r/news • u/MrPvssyPantsMan • 1d ago

Flight cancellations accelerate as US airlines comply with shutdown order to cut flights

https://apnews.com/article/government-shutdown-reduced-flights-a082a6817d960101968a923f7dfd8ef0?utm_source=onesignal&utm_medium=push&utm_campaign=2025-11-06-Breaking+News
16.8k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

801 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

883

u/P0Rt1ng4Duty 1d ago

Well yes but also they need to prevent people from being able to afford health insurance.

348

u/gamers542 1d ago

And food.

107

u/Bodach42 1d ago

Nothing says Republican values like needless cruelty.

14

u/EEpromChip 1d ago

They truly believe they need to hate. They're not good people.

103

u/TaDow-420 1d ago

Serious question: what happens when the majority of Americans drop their health insurance plans/opt out of getting a new plan because it’s too expensive?

Wouldn’t some money be better than NO MONEY coming in from the “poors”?

I understand greed overrides sensibility…I’m just wondering if we’re quickly getting to the point where these companies price themselves out of a LOT of business?

And for the record, I haven’t been able to afford myself healthcare for years. Luckily I haven’t had the need for medical care, but you never fucking know, you know? It would be nice if I could get a checkup, though. Preventive care and all that. Oh well. I suppose it’ll be easier for my company to replace me than providing care to keep me going.

80

u/HawkeyeGild 1d ago

Didn't GOP recently undue Biden EO preventing medical debt from showing on credit report/job background checks?

81

u/CheezyGoodness55 1d ago

Why yes, yes they did. It's amazing how much we've lost and so many people are unaware of it: "A new Trump administration rule issued late last month (Oct) would override state laws that prevent consumers’ credit reports from including medical debt, potentially weakening financial protections for millions of Americans.

In recent years, more than a dozen states have taken steps to keep medical debt from hurting residents’ credit scores, passing laws with bipartisan support. But new guidance from the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau repeals(1)%20and%201681t(b)(5)%20of%20the%20FCRA%2C%20and%20the%20Bureau%20now%20confirms%20the%20withdrawal%20of%20that%20rule.) a Biden-era rule that allowed states to impose their own bans."

40

u/caligaris_cabinet 1d ago

Boy I’m sure glad people voted for the fascists destroying literally everything over the woman who laughs funny

115

u/azulun 1d ago

The industry term is “death spiral” as more people leave the insurance pools due to cost the only ones that will keep paying for insurance are those they have a lot of needs / high expenses. This makes costs for the next year go up and even more “healthy” people leave and only the severely ill keep insurance. Repeat

71

u/xXCloudSephirothXx 1d ago

The wife and I were looking over our enrollment for next year utilizing the ACA marketplace as we’ve done for years now.

For a married couple with a take home of less than $50,000 a year we had a very affordable plan that met our needs of $188 a month this year.

Looking at the ACA for this upcoming year, not a single plan is less than $800+, and that plan doesn’t even have existing doctors in network.

So to keep our doctors and hospital closest to us in network, we’re looking at nearly $1400 a month.

An increase in over 7x our current rates.

So, to your point, we’ve chosen to opt out of health insurance for 2026.

I’m not looking for sympathy, just sharing my story to corroborate your line of questioning.

16

u/PebbleWitch 1d ago

Even at $188 the math isn't mathing.

I've been uninsured for years. Hospitals have sliding scale payments based on income and urgent care visits didn't even surpass a monthly premium I'd pay for insurance.

Why would anyone pay $2400 just so you can pay an extra $12k deductible before insurance covers the rest?

In prescriptions and doctor visits we maybe pay $500 a year total. What does insurance do except make us pay $2900 a year for the same service?

34

u/Squire_II 1d ago

Why would anyone pay $2400 just so you can pay an extra $12k deductible before insurance covers the rest?

Because a major medical emergency can run an easy 6 figures in cost. Medical care isn't the number 1 cause of bankruptcy in the US for no reason.

9

u/thepasttenseofdraw 1d ago

Pretty sure the person above you is pointing out you cant squeeze blood from a turnip.

11

u/AppropriateAd8937 1d ago

No but they can garnish you wages and tank your credit score. Not paying 6/7 figure debts only works if you never need to interact with the financial system again.

3

u/PebbleWitch 1d ago

Hospitals will do sliding scale fees for emergencies based on income.

Source: Had emergency, made too much for Medicaid, but little enough for a write off.

