Of the Democrats on here, I’m far from the most liberal. But, I’m all in with what BT is advocating for on healthcare. The current system is a nightmare for millions of people for all the reasons outlined above.
Ill give a personal anecdote. About 12 years ago my now wife was diagnosed with a chronic health condition and was fired from her job for missing work to sort out new doctors, medications, have tests run, etc. She got a new job that allowed her flexibility to figure all of this out as a 23 year old. It didn’t offer any benefits such as health insurance but she had to take it to pay her bills. She got health insurance through cobra....but it was about to expire and her condition would now be considered pre-existing and not covered when she got insurance in the future. This was pre-Obamacare. We got married and I put her on my insurance.
Everything about this situation was complicated and difficult to manage for two college educated people. 12 years later she is doing great with her health but has to take days off of work to argue with insurance companies about billing errors, prescription problems, etc. Some of this is probably unavoidable in any system but holy shit if our system isn’t a beating. Her family in England is always shocked at what we have to deal with.