migraines? I would be shocked to hear that it doesn't. In fact I think I would be surprised to hear if the NHS doesn't cover anything as long as it isn't something like cosmetic surgery.

There is no reason single payer shouldn't or couldn't cover 99% of most medical needs.

They would tell you that you need to talk to billing, and billing would tell you they can't provide pricing at all and they can only tell you after going through your insurance, or they would require a zillion digit billing code that only your doctors can provide, and your doctors are not going to waste their time giving you the list of a thousand codes for whatever operation you're doing, or at least not accurately.

In short there is no way. Either you accept treatment and you're billed what you're billed and you hope insurance only fucks you over a little bit, or you're denied any service short of immediate life saving.

> So food is cheap because the govt intervenes, ignoring the giant private market, and healthcare is expensive because of the private market, ignoring the massive govt intervention. How convenient.

The only thing convenient is you not addressing my point :) The government intervention is a desparate attempt at not letting people die of disease and pestilence literally outside a point of care. You're asking for a dystopian hellscape. And that's what much of the last 300 years was with respect to medical care.

> In the 1980s the US did not have a 40 percent socialized system. The fraction of people on medicare was far less. Yet it was not the most expensive system in the world then. The US system is definitely failing, but it isn't the 300-year old market system that is causing it.

Yes it is.

Canada had a similar system until the 1970s, and it was bad. Then it switched over and things got better. America remained on the private system and it just got worse and worse.

Venezuela is totally and utterly irrelevant to this conversation. There are so many functioning systems with socialized medicine (all of Europe, especially the Scandinavians, Canada, Taiwan, etc, etc), Venezuela is an outlier and not even worth discussing. It's a failed state.

Whether you call it coercion or a power differential (you will die, the insurer or provider won't) this precludes a voluntary meeting of the minds necessary in a free market. Period.

your sources are a conservative thinktank, and noted bigot and liar Steven Crowder

https://www.healthcare-now.org/blog/new-poll-shows-canadians... - Canadians Overwhelmingly Support Public Health Care

https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/projects/public-satisfaction-nh... - 60% public satisfaction with NHS

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2071992/ - "US has highest dissatisfaction with health care" (out of 7 industrialized countries they asked: Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States)

>Because of limited resources in Canada they had waiting times of several years (Google can point to multiple sources), UK or Nederlands a few months

First, EVEN if what you are saying is true (spoiler alert- it's not). There are always private options if you really want to pay for it. So your argument of "there are wait times" basically goes away, because if you really want something "like you have now", you can pay and get it.

Next, what is better.. never being able to afford an elective/non urgent surgery, or wait 4-6 weeks (or perhaps even longer) for it? The point is you will get it and not go bankrupt.

And if it's urgent, you get it right away. Anything else you have heard is bullshit or has some other context you don't realize.

I mean, do you realize how many people in this country are living with conditions that probably even being able to go to a doctor on a regular basis would massively improve their life? But they can't afford it- even with "insurance".

>I hate the system in US, but at least it gives a chance to people who can afford it;

>here, everybody is equally screwed.

How do those two statements make any sense? You literally just said it gives a chance to people who can afford it... then claim everybody is equally screwed. No they aren't. It's like anything else- the top maybe 10-20% have no issues with it because they can afford it. So fuck everyone else right? The same top 10-20% who just love that the stock market booms during a pandemic because they can just continue to print more money.

Man your attitude pisses me off.

>The only thing that works well here is giving birth, that is free, you can cover that by the state or federal in US too

The hell are you talking about? "Insurance" covers birth yeah, but it'll still generally max out most peoples deductibles so it's still thousands and thousands of dollars... and heaven forbid you have a c-section or some other complicated birth.

Also, I lived in the UK for a number of years. We had so many trips to the doctor for our birth. Cost? Fucking 0. Yeah peoples taxes are a bit higher once you make descent money, but that's the damn point! People who can afford it are paying into a system that makes everyone better off.

We should be trying to make EVERYONE AS A WHOLE better off, not only the top 10-20% which is apparently what your logic is.