Scandinavia and the World
Scandinavia and the World

Comments #9543937:


Taxes, Healthcare and Culture 16 10, 10:32am

What you need to understand about America and their healthcare is that there is a huge amount of Just World Fallacy involved. Bad things happen to bad people, not good people, so if you were injured and had to go to the hospital and were saddled with a huge bill it's probably your fault somehow.

However, most Americans hold this subconscious belief only when not confronted with another actual human being. When they do meet someone decent who's had a run of bad luck, then that person automatically becomes a Good Person Who Was Dealt A Bad Hand, and out come the cookies and sympathy. It's a similar situation with people they already know, too. And of course on top of the JWF, the rightwing media were happy to spread a ton of misinformation about Obamacare (aka this poor old woman is completely without healthcare thanks to Obama's policies! Nevermind that she was offered help with signing up for her choice from several different programs that would have covered her and she rejected them.)

This only covers people who are ardently opposed to universal healthcare, or the tamer Obamacare. People who are for it - and there are quite a bit - want it desperately and were very happy when it was finally approved (despite the glitches of the system).