GoFundMe?

[marshwiggle]

Yes, FDR was picking his battles. LBJ was able to get Medicare and Medicaid passed in the mid-1960's but when Nixon tried to pass universal health care around 1970 he was shot down. Among the main reasons was that White Americans were upset that now Black Americans would (also) be getting "free" healthcare.

It is true, however, that in the development of the ACA great care was taken that it didn't look like the healthy would "subsidize" the sick. But that is the essence of insurance!

I don't get it. Do people make the same complaints about fire and police services; i.e. that "safer" neighborhoods are subsidizing more "dangerous" neighborhoods? The same logic should apply, but I'm not really aware of any great clamour of that sort for these other *emergency services. 



*On a side note, has anyone seen a breakdown of the proportion of healthcare spending on "random" things like cancer, car accidents, and natural disasters, as opposed to "lifestyle" things? (I know, there's going to be lots of overlap, but my point is that in most countries a lot of the support for universal healthcare is based on the assumption that the "random" things are a big part of the worry for everyone; the extra costs due to bad lifestyle choices of some people aren't a big enough burden to undermine the value of the basic system.) The "random" things are what make healthcare an emergency service.

[dismalist]

Never mind the sausage making. We do have near universal health insurance.