US should first implement a national identifier that can be used for healthcare purposes before implementing age verification, that would be a lot more helpful.

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mcshicks 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

There have been bills in the past like "The improved digital identity act of 2023" that never get out of committee. The latest incarnation seems to be "H.R.7270 - Stop Identity Fraud and Identity Theft Act of 2026". There almost always have one republican and one democratic sponsor. But they don't seem to rise to the level of urgency to get past the current dysfunction in congress.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/7270...

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throwa356262 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Oh, but that could be used for voting and we don't want that.

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nemomarx 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

Voter ID changes would be a lot easier to swallow with a free national id that you don't have to register or fill out paperwork to get.

Maybe add in automatic voter registration to sweeten the pot?

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duped 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I don't know how many times this needs to be iterated, but voter ID has absolutely nothing to do with election security. It has everything to do with voter suppression, just like poll taxes and literacy tests. It gives poll workers discretion to turn people away.

There's a reason this idea is pushed solely by Republicans with the explicit goal of reducing the number of people who can vote, because fewer people voting is better for Republicans.

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chainingsolid 3 days ago | parent [-]

So how would you recommend ensuring only citizens vote and only do so a max of once per election?

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tzs 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

What we do now works fine. Numerous studies, including by people that had a strong interest in wanting to find problems, have found that the amount of ineligible voters that slip through is insignificant.

Voter registration records are generally public and are scrutinized by partisan organizations that want to try to disqualify voters that they think will vote for a different party.

The voter ID laws Republicans are trying to pass would stop at most a negligible amount on ineligible voters, but would also disenfranchise several million citizens, most of whom are poor and/or elderly and/or minorities.

If Republicans would propose a voter ID law that also includes funding to provide free IDs to every citizen who does not have one (including covering the costs of obtaining the necessary documentation for those IDs), then most people objecting to the current proposals would drop their objections.

	▲	chainingsolid 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		As someone who would vote for voter ID, I would also vote just as fast to provide tax payer funded help so any US citizen can vote, regardless of financial situation.

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duped 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

The same way we do now, checking their voter registration. Voter fraud isn't prevalent enough to require overhauling major systems and policy.

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lokar 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It would give the federal government inappropriate control of state elections.

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MisterTea 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I can see another group getting very upset "They want to see my what before letting me buy a gun!"

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someguyiguess 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Yes but they would need a functional healthcare system first.

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usefulcat 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

In the US, quality of health care is not really a problem. The problem is that the cost is too high, and also availability (in part because of the cost).

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Schiendelman 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I struggle with this. Outcomes for our healthcare system are much better than critics want to accept. Most of the negative health outcomes in the United States are mostly about our built environment - people who aren't very poor and live in walkable urban centers in the US have health outcomes similar to Europe. Those reading this website in the US often have outcomes that exceed their peers in Europe - we have much better cancer treatment, for instance. US city air quality is starting to beat European cities because we don't use nearly as much natural gas (NYC is better than Berlin, for instance, at pm2.5).

Most negative US health outcome factors can be traced to suburbanization, which is also where the vast majority of the gun violence is, and systemic racial wealth disparity. We have a pretty good healthcare system, we just need to subsidize it for people who can't afford it.

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microtonal 3 days ago | parent [-]

"If we focus on a subset of the population that is lucky, we have a great healthcare system." Got it!

Sorry for the sarcasm, but that's how your comment reads.

Do those lucky people have healthcare insurance tied to their employment? Are they afraid to go to a demonstration or advocate a union, because they could lose their job and thus healthcare?

A good healthcare system treats everyone equally, no matter where they live in a country, their income level, being employed/unemployed, etc.

We have a pretty good healthcare system, we just need to subsidize it for people who can't afford it.

No, it is broken. The US healthcare capita costs twice as much per capita as most West European countries and the 'outcomes per capita' are worse. The problem is, similar to the prison system etc., the privatization of the system. It's run by companies that go for profit maximization, which entails rejecting as many claims as possible, driving up medicine prices, etc.

	▲	Schiendelman 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		The problem is none of these criticisms are most easily solved with "the healthcare system". The healthcare system itself functions quite well. For instance, almost every bit of infrastructure (virtual or physical) in the US costs twice as much per capita as Europe. That's not something that's wrong with "healthcare". It's not even likely to be a good idea to change that. Blue states have largely already solved the access issues with subsidies; low income folks do get surprisingly good very cheap access in states like New York and Washington. Calling out it being "private" isn't even in the top ten things that would improve health outcomes more easily.

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mindslight 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

The US should first implement an equivalent to the GDPR that puts a stop to the ongoing abuses of the current identification systems. After we see that is working, then we can talk about increasing the technical strength of identification systems.

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rimliu 3 days ago | parent [-]

Welllll, the land of GDPR keeps pushing for the chat control. Not sure there are any good guys left.

	▲	mindslight 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		Uh, okay? I wasn't talking about "good guys" but rather a way to reign in the abuses that are already occurring even with our rudimentary identification systems.