<story><title>Health insurance companies are useless</title><url>https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-08-05/health-insurance-useless</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>martythemaniak</author><text>As an outside observer, sure, you don&amp;#x27;t strictly speaking need them in some theoretical America, but in the America I see there&amp;#x27;s a large group of people who do not believe government can or should do this work and will work very actively to make it happen. The last bit is crucial.&lt;p&gt;Suppose that you are disappointed that Obamacare did not contain a public option. Suppose that Obamacare did contain this provision in the law, it would most likely be implemented the way the cfpb was. The cfpb is great, except how good it is depends on how good the government in place is. If there&amp;#x27;s people in government that want it to fail it will simply fail. Thus merely incorporating the public option into law is not enough to have to have a dedicated political body that wants to make it work. I don&amp;#x27;t think that&amp;#x27;s the case in America.&lt;p&gt;I guess what I&amp;#x27;m saying is, the specificity of the law doesn&amp;#x27;t seem to be as important as peoples dedication to making things work</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>digikata</author><text>A majority of voters of both parties support Medicare for All policy proposals.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;thehill.com&amp;#x2F;policy&amp;#x2F;healthcare&amp;#x2F;403248-poll-seventy-percent-of-americans-support-medicare-for-all&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;thehill.com&amp;#x2F;policy&amp;#x2F;healthcare&amp;#x2F;403248-poll-seventy-pe...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Voters were split on the ACA mandated carriage of private insurance.</text></comment>
<story><title>Health insurance companies are useless</title><url>https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-08-05/health-insurance-useless</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>martythemaniak</author><text>As an outside observer, sure, you don&amp;#x27;t strictly speaking need them in some theoretical America, but in the America I see there&amp;#x27;s a large group of people who do not believe government can or should do this work and will work very actively to make it happen. The last bit is crucial.&lt;p&gt;Suppose that you are disappointed that Obamacare did not contain a public option. Suppose that Obamacare did contain this provision in the law, it would most likely be implemented the way the cfpb was. The cfpb is great, except how good it is depends on how good the government in place is. If there&amp;#x27;s people in government that want it to fail it will simply fail. Thus merely incorporating the public option into law is not enough to have to have a dedicated political body that wants to make it work. I don&amp;#x27;t think that&amp;#x27;s the case in America.&lt;p&gt;I guess what I&amp;#x27;m saying is, the specificity of the law doesn&amp;#x27;t seem to be as important as peoples dedication to making things work</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Tarq0n</author><text>The Netherlands has mandatory private insurance and it works well for them. The insurers are heavily regulated though.</text></comment>