Why republicans hate universal healthcare so much, even when facing unprecedented pandemic?

In the 2018 poll the majority of Republicans (52%) actually supported it. There's just been a lot of effort pushing against it by most of the leadership in America (the media, the Republican party, most of the Democratic party leadership). The media plays a big role in this - they often only focus on the cost of one particular implementation of single-payer, and not on the 10's of thousands who die each year due to lack of insurance. There's no mention that the U.S. government is currently spending more on health insurance than the U.K. government spends on its single-payer system (and the total government and private spending in the U.S. is much, much higher).

And even though Democrat voters support this the most, the majority of Democratic Presidential candidates this year were opposed to single-payer and pushed some attacks on it that were mostly false (arguing that it removes choice). And a lot of polls on it will mention things many Americans view as negative (a single government run system) and not mention ones that they would view as positive (no out of network doctors, never being uninsured, never switching insurance, no medical billing issues, no healthcare bankruptcies, lower healthcare expenditures, etc.).

Have you seen the federal government lately? It's totally understandable not to want that to be in charge of your healthcare.

"Americans' satisfaction with the way the healthcare system works for them varies by the type of insurance they have. Satisfaction is highest among those with veterans or military health insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, and is lower among those with employer-paid and self-paid insurance. Americans with no health insurance are least satisfied of all." [1]

[1] https://news.gallup.com/poll/186527/americans-government-hea...

That's an argument for improving the federal government, not accepting the status quo as the natural order of the universe.

Eh, the poll is "net support" of 55%, whatever that means. The Republican share is negative percentage points. It's a real shitty way to force a poll to tell the story you want it to tell.

They linked the results [1] (starts on page 402). 30% "Strongly support" and 25% "Somewhat support" so the net support is 55%. And among Republicans, the net support is 31%, I don't know what you mean by 'negative percentage points'.

[1] https://morningconsult.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/200310... (pdf)

80% like their healthcare. I think a significant part of that 55% doesn’t realize that Medicare for all takes away their health insurance. It seems when people get educated on Medicare for all, it declines in popularity.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/245195/americans-rate-healthcar...

They like the quality of their healthcare - the "seeing a doctor and getting healthy" aspect. If the question was "do you like working with your health insurance" the answers would be different.

I've never met a single person who feels their health insurance is good or useful. R=close to zero if the hypothesis is the super majority like theirs.

Ask anyone who has Kaiser. It’s one most well liked insurance/healthcare providers in the nation.

I had Kaiser for many years and it was trash. Sure it's efficient and relatively cost effective, but the quality of service was terrible. The worst part was if you needed anything mental health related, their services were so bad to the point of being virtually nonexistent. Want to see a therapist? How about a group therapy session with 30 other people from 1-2pm every other Wednesday on the opposite side of town from where you work. Want to see a psychiatrist? Call five different numbers and wait for a few weeks for Kaiser to tell you tough shit.

Have an addiction problem and want treatment? Tough shit. It breaks my heart to think of the number of people who finally got to the point in their lives where they actively sought out help, only to be basically turned away by Kaiser. I would imagine many of those people never got a second chance.

Kaiser's insurance wing is a nightmare. They'll find any possible way to kick you off or refuse to pay for essential services. They did it to me twice.

On the other hand, ACA put a dent into their ability to do that.

The non-insurance wing of KP is great, aside from some administrative problems - the main one being that they don't allow some specialists to limit how many patients get referred to them, so they can get overloaded. The alternative is presumably not being able to get a specialist at all, but many of the ones I deal with have waitlists 6 weeks long or longer. Specialist turnover is also quite bad, I've had 4 of my specialists quit in the last 5 years.

My parents had Kaiser growing up, I took my current job in part because they offered it. Kaiser is awesome.

Of the people who come of age and are eligible for Medicare, what percentage of those people turn it down? I personally know of zero.

Health Insurance is not health care.

No one likes their health insurance. They like having health insurance given the horrifying alternative.

No one (except those on the ACA) gets to really "choose" their insurance either. Your employer offers a few plans. Those can change completely based on their whims.

Why would I care if M4A takes away my health insurance? Please, by all means, take it away! I don't care who pays the bills. In the last 10 years, I haven't been able to keep a primary doctor for a stretch longer than 2 years. Every year for the last 5 years, I have to critically look at my own health needs and try to guess as to what plan on the ACA is going to rob me the least. My taxes would have to go up at least $20,000 a year for it to even approach what I'm spending on a plan that I'm terrified that I might actually have to use.

There seems to be a meme that the plan is to ban private insurance entirely? When even the UK system allows you to have it, it's just not grated huge tax breaks and is generally something only higher-paid professionals and those working for US employers have.

> I think a significant part of that 55% doesn’t realize that Medicare for all takes away their health insurance.

Do you 'like' Walmart, the company? Or do you just want your groceries and don't really care what the store is called?

I am not sure how how people like their health care. It seems like every big company is moving toward High Deductible plan. Even Microsft has a high deductible plan. Even if you think you are covered there will be a doctors who you think is in network because you go to an in network hospital who really is out of network.

Unions negotiated great Cadillac plans for their members. I can’t believe MSFT doesn’t have a platinum plan with a $300 deductible, every tech company has great medical insurance benefits to be competitive in the employment market.

HDHP and HSA are the same playbook as moving from defined benefit pensions to defined contribution 401k accounts.

It’s a lot easier to reason about on the company balance sheet with the later at the cost of increased complexity and less safety for the employees. But they do love to spin the “triple tax benefits!!!!” (In the case of HSA) to try and convince people this is a great change.

The old Microsoft Premera plan was stupendous as in you never thought about it, (nearly) everything was covered.

Believe it. My deductible is 2500 of which Microsoft pays 1k. Lots of more senior folks bemoan the lack fo the Cadillac plan they used to get.