Was just thinking that there should be doctor clubs, where a bunch of people pool their money to hire a dedicated general physician. Or to have a shared tailor, or group cafeteria, or whatever....
You’re right. Health care needs are more uneven than the other services I mentioned. What about piecemealing the services? So not universal healthcare for Smalltownsville, not MRIs or designer drugs initially, but everyone at least gets a general physician visit. Potentially still a better experience for doctor and patients. But not thinking just about healthcare, what about a neighborhood cafeteria or tax service, or any commonly used service?
I think if it started to get bigger the other factor that would come into play is the entity could be democratically controlled, which is another thing we don’t get with typical insurance.
I want universal healthcare. I was thinking about this since maybe a town or community could actually get something in place while nationwide universal healthcare seems decades away in the U.S.
Well, fair criticism aside, I didn’t say money would be useless. The idea is if one doctor can see a thousand people a year, then a thousand people pool their money and hire their own doctor. Not an infinite service for finding a doctor. (Of course you’re right they still need to find each other and then find that one doctor, which sounds like real middleman stuff) But sort of this less abstract relationship - as it is you pay thousands to health insurance, not a specific doctor, and then when you go to see a doctor they pop in for 5 minutes then off to the next patient.
Wasn’t saying farmers would hire the doctor, was throwing out examples of services. Another one might be a neighborhood cafeteria - how many people can one or two people prepare lunch for everyday, then pool that many guests. Kind a very specific consumer coop.
If you see my other replies here I’m interested in universal healthcare. More was thinking about options because doesn’t seem to be an intermediate step for how far away the U.S. at least is from universal healthcare.
Not saying it would work, but what I’m describing is more bite size than a full health system. So if a group only committed to “everyone gets to see a general practitioner” then people are on their own for MRIs and chemo. Figure out how many patients a type of practitioner can handle in a year, then pool that many people to hire one. Same idea for any other role, like how many cars can one mechanic fix a year?
I’m not married to the idea, but more thinking about how could we take concrete steps towards universal health care, other common services, democratic workplaces. If people see a micro version working then it may inspire more ideas, attract more effort.
Thanks for commenting! Having experienced the difficulty in getting traction on a state level campaign for an unrelated issue, I’m discouraged about the prospects for a nationwide overhaul of our health system, although that’s what I’d prefer to see.
Do you have any thoughts on what the pathway for such an overhaul would look like?
Sorry, I think we’re talking past each other. I’m not asking how the mechanics of the healthcare would work once a bill is passed. How do we even get that far? Our elected representatives don’t seem to have substantive interest (a few bright spots aside) and while polls often show majority support amongst the public, the results can vary a lot based on how the question is asked. So big picture / long term just as a start we need more perfect democracy, and we need better awareness and advocacy of the idea. In terms of first steps and short term (I think regretfully a decade or two is short term) I could see an argument to implement it in a specific state, or expanding medicare for certain age groups or something like that. But I don’t know! That’s why I’m asking.
Here are links to see who has co-sponsored these bills: House / Senate
If your senator or legislator has not sponsored that could be one action - call or write them asking them to support the bill.
That said, I volunteered with a group for a few years trying to pass an unrelated bill at the state level, which in at least one session had more than 50% of the chamber co-sponsoring, but we still couldn’t get our bill out of committee. Eventually, the bill actually was voted out of committee, only to add amendments that made our bill do the opposite of what it was intended to, and then we had to rally votes against it. Eventually I moved and kind of dropped out of that organization, but the reform we support still has not been passed. And that was for a non-partisan issue.
I don’t know the methodology that govtrack uses, but they give the Medicare for All act a 0% chance of being enacted. So I’m interested in more ideas on the nuts and bolts of passing a bill like this.
I think comment above yours has a point. It’s not a question of whether or not it works, it’s a question of getting people on board, and fending off vested interests like insurance companies. So maybe getting it done in one place would be more attainable, and serve as an advertisement. For me at least, I’m asking how we do it. Saying “we just have to do it” isn’t actionable advice.
Ah, so a referendum is a direct vote by the population on a given issue - for example a lot of states have passed recreational marijuana referendums, in my opinion at least because a lot of lawmakers didn’t want to to be seen as supporting it, but you can’t get blamed if the public approved it directly.
I’m not aware of any state level referendums on universal healthcare (which doesn’t mean that there haven’t been any) and there isn’t a national level referendum. (Although in googling this to confirm that I found an interesting article about implementing a national referendum)
With the Medicare for All Act it’s been introduced as a bill, but as I understand the process it first needs to be reviewed by a committee and voted out of that committee before the senate or house can consider it to possibly hold a vote. Then it needs to do the same thing in the other chamber of congress. So you can imagine that’s a lot more convoluted process than a referendum, and while voters may ask their representative to pass it, plenty of opportunities for legislators to say, “oops, some technicality or person who’s not me has stalled the process.”
Thanks for the helpful links! Some of the comparison charts are pretty grim for the U.S.
Are you aware of any sources on the ins and outs of public support for universal care when it was being implemented in other countries, or the political climate? I think knowing the destination is one thing, but getting there is more what I was focused on when talking about a pathway.
Sometimes I think about how we might make a public dining hall that people would choose to eat at, rather than go as a last resort. Sort of how U.S. public housing is dumpy while some European social housing is actually desirable.
You’re right, it’s not desirable for people to be overworked or those who can work to not contribute. It’s also not desirable for any of these people to go hungry:
People who want to work, but can’t find jobs
People who do work but aren’t paid enough to cover essentials
People who can’t work
People
We’ve become incredibly efficient over the centuries, and we have enough for everybody to eat without overworking anyone. The issue is many people not receiving the full value of their work, while a much smaller group receive value far beyond what they contributed.
It’s great that someone is trying to help the elderly. The challenge with charity is that it’s charity. If meals on wheels blinked out of existence tomorrow, no one has the right to expect a meal the day after. It would just suck more for a bunch of people. I think we need commitment to new human rights: among other things, everyone should have enough food. That’s the standard. If they don’t have enough food, we and that person should expect that it’s addressed.
Yeah! Like I’m glad that Charity Navigator exists because we need it in the world we live in, but people shouldn’t have to do a lot of research to determine if their donation is mostly going to administrative costs.
Moved here a couple years ago, initially met the neighbors and know their names, but haven’t had more than a handful of couple sentence interactions since then....
How many patients can one doctor take care of per year? How many people can one farmer feed a year?
Was just thinking that there should be doctor clubs, where a bunch of people pool their money to hire a dedicated general physician. Or to have a shared tailor, or group cafeteria, or whatever....
What is the most promising pathway to reach universal healthcare?
Let’s assume we want all people to have health care. What are the steps / methods most likely to get us there?...
Therapy's getting too expensive (slrpnk.net)
$5 for a 12 hour journey inward, or $150 for a 45 minute session… 🤔
School lunch debt, what about normal lunch debt? (lemmy.world)
How did you first get to know your neighbors?
Moved here a couple years ago, initially met the neighbors and know their names, but haven’t had more than a handful of couple sentence interactions since then....
Why won't they stay where they belong? (lemmy.world)