• very_well_lost@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    The bill doesn’t really “cancel” any debt, it establishes a grant fund with tax money and allows people to apply for grants they then use to pay off their medical debts.

    Rather than telling the debt holders to pound sand, the federal government will front you the cash to pay the debt holder.

    • Jajcus@kbin.social
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      8 months ago

      Understood: the debts can get higher now, as the government will pay it…

      I don’t think this is the way to go. Not while getting into medical debt like that is still a possibility.

      • rottingleaf
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        8 months ago

        Yes, that’s how demand works.

        The way to drastically reduce medical expenses and thus debt is deregulating health.

        From what I remember, you need to have quite a lot of things to become a doctor in the USA, even more to run a related business, and most of those are not about education. So the “supply” here is relatively low.

        Also to make education (including medical education, which means - supply again) more affordable the government should just stop subsidizing student loans.

        It may have some fixed sum per student allocated, which may be paid for a place, which can be awarded to students from poorer families or something. The “fixed” and “paid for a whole place” parts are important, otherwise this will work just like subsidizing loans - by inflating prices further.

        • brenstar@midwest.social
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          8 months ago

          Ah yes, just what the healthcare industry needs, LESS regulation. That’ll keep those for profit companies from gouging people for the life saving measures they need to not die.

          • rottingleaf
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            8 months ago

            Now they are using regulations so that you wouldn’t have choice.

            • brenstar@midwest.social
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              8 months ago

              Yes, corporate lobbying is a huge problem here and is often used as a weapon to stifle competition and increase profits. At times it’s hard to remember what regulations are meant to do: Protect People from Corporations

              We don’t need to remove regulations, we need to improve them.

              • rottingleaf
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                8 months ago

                At times it’s hard to remember what regulations are meant to do: Protect People from Corporations

                Historically they were introduced to protect corporations from people. Well, sometimes some collective interests from other collective interests.

                We don’t need to remove regulations, we need to improve them.

                It’s an arms race, and one side has more resources than the other.