Why we recommend against DIY

To respond to your points:

The NHS has nothing to do with the U.S.'s healthcare. And backwards policies in one country shouldn't prevent people from advocating for reform on different continents.

The NHS is relevant as it provides a great case study for us to look at when it comes to the implementation of state-run healthcare. Under it, we have such great occurrences such as mandated Real Life Experience of a year's duration for hormones, which puts transitioning individuals at real risk. And this is in addition to massively inflated wait times for getting help.

Implementing something like that here creates a massive opportunity for concern trolls to push for that type of thing, arguing that it would cost too much for taxpayers. Or that it's immoral. Or controversial. I've seen actual people argue this point over there and on the subreddit.

Bills of this scale tend to involve compromise, especially if Bernie doesn't get a complete control of the House and Senate with similarly minded Democrats in the next election. That gives a great opportunity for this type of thing to be worked into law.

And Sander's website specifically calls out the NHS as an example of what his proposed system would look like.

Does Bernie want the government to completely take over the healthcare system?

No. The United Kingdom’s National Health Service is an example of a system where the government owns and operates the public hospitals and employs the staff in those facilities.

Now, let's say that Sander's would never let this happen. After all, he's a nice guy, isn't he? Well, he's not the person running this system. In 2002, the Department of Health and Human Services employed 65,000 people. Just to get an idea of the scale of a government agency. And now you're making all sorts of new people government employees, adding them to the system. Spoiler alert: They're not all liberal. Many will be conservative. They will try to work against us as they do now. But let's hold this thought.

Posting "grow up" adds no important or relevant content to the conversation either. Pot, meet kettle. You're both black.

You're honestly right here. I should have elaborated my point far better than I did, and I'm in the wrong for that, and not have resorted to such base attacks in the first place. I have deleted that comment due to how little it added.

Bernie has a strong record of advocating for LGBTQ rights as far back as at least 1972. You might not understand the relevance of that, but he's groundbreakingly progressive. He has specifically referenced ending discrimination against transgender people and praised Obama for his executive order preventing federal discrimination against trans individuals. I'd definitely say that reform under his system will be trans inclusive.

Let's say that reform under him is trans exclusive. We trust him. He sounds like a real swell guy. What happens with the president after him? The president in the United States is the head of the executive branch, and can issue executive orders to dictate the actions of government agencies. These orders can certainly be against us. And next time, we won't even have the same options as we do now.

/r/asktransgender Thread Parent