One can argue over the implementation method, but fundamentally a society must decide whether they believe health care - both routine/simple and unexpected/severe - is a right of all or a privilege for just some. If you say it's a right, everyone has to participate and those of means have to help pay for those who have none. The individual mandate was an admittedly roundabout way to achieve that.
The old system of paying a doctor outright with a check or cash was not a universal healthcare solution - a lot of people couldn't afford it even back then.
Most developed countries deal with the cost problems of health care through strong price regulation, even the relatively laissez-faire systems like Singapore [1] or Switzerland.
Obamacare did a lot to improve access [2] (subsidies, pre-existing conditions, adult children on parents plans) - it's a lot like the Swiss system, - but unlike that system, it did very little to address costs.
I agree with you. So I'm not sure what the argument is here. I was only describing how we got to the current morass and why it is so hard to extricate ourselves and do something not crazy.
Sorry, I'm not arguing with you. What I'm addressing is that the particular mechanisms only matter once the objective - affordable health care as right or a privilege - is broadly established and agreed upon. Until then, debating the mechanisms, whether taxes or mandates, or nothing at all if one believes health care is a privilege, doesn't address the root problem.
Ah. I generally find it helps to understand the problem space. With a sufficient understanding, sometimes one can come up with elegant solutions that can cut past the BS.
That approach of mine is frequently misunderstood and perceived to be things like making excuses or justifying the current status quo, etc.
The old system of paying a doctor outright with a check or cash was not a universal healthcare solution - a lot of people couldn't afford it even back then.
Most developed countries deal with the cost problems of health care through strong price regulation, even the relatively laissez-faire systems like Singapore [1] or Switzerland.
Obamacare did a lot to improve access [2] (subsidies, pre-existing conditions, adult children on parents plans) - it's a lot like the Swiss system, - but unlike that system, it did very little to address costs.
1. https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/10/02/upshot/what-makes-sing...
2. https://www.kff.org/uninsured/fact-sheet/key-facts-about-the...