Ya see how brainwashed we are ...... even the smartest among us ...... most of us ......

[Stinky The Clown]

..... when speaking about how we get healthcare, say that we wish we had good insurance.

We've been made to equate healthcare and insurance.

[dmallind]

1. Not that I'm claiming to be the smartest...but in defense of that habit

"Insurance" does not necessarily mean paying a health insurance company to cover you. In England where I grew up, with a fully nationalized single payer system, we had (presumably still have) National Health Insurance numbers. I believe the Canadians have a similar phrase too, but not sure there.

[gateley]

5. But "insurance" to us DOES mean paying a health insurance company to

cover you. That's the only kind of "health insurance" we've known.

If we could get a plan like England or Canada, I don't think we'd care what they call it!

[dmallind]

16. Understood, but I still dispute that insurance automatically = private. NT

[MercutioATC]

2. "Healthcare" isn't a problem in this country. ACCESS to healthcare is.

When we talk about "healthcare", I assume we're talking about how we access it...and, since insurance is how we access health care in this country, most people will reply that they wish they had better insurance.

It's not "brainwashing", it's simple logistics.

[Cant trust em]

7. I'm not sure that the health care is even the best

Looking at our outcomes, it's tough to make that case.

[MercutioATC]

14. We undoubtably do have some of the best quality health care on the planet.

The issue is that it's unavailable to many people.

[NightWatcher]

insurance is the gate-keeper to healthcare

sure you can show up at the ER and get patched up, but try showing up and asking for more than a bandaid.

[Cleita]

12. Funny how Canadians and most people in the industrial countries of the

world can show up at the doctor, clinic or hospital and get quality health care without any insurance and neither bills nor money changes hands between health care provider and patient. Your gatekeeper is starving those who can't pay the price of admission.

[gateley]

3. You're right -- many of us have never known anything else. It's just so wrong. nt

[asdjrocky]

4. America has the best health care in the world...

America has the best health care in the world... (Just keep repeating.)

[Cant trust em]

6. I think that my insurance is better than my health care.

Kaiser is OK, but it feels like the health care factory. Quick and quick.

[Hekate]

8. KnR, Stinky.

It just makes me shake my head.

Hekate

[stray cat]

9. Good health care depends on your doctors; paying for it depends on insurance

if hospitals don't practice safe hygiene they can kill you in the presence of insurance

[varelse]

10. Yes, it is sad

It happened in one generation, too :(

[Cleita]

11. Right on Stinky.

We don't need insurance. We need universal access to healthcare. That means that we should be able to get the health care we need regardless of our ability to pay, which is why we need national health care, not insurance exchanges with a lot of byzantine actuarial voodoo written into it.

[Hissyspit]

13. kick

and rec

[Lone_Star_Dem]

15. I see that most from people who have HC insurance or usually have HC insurance

I see that a lot less from people who haven't ever had HC insurance though.

[timeforpeace]

17. Brainwashed? More like Terminally Naive. Naive Underground.