Healthcare is a human right, and we should pay for it through progressive taxation, and make it free at point of service. By forcing people to pay at multiple points in the system, no matter how poor they may be, we doom emergency response.
@peterkrupa thinking out loud on Twitter about being tested for COVID-19:
even if the cost of the covid-19 test is covered, what about related care? the first thing they do is test you for flu to rule it out. boom, that'll be $700, for nothing, because i don't care if i have flu or not.
and then if i get the covid-19 test... what? oh good job, i've spent hundreds, possibly thousands of dollars of my own money to add a single data point to the body of public knowledge on this epidemic? fuck off, that's what i pay taxes for, i'm not doing this.
to say nothing of the stigma so many workers with mild symptoms will face... the pressure to skip work and lose a paycheck, etc., which they won't do, because they have to pay rent.
all the incentives in the US healthcare system are lined up AGAINST people voluntarily contributing to the public knowledge of what's going on with this outbreak. it's a disaster.