"Free hug man" in Times Square punches woman for not paying him

Takes a special kind of person who doesn’t understand the word “free”, who is offering hugs, who then turns violent when not paid.

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I would have, but I hear she doesn’t tip.

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Politics and money.

Bill Clinton tried to bring in a Canadian-style system, but was defeated.

Obama campaigned on a Canadian-style system in 2008, but it too was defeated in 2009. There was too much money to be made fleecing the American public, so there was a spectacular amount of money spent on disinformation about the Canadian system and public insurance in general. The “Senator for Aetna”, Joe Lieberman, and others were purchased outright.

Obama only ever got a clear majority of Congress to support his public system. He needed a “supermajority”, which he never quite had.

So he adopted 15 years of Republican healthcare as the ACA, AKA “ObamaCare.” It was essentialy the Republican alternative to ClintonCare. It was RomneyCare. It was the system the Insurance companies presented to candidate McCain as the alternative to Obama’s public system. It was based around the “personal mandate” that emerged from the Heritage Foundation - which backs Ted Cruz - and was preached by Bob Dole, Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and other prominent Republicans as the personal responsibility alternative to socialist systems.

Needless to say the instant Obama endorsed it, it became commie Marxist socialism. And exhibit A showing that Cruz/Palin Tea Partiers weren’t anti-establishment; they’re just stupid inbreds who can’t remember what their own party was preaching five minutes earlier.

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About 80% of Americans have health insurance. “Everyone” is not just one bad accident away from bankruptcy any more than they are in Canada. Our system has big problems, but it isn’t as bad as you’re making out.

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Late stage capitalism…

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Hm, how many have insurance coverages via their employers and are just one job-loss (which may be due to illness) away from being without coverage?

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i was thinking along the lines of FREE (the) HUGS!

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And of course “has medical insurance” is not the same as “has medical insurance good enough to prevent bankruptcy because of medical expenses.”

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Our healthcare system is the best at concentrating wealth among MDs, hospital administrators/owners, pharmaceutical corporations, and insurance companies.

Easy! Done.

Seriously though, “Our system is the best though! (somehow - still trying to figure out how)” is a tepid (but funny :slight_smile: ) critique of why our healthcare system sucks in so many ways. A more radical critique would be “the healthcare system works as intended by powerful vested interests.

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at least your system covers most of the stakeholders!

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If there’s any recommendation I have to ferriners trying to figure out the USian psyche, it would be this: imagine that your entire life is fear and stress and guilt that you fundamentally can’t do anything to fix or change.

It makes madness like the Iraq war and Donald Trump more comprehensible (if not forgivable) if you see them as the expression of a people in a constant state of panic about their lives. At least if we build a wall or bomb some dictator it will make us feel like we’re reducing the existential terror of our lives, even as we sink deep in debt paying for Grandma’s chemotherapy.

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This is historical revisionism: in 2009 and 2010 Obama did his level best to insure that the reform would necessarily entail “a market-based solution” and supported Senate Committee chair Max Baucus’ strong efforts to eliminate the possibility of a strong public option for all Americans, and to not even consider a single-payer system.

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It’s the best at making sure people don’t go to the doctor until even your dog thinks “dude get to a doctor”.

Maybe not everyone. But even if you have insurance a regular visit to the doctor can be $100. For people not making much a $100 is a lot.

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Not everyone but many. And those that it wouldn’t send into bankruptcy say if it sinks you then it’s your fault. I have relatives who have said if you get sick and die because you didn’t have health insurance oh well. You should have worked harder and gotten a job that provided insurance.

It’s a horrible system.

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Nice Nivin Reference

“Free Hugs” man in Times Square punches woman for not paying him

Clearly the “Free Hugs” man is an off-duty NYPD officer.

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This.

The stories we read about medical bankruptcies are about people that HAD insurance! If your co-pay is 20% but your bills are in the 100s of 1000s… even if you had a good middle class job you’d be fucked.

(And before anyone goes there, yes we have medical bankruptcies in Canada too, but thats more about lost income than hospital bills, and on average the amounts we declare bankruptcy over $8-16K depending on demographics.)

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It is. That’s why Americans oppose gun control, so they can relieve their stress with mass shootings.

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you are delusional

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