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Utter nonsense. Name five people in this country that would ever want to go back to their old plans after going on Medicare.
All the people in my Mom and her husband's retirement area who before they retired had private sector insurance and had no problem scheduling appointments. No annual concierge fee necessary for those patients.
The main reason for the difference is that US medicine conducts unnecessary tests that turn up cancers that would never be fatal to the patient in their lifetime and then cures them. They die of old age heart ailments like they would have anyway. As for knees, I don't know, but knowing you are not getting new knees easily might make you take better care of yourself and keep your weight under control and most would never need a knee job. Much of our medical needs at older age are simply a reflection of our lifestyle when younger. Changes there could make a huge difference in the cost of medical care in the US.
I doubt you would use the same example of lifestyle dangers with AIDS. No, that wouldn't fly.
I've heard that the wait times in the British system are even worse than the wait times the U.S. veterans have had to endure under the VA system.
My major problem with it is single-payer means single choice. The only ones who will get quality care are rich people who can get private insurance and concierge type doctors. There will be two Americas, one where rich people get the best treatments and the poor and shrinking middle class get the shaft. We may get pretty decent care while we're young and not really needing anything more than a yearly physical, but when we get older and start needing more medical care, we will be S-O-L.
My sister is an Australian citizen with heart trouble. Her stories of long waits for care are startling. I have a friend in Queensland who has waited over two years for a hysterectomy because they still haven't seemed one necessary despite a diagnosis of severe endometriosis which took her six months just to get.
The closest thing we currently have in America is the state-run program in Massachusetts and that program is beset with long wait times as well.
Now take a state with a population of 6.7 million people that are dealing with long waits and consider an entire nation of 300 million trying to use a single payer system.
I've heard that the wait times in the British system are even worse than the wait times the U.S. veterans have had to endure under the VA system.
My major problem with it is single-payer means single choice. The only ones who will get quality care are rich people who can get private insurance and concierge type doctors. There will be two Americas, one where rich people get the best treatments and the poor and shrinking middle class get the shaft. We may get pretty decent care while we're young and not really needing anything more than a yearly physical, but when we get older and start needing more medical care, we will be S-O-L.
You live in a fairy tale land if you don't think the rich get better care here and everywhere than others. I don't care for the UK system either. I lived under the German system for a couple years. I think it is the best model in the world. It is much closer to how we currently fund ours with employer and employee contributions and VAT if I recall correctly. But the for profit guys are relegated to upgrade type insurance. Laws keep practitioners from excluding all but the wealthy from needed care.
Socialism will be stamped out like any other disease. The few here that tout it's wonderful benefits should prepare for a reckoning.
The real American majority is growing impatient with your lazy, entitled attitude.
I assume that you won't be taking the interstate to attend the final stamping.
My sister is an Australian citizen with heart trouble. Her stories of long waits for care are startling. I have a friend in Queensland who has waited over two years for a hysterectomy because they still haven't seemed one necessary despite a diagnosis of severe endometriosis which took her six months just to get.
The closest thing we currently have in America is the state-run program in Massachusetts and that program is beset with long wait times as well.
Good post (and links). I know it will fall on deaf ears.
All the people in my Mom and her husband's retirement area who before they retired had private sector insurance and had no problem scheduling appointments. No annual concierge fee necessary for those patients.
Maybe they should move. Around here docs would be out of business if they did not see Medicare. Every waiting room in the state is full of gray haired old people who are on Medicare or illegals who are getting Medicaid.
You live in a fairy tale land if you don't think the rich get better care here and everywhere than others. I don't care for the UK system either. I lived under the German system for a couple years. I think it is the best model in the world. It is much closer to how we currently fund ours with employer and employee contributions and VAT if I recall correctly. But the for profit guys are relegated to upgrade type insurance. Laws keep practitioners from excluding all but the wealthy from needed care.
Of course the rich still get better care, but private insurance is still the best way for working Americans to get the type of treatment that rich people get. I live in Houston, with the #1 cancer treatment center in America (M.D. Anderson), and believe me, it's filled with normal middle class people getting amazing treatments and outcomes because they have good insurance. I don't even know if hospitals like that would survive a single-payer system.
I have heard the German system is better. I will look up their outcomes and see about wait times.
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