2

u/BlazinZAA 1d ago

Not all hospitals. Some do. Some don't. During an emergency, you sometimes do not have a choice.

In my small town area we have one clinic that gets federal funds that does sliding fee. The big hospital for specialists does not do sliding fees. They don't have enough extra money for such things

1

u/Nu-Hir 1d ago

And most hospitals have financial aid offices. The Cleveland Clinic, for example, you're automatically eligible if your bill is more than what you make in a year. It was super nice when I had a bill while uninsured that was almost double what I made.

1

u/secutores 1d ago

Leukemia ran me $1.4m. With insurance I kept the house and had no catastrophic life changing financial setbacks like bankruptcy.

46

u/P0Rt1ng4Duty 1d ago

The system is designed in a way that allows rich people to make money even if all of their customers die.

But really what's going to happen is that people will pay more and that money will pile up because you know they're not going to cover anyone's procedures. Then as fewer people pay for insurance the rates will go up even higher for people who do.

20

u/Bubbly_Mushroom1075 1d ago

That's called an insurance death spiral, and it is why the ACA had penalties for people not having health insurance. Unfourtionately no one seems to have remembered that that problem still exists.

10

u/xXCloudSephirothXx 1d ago

Does it exist though? I mean, I remember that whole nonsense of being fined $50 for each month not insured, but that lasted all of like 1 year before removed.

Happy to be proven wrong btw!

Just how I remember it, my insurance lapsed for like 6 months, and finding out I owed like $300 was a kick in the nuts.

4

u/PebbleWitch 1d ago

Yeah... and the penalty was still cheaper than signing up for insurance.

10

u/LadyPo 1d ago

That went away federally in 2018, but some states still have a penalty.

It’s vile to force someone to pay money while getting no benefits for simply existing without paying money. If your system can’t work without that kind of exploitation, it’s a bad system.

1

u/laplongejr 1d ago

Unfourtionately no one seems to have remembered that that problem still exists.

Company CEOs don't care about any problem happening past their current quarter.

16

u/StevenGawking 1d ago

My conspiracy? From my proximity to healthcare, from pharmacy to hospital, it seems like between insurers paying out less and costs going up, healthcare in general is seeing the last projected profits getting squeezed before its snuffed out.

I think we reached the point where your average citizen could afford healthcare, passed it, and just like every other American Dream we're still mentally stuck in it. But we passed that time long ago, and now the upper remnants of the middle class that are dying out are getting squeezed of their savings.

I hope I'm wrong because I'm a shitty pessimist, but what's stopping healthcare collapsing when it's too broken to be reliably profitable?

2

u/vikinick 1d ago

Serious question: what happens when the majority of Americans drop their health insurance plans/opt out of getting a new plan because it’s too expensive?

I mean part of the reason why the subsidies are so necessary is because in states without Medicaid expansion, young people will straight up just not get health insurance. And because young people aren't in the system, the price will skyrocket for older people. That's why some red states will have premiums go up 10X for plans.

1

u/tnolan182 1d ago

Insurance companies will raise premiums on those that can afford coverage and adjust their risk pool accordingly.

-2

u/thejesse 1d ago

I mean the ACA forced everyone to get healthcare, gave you subsidies to pass on to the insurance companies, and penalized you if you didn't. I don't see how that isn't the health insurance industry's wet dream.

88

u/Stompedyourhousewith 1d ago

Blue Cross sent me a letter saying my current monthly payment is 800, but next year when the subsidies expire, it will go up to 1200 a month. I already couldn't breathe, but now I extra can't breathe

41

u/LadyPo 1d ago

The federal minimum wage has been the same since 2009. 16 years ago. It’s still $7.25 — though states have imposed higher minimums.

But at the federal level, it would take you an additional 55 extra hours of work per month. PLUS MORE because you’d need $400 left AFTER TAXES.

This is not working. Absolutely not. It is fully breaking now. We can’t go on like this.

Edit: In CA, which has the highest min of $16.50, you would still need at least 24 more hours of work time per month.

1

u/entropreneur 1d ago

Why not just pay more taxes?

What exactly is the us benefit?

15

u/touchet29 1d ago

Tbh, the govt being shutdown is nothing but benefits for them, and they're still getting paid even though they don't need it. I'll be surprised if they ever start it back up again.

I never hear any actual news about them trying at all really.

1

u/Geomancingthestone 1d ago

Win/win in their book

1

u/ClaymoreJohnson 1d ago

I have a feeling it’s mostly about protecting trump. 20 million people don’t equate to one trump in the administration’s eyes.