Over the course of human history, we as a species have determined that not dying when we don't have to is a good thing. We have learned to do more than leave the sick or injured to die and have gone to great lengths to ensure as many people as possible don't get sick or injured in the first place. As humans began to become more populous, we organized more and more, and began making these things we now know as modern governments. Many modern governments that are considered developed by European and American standards have decided that having as many people that they govern be alive and healthy is a good thing. When people are alive and healthy, they can do things like work to fuel an economy, build infrastructure, research and produce scientific breakthroughs, and a lot more that governments, and people in general, find helpful to keep a country running and prosperous.
So why in all hell is keeping people alive a business?
I don't mean the fields of medical research and engineering, nor do I mean the work doctors, nurses, surgeons, etc. do in actually caring for people. Those are valuable, difficult, and trained positions and deserve their due compensation. It's health insurance I'm pissed about.
In my opinion, the only barrier between someone who is sick or injured and being healthy again should be the actual treatment. However, in the United States we have determined that becoming healthy from a sick or injured state costs money--exorbitant amounts of money that average citizens frequently don't have. So we have this fun thing called health insurance. The model seems simple: a person pays an insurance company something called a "premium". This, plus some paperwork, is an agreement between the person and the insurance company that in the event the person becomes sick or injured, the insurance company will cover some, most, or all of the costs of treatment. Simple, right? No, not so simple.
Because of things like high cost, experimental medicines or treatments, or even expected survival, insurance companies can refuse to cover some medical costs for fear of a net loss (the company paying more to keep someone alive than they pay the company) or for fear that they may never get premiums from that person again (otherwise known as the person fucking dying). Sure, insurance helps people pay for medical costs, but the primary interest in covering people for the insurance company is getting their money, not keeping them alive.
This is why I support government-centered healthcare. It follows the same model as health insurance: people pay an entity money and that entity in turn does its best to make them healthy again if they ever become sick or injured and require assistance from that entity to do so. The "premium" would be taxes and would pay for hospitals, medical equipment, and the salaries/wages of healthcare personnel. In return, the government provides the service of keeping its people alive, which it profits from by those people doing other things that help the country prosper and by them continuing to pay taxes.
The difference is that there is no denying a person their treatment because of monetary issues. One person's healthcare tax is everyone's healthcare tax so most if not all of the treatment is already paid for. Any remaining cost would be significantly more affordable because there would be no companies trying to rack up profits or competing to siphon as much money out of people as possible.
I find it irritating that conservatives think all we need to do to lower people's healthcare costs is give them choices that encourage competition, like how you might shop for a TV one place and it's one price but to be competitive another place has the same TV for a lower price. We should not be shopping for healthcare like it's a damn commodity. Keeping its people alive should be something that a government strives to do through itself, not through any number of companies whose interest is profits over people.