I was about to chime in. I still have a HSA? Something interesting is that the ACA was probably making normal people's insurance cheaper because for people with the Medicaid plans were specifically targeted for aggressive coding knowing that the taxpayer was footing the bill
It really does baffle me that the USA continues to subvert "socialism" by taking socialist programs and painting them with a capitalist brush^[1] and creating a worse result for everyone involved. It is the peak of government inefficiency
1: eg: fanny mae, The VA, Medicaid, The Federal Reserve....
Ah, but don't you know? Socialism is evil! Capitalism is GOD and is perfect!
- Republicans pretty much everywhere in the US
Seriously. This is pretty much why single-payer/universal healthcare systems aren't available in the US. It's also why UBI has never been tried. I'm sure someone is going to come in and say that I'm painting an overly-simplistic picture, but we seriously do have people still thinking that people willingly come to the US for healthcare because every other healthcare system is supposedly worse in every imaginable way (which somehow magically proves that what we have is better).
Honestly, I don't think the USA does a terrible job at managing these systems it's just funny to me how the song and dance pretend is such a thin facade. Something like UBI is too idealistic and out of reach for policymakers until the USA moves away from the concept that if you are poor, you are inherently evil.
Really all the USA needs to do is make a fork of the VA healthcare and fix the rough-around-the-edges and start offering it as a well-controlled attractive option in the market that is taxpayer funded, maybe roll it out for union workers and blue collared folk first for maximum political appeal