I'm pretty sure private insurance exists in most countries with universal healthcare.
this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2026
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I live in such a country and private insurance exists here, still finds ways to screw over customers. We need more CEO murders
Also it's bribes...ahem, sorry, lobby groups, are the reason why a lot of places with universal healthcare are letting those systems crumble.
I live in a country with free healthcare and private health insurance. I even have private health insurance. But I have it through a nun-profit organisation that pays out ninety-something cents in claims for every dollar of premiums paid. So I'm ok with it.
nun-profit organisation
Is that some kind of Catholic thing? 🥁🐍
It does. Basically all countries with universal healthcare also have a private healthcare sector. It is another ironic fact that countries with universal healthcare has more freedom of choice than people have with the American healthcare system.
In America, we don't learn from watching others. Hell, we don't even learn from our own mistakes.
Come to think of it, we barely even learn in the first place.
Learning would imply Doing Things Differently and we can't have that now can we?
It does, and it's the first step in destroying national health care.
It does, in the Netherlands (my country), we have universal private healthcare.
We used to have universal public/singlepayer, but decades of liberal governance caused it to be privatised.
Yeah, and it's a scourge in those places too
Don't forget that it also makes procedures more expensive for some reason. So until to reach your deductible you're paying more than someone who pays cash.
The reason is the overhead. If you have 100,000 healthcare providers that have to figure out how to work with 100 insurance companies, they all have to figure out how to work with each other, which costs a whole bunch of money.
private insurance still exists for the very rich or as supplemental insurance.
We still have private in Europe. It just has to compete against going on a waiting list, instead of against other providers who overcharge and refuse treatment.
But there is in every other developed nation. But to America, the rest of the world doesn't matter so....
NYT is lying. Prior to FDR the entire healthcare profession was not for profit. He and Nixon allowed for the privatization and profit extraction to be allowed.
the entire healthcare profession was not for profit
Yeah I'm gonna need a source on this one because my knowledge of history points to this being entirely untrue outside of charity which... wasn't exactly great care.
You learn something new everyday.
"The US health insurance industry originated from a non-commercial plan founded during the Great Depression by a hospital in Dallas, Texas, seeking to shore-up its finances.45 That plan led to non-profit Blue Cross plans, which once dominated in most regions of the USA.45 However, in the mid-20th century, investor-owned insurers began outcompeting Blue Cross plans. "
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0140673625016691
Hospitals were all pretty much non-profit and many are to this day. Many doctors did have private practices though.
Thank you for the good information. I meant to say this yesterday but was distracted.
Where does it say anything about being not for profit?
Should be MediCAID for all. But, they've pushed MediCARE for all as a negotiation.
A lot of people don't know the difference.
Came here to point this out because it seems to always be missing from the conversation:
MEDICARE IS NOT FREE!
It currently costs $202.90 a month for the lowest income bracket and only covers 80% of the cost.
The amount you pay is adjusted based on income. And since it only covers 80% guess what you need? That’s right a second private insurance plan to cover the remaining 20%.
Unless you are on Medicaid which pays the $202.90 and covers the 20%. But not everyone who is on Medicaid even qualifies for this full assistance. A lot people on Medicaid only get partial assistance.
The entire system is a huge scam made by corporations, and even they are like this is unsustainable. Because you can’t have an insurance plan where everyone on it is going to die in the next 10-15 years. The pool of money is too small, and there is no risk to insure against, because people 65 and older are all but guaranteed to get sick and then die. This is why Medicare was even created because the private market wouldn’t insure older people.
Even before Obama care, it was actually a better system but not much changed afterwards, Vermont had probably the closest thing I've seen to something like NHS. It was an income based health insurance. Free, or in my case $25 a month. I didn't get it since I wasn't financially well off at the time.
Then I break my leg while unemployed. EMS ride, 1.5 Million dollar surgery, in home nurse that visited, a physical therapist that visited, checkups, x rays, etc. Total cost for me? 13 cents for the pain pills after surgery. It was surreal to just go to the hospital and pay nothing.
I'm SO happy with how insurance is where I live now that I carry an AFAK with me to work in case I get hurt. Heh, food poisoning is like a national hobby now, last year I had it bad, fell over and hit my head, had a nice gash, I just said let me sleep it off.
Even before Obama care, it was actually a better system but not much changed afterwards
Obamacare was crap , and a massive giveaway to the private insurance industry (though, it was not Obama who killed the Public Option, that honor goes to Joe Lieberman), but in no universe was it a better system before that.
I don't disagree. VT's system was miles better without the intervention.
Vermont had probably the closest thing I’ve seen to something like NHS.
Bernie perhaps?
I mean the English National Healthcare System. But yeah Bernie is pretty cool, it's a shame he didn't become president. I love Vermont but -40 degree weather is kinda rough. The cold totaled my car the first year there lol
We need to call the institutional capitalists' bluff. Tell them single payer is a great way to prove capitalism works AND that private insurance is needed!
Create a public single payer option, and we'll all marvel as private health insurance companies innovate and justify their existence by creating better, cheaper insurance products that we can decide to buy as a demonstration of the invisible rational hand of the market! Competition! That's why we need a single payer option! If you aren't for public insurance, you don't believe in capitalism!
Isn't getting to a monopoly the ultimate capitalist goal? Grow until you corner the whole market. So if that winner happens to be the government's "insurance"... Peak capitalism.
Oh no, my freedom of choice to pay for whatever the 2 plans my employer offers
If you don't, we'll kill the industry by other means.
Wahoo mother fuckas
It's Weegee time
But there's plenty of precedent in modern world history. I hate the way America is.
A general health insurance does not rule out private health insurance at all. They can cover things the normal insurance does not.
Canadians often have to buy traveler's insurance when visiting the US. There would be a market for private insurance, I'm sure.
To think, no one would feel the sense of pride and accomplishment that comes with hitting your deductible.
"Yeah they... the tend to do that"
Muricaaa!
I did not read the article. However, a statement like "there is no precedent" is value-neutral. Maybe they are saying it is a good thing?