I recently had the displeasure of going to the doctor’s office. Totally routine check-up. No aches or pains, no fever, nothing particularly ailing me at the moment. I just try to go the doctor twice a year because I have “good insurance™©®” through my employer. The amount of legwork I had to do just see a doctor was awful.

I found doctors that were covered but their practice was not. I found a clinic in my area that the doctor’s were covered but the labs they sent their results to were not. Having to navigate through websites and compare them against my insurance coverage felt like I was trying to min-max a character sheet in an RPG. I can only imagine this being 9999% worse if I needed some real deal medical care.

I eventually found a clinic, doctor, and lab trio that worked with my insurance through their website. I drove (thanks American Car Culture) to the doctor’s office I kid you not, I spent MORE time in the lobby talking to the nice dude at the desk then I did with the doctor lady. Some clinic aids took my blood pressure and weight and stuff, but I spoke to the doctor-person about seven minutes before they bounced. Again, I know this is just a check-up but damn, seven minutes of face-to-face with a healthcare professional seems pretty bad. I spent maybe two hours doing all this legwork for seven minutes of actual care. I don’t blame the doctor-lady either, I’m sure she was stacked to her eyeballs with papers and forms and other patients. This system is so fuckin’ wack.

I want to live in a world, where I pay my taxes and I get healthcare (and I want to know my taxes go to covering other people, not the endless war machine). All the shit in life that doesn’t actually matter is pretty frictionless and easy, but something as important getting medical care is a goddamn dungeon crawl. There is so much obfuscation between patients and doctors it’s absurd.

Also reminder, private insurance is forever and always a business venture. Maximizing shareholder value is the ONLY goal of a business. Also the amount of bullshit jobs in MEGACORPS is absurd. They are tons and tons of layers of obstructions built into these companies by design. They even hire folks whose role is to find reason to deny claims. Just really rotten stuff.

I want single payer healthcare because it’s a rational and simple system. I want to go a clinic and get care. That simple. I want medical professionals to make choices about what sort of care i need, not some ghoul an a phantom office in Delaware.

It’s a real actually existing policy that would make people’s lives better. I know we live belly of capitalism, and the DNC and RNC are lapdogs for these companies but fuck I will still want it.

TL;DR - Private Insurance does nothing but get in the way. Insurance companies hinders healthcare providers ability to provide their services, and hinders people from getting the care they need. For-profit private health insurances are fundamentally bad.