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I am glad you got good treatment but you are only one individual in the all society. One of the cleanest place you have ever been, where did you roam before, I am talking about Europe. European countries do not ration healthcare, the US does.
European countries do ration health care.
Everything on the planet is rationed except air and sunlight.
The problem with health care in the US is the cost, and I can't see it ever being priced reasonably as long as you have insurance companies taking profits.
If it's the cost that's the problem, as you say, then there's an easy solution. Stop the government from subsidizing health care and the cost will drop through the floor. The problem is that the government provides a foundation for prices to not drop through. Take that away, and the insurance company prices will fall to the ground. It's the same with college tuition. If the federal government would stop meeting each and every tuition hike with student loans to match the increases, then college wouldn't be so expensive.
My brother-in-law owns a flooring business in St. Louis. He got a state government contract before to install carpets at a park office in the St. Louis area and he charged the state 600% what he would charge a private business. The government worker told him that's the best bargain he found in town and guess what? The state BOUGHT his ridiculously overpriced carpets because he KNEW that the government was irresponsible with the people's money (ever hear about the infamous $400 hammer?) and would pay for it, as long as his competitors weren't undercutting him. That's using his business senses, which the government lacks. That's why everything the government touches eventually becomes inefficient and bloated, just like universities, just like insurance companies
We should open up Medicare to all US citizens. We need to get the cost of health care off the backs of US employers.
Ask physicians if they agree with you. They get paid about 50% for surgery and a bit more for office calls.
I have been on Medicare for 13 years and somehow I think that studying what they send me about what they are paying makes me a bit more informed than most of you. I love seeing their statements and finding out that those bureaucrats pay like they do. The thing that bothers me is that most people who have no insurance get to pay every penny and Medicare doesn't pay much.
I think that the problem with health costs is that Medicare pays so little so the care givers sock it to the insurance companies for their people.
Hang in there begging for government controlled health care.
I lived in Germany for many years. Obviously, you have no clue.
Where are the long waiting lines? And vastly inferior technology and equipment. I work in a hospital. My position is non-clinical, but I have a chane to see what goes on. In the ED much of the equipment used have little plates that read Made In Germany.
Try to do some research of your own.
The Germans hear horror stories about the failures of America's healtcare system, that people without money get get needed treatment, and those who go deep into debt for healthcare.
My comments were not about Germany. However, the technology comment applies there also. Here is an example from Health Affairs in December 2010:
"The differences in open-heart surgery units were large also. In 1992 the
United States had 945 installed open-heart surgery units, about 3.7 units
per million people. In Canada 1.3 per million and in Germany 0.8 per
million were available. For three of the technologies, the availability was higher in Canada than in Germany, and vice-versa for the other three.
The differences in the availability of extracorporeal shock wave
lithotripsy and cardiac catheterization between the United States and
Germany were not great, although, to repeat a point made earlier, the years are different. The United States had about 480 lithotriptors, or 1.9 per million population, while Germany had 1.4 units per million. Cardiac
catheterization centers numbered 1,631 in the United States, about 6.4
centers per million. Germany had about 3.4 such centers per million. Organ
transplantation was only two times more available in the United States
than in Canada. "
The availability of technology in the US far exceeds that of most other countries.
I'm sure that there are pros & cons to European health care just like there are here. The problem I see is that most Americans don't bother to really investigate the issue and get the word of mouth opinions of Europeans themselves. So basically, most of them have no idea what they are talking about.
I lived in Germany for 18 years. When did you live there?
I was there from summer 1955 - through the same part of 1957. Of course, that was a long time ago and I had Army doctors to take care of me.
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