There’s a lot to say and I’m not a great writer but here’s what I can say now:
The system I was born into and rely on was bequeathed to me by my grandparents - the generation that fought Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Indeed, like millions of others my grandfather returned after 4 ½ years away in time to vote in the 1946 election, an election in which those millions of military personal and their families ousted Winston Churchill as Prime Minister. They voted instead for the party offering what became known as the NHS, crazy socialists that they apparently are. As an aside, it’s curious from afar to hear the US debate cloaked in political ideology as nothing could have been further from the minds of the patriots and hero’s who created the system in my country.
I use the term ‘bequeathed’ advisably. Like all towns and villages we have a monument to the people who died in both world wars, row upon row of names of local people. To get to that monument you need to go past the UHC hospital, my grandparents would agree with me the true monument to that generation is UHC not the slabs of stone and marble people salute once a year.
I put it in that context because I wanted to identify that UHC isn’t about you, the individual, in this job, at this stage of your own career. It’s not even about your immediate family, nor about the extended family you may care for.
UHC is about the generations, about a family timeline you know nothing about but hope for. By that I don’t just mean your family won’t enjoy good health through the generations – and I hope it does, it also means generations of your family who will not enjoy sufficient wealth in order to provide healthcare for their family. Fwiw, I can’t even imagine the degree of angst, emasculation and hurt that must bring.
That might seem an abstract point, but think back 2 generations of your family – to my grandparents generation that voted for UHC, was your family middle class then? Will it be 40 years from now because you might be pretty surprised at how wealth grows and eases through the generations. That’s why I use the term bequeathed.
Finally, there are perhaps 20 countries practicing different versions of UHC in the developed world, some for as long as 100 years others far shorter. I don’t think it would be unreasonable to state there have been perhaps 200 elections in those countries since UHC was adopted and not one electorate has voted to change the basis principle. All of those populations had grandparents like mine who suffered through wars and economic downturns and depressions.
There are other - maybe stronger - arguments but I just wanted to respond with something. It really is not about you the individual, it is about what you bequeath to the unborn generations of your family. Believe me because I know, they will thank you and they always vote to protect what you gave them.
p.s. To paraphrase, if you don’t like my arguments, I have others!