Universal healthcare would be great if it brought down the ridiculous costs for basic health services and it helped the growing number of homeless and impoverished escape the cycle. The people who already pay will probably never pay less but it's so frustrating to see bills for thousands on simple things like an x-ray?

My partner recently dislocated her shoulder and we were billed $1,500 to get an x-ray. Nothing crazy just tripped and hit the shoulder the wrong way. We went to immediate care center, after waiting over an hour, the doctor tells us they don't have an x-ray tech on the weekend so we need to go to the hospital emergency center. Still got billed for immediate care visit. Then we go to emergency center, wait almost 3 hours, get an x-ray (nothings broken), they pop it back in (no sedative, no equipment, took literally 5 seconds), a month later we get a bill for almost $5,000 for shoulder surgery! We dispute the charge, get it knocked down to $1,500 (for an "emergency room" x-ray that we waited three hours for and only went because the immediate care center owned by the same org didn't have x-ray tech on the weekend) and after insurance our out of pocket charges are basically the same.

I've had good health care experiences in US but often the charges just have no basis in reality.

Pensions are also better and receive relief at your tax rate