You said a number of things that, personal politics aside, I find myself nodding in agreement.
Yes! I believe these have become the biggest problems of what is overall a very complex problem. It's the private health insurance companies and their partners in crime, big pharmaceutical companies, that presently call all the shots. And it's no surprise that they make those calls to their own advantage.
I have an all too common example that I'm working on right now. I have Medicare A+B and a supplemental private health insurance plan to cover the well known gaps in Medicare. It's with CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield of Maryland. I also have dental insurance coverage with the same company. I normally pay for a year's coverage in full at the start of every year. This year, they dropped my dental coverage – without any prior notice – retroactive to the end of 2019. I only discovered this while at the dentist last week!
I paid them in full for 2020, and I have records to prove it. They're wrong about my not paying and they're in violation of the law about not giving written prior notice. Apparently, their business plan is to first make all choices in their favor, and only if the customer complains loud enough, do they come back with a different choice. They make more money that way, and don't seem to care about any possible negative consequences. I had to threaten legal action before anyone listened. I'm still angry enough to post the insurance company's name here. What ever happened to the business plan where the paying customer is always right?
And that's just one example of outrageous customer treatment by private health insurance or pharmaceutical companies. Their are far too many other examples of unwarranted denial of benefits. We're all familiar with them.
How much do private health insurance or pharmaceutical companies and their lobbies contribute to Presidential, Congressional, and Senatorial Campaign Committees? I don't know, but you can be certain it's a very large amount of money. And does this large amount of money contribute to their miserable attitude toward their customers? To me, the answer is clearly YES.
I'll come right out and say it plainly: Big Health Insurance and Big Pharma have bought protection from elected politicians. Those politicians block any legislation that would limit their excessive profits or punish them for their deliberate failures. These same politicians failed to block approval of the Affordable Care Act in 2010. But they kept trying to repeal it. When that failed they keep trying to disable it.
In case there is any doubt, it's the Republican Party that is responsible for this. The Democratic Party would like to see a single-payer nation-wide health insurance system.
The government is not the problem. Not unless you blame the government for NOT REGULATING the private health insurance & pharmaceutical companies enough. Only the honest politicians – if they get elected – can make the necessary changes. The present Republican government and it's political supporters, choose to allow only the health insurance and pharmaceutical companies to continue to call the shots. They do that because of money they receive from big health insurance and big pharmaceutical companies.
Those who, like yourself, say "they like idea of a universal health care program, but don't trust our politicians to keep it clean" are giving tacit approval of the present corrupt health care/insurance system. What would it take to move away from that unworkable position?
The only reason many people have a disagreement on personal politics is because they sense an affiliation with one party or the other- I don't like either enough to say I'm one of them.
If you have read my comments on many topics, you would have seen that I'm no fan of the insurance industry and it's not just health insurance. We're betting that we'll have a claim and they're betting against it, but they calculated the odds to the point that they KNOW it's unlikely, yet they charge us for covering people who couldn't make a good decision if, well, their life depended on it. THAT'S what I don't like about insurance- I don't want to pay for the stupid acts and choices of others because it places implied blame on those of us who don't cause the losses. Illness and the results of accidents can't be avoided, obviously, but when it's an act of carelessness or stupidity, I don't want to pay more for MY insurance.
I have also made a lot of comments about the money hidden by insurance companies in real estate and advertising- why would anyone want to use a company that spends so much for ads, naming rights, fancy new headquarters, etc? They're using the excess of the premiums to show off how well they're doing- it's great when they can come along and fund a facility that might need the influx of money, but they may be funding something a minority of their customers are interested in and don't give a choice to opt out.
If we look at the insurance industry profits, the percentage may be small, but by sheer volume, the amounts are huge. Take them out of health insurance and we'll save money, pre-extisting condition denials will end and the health care professionals will be able to treat patients whose cases were denied because the 'odds of a good outcome' may have been too low for their taste.
I fail to see how government is not the problem when you actually mentioned the payments to members of Congress- IMO, lobbying needs to be changed and in some areas, eliminated. WE already pay them- if they want more, they should leave and get a different job. Our government has been for sale for too long and it's not just one side.
This link shows that it's closer than many think-
See aggregated party breakdowns and incumbency status of recipients of contributions from Lobbyists industries/interest groups for every election cycle from 1998 to 2024.
www.opensecrets.org
It's not tacit approval, it's out of a sense of futility in thinking that it's going to change more than a little in my lifetime. You know that saying "Don't worry about the things you can't change"? We have had too many of those things forced on us to make me think we'll sway far in a short time- the Democrat primaries are a good example- they have already decided on those who won't be their candidate and are going through the motions for the public, IMO.
What would it take to change the position in your question? Make it known to Congress that we're sick of their crap and if necessary, have more recall elections, based on their votes for specific items, including taking money from lobbyists. The top ten who receive the most money who are in the Senate and House are split WRT party, the next five are 3:2 R to D.
Power gets money- they're jockying for position in Congress more than trying to do what the country needs and if we were to look at what the country needs from a bit of a distance, I think most would agree on the fundamentals. It's like what is said about the countries who are constantly at odds- it's not always the people, it's the governments.