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Well if you go with private insurance companies on a national level, the easy way to lower costs (and this is simplified) would be to do what a company would do. A large company with a thousand employees can negotiate for a lower healthcare cost than a company with 50 employees because the bigger company has more leverage with a larger pool of people. If our federal government did that through a universal healthcare system, it would be able to negotiate with a group of health insurance companies using a pool of 300+ million for leverage.
If you ran a healthcare insurance company and a country came to you and said we have 300+ million people and this is how much we are going to pay, you would probably take the deal and your company would be set for life.
Negotiate with a group of health insurance companies? Didn't you just say you supported universal health care?
No thanks to any obama style socialized health care
The Canadian Patients’ Remedy for Health Care: Go to America! http://fixhealthcarepolicy.com/healt...go-to-america/ A hospital survey of five countries (United States, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom and Australia), conducted by Robert Blendon and colleagues in Health Affairs found that “waits of six months or more for elective surgeries were reported to occur ‘very often’ or ‘often’ by 26–57 percent of executives in the four non-U.S. countries; only 1 percent of U.S. hospitals reported this. Half of all Canadian hospitals reported an average waiting time of over six months for a 65-year-old male requiring a routine hip replacement; no American hospital administrators reported waits this long.
Canadian Health system fails the elderly: CMA report http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/08...ly-cma-report/ Cancelled surgeries. Patients who need hospital care but can’t get it. Families forced to sell their homes to pay for autistic children’s treatment.
Thousands of Canadians who participated in a nationwide consultation over the past year say the country’s health system is faltering badly and that more needs to be done to deliver care when and where it’s needed.
Almost 90% of Canadians want health-care complaint line: survey Almost 90% of Canadians want health-care complaint line: survey | News | National Post A wave of discontent with the nation’s health-care system is sweeping across Canada, with the vast majority of Canadians revealing they feel like outsiders who are powerless to influence their own health care.
But just going to a doctor doesn't really solve the issue which IMO is primarily our obesity epidemic. Solving obesity comes from within a person, not from a doctor. You're trying to apply what works in one country to a different country and the comparison doesn't work. Even if it works in Canada, you cannot verify that it would work here.
Actually you can because you use their program as a template on how to run your program. If a city wants to add light rail to their city, they visit other cities that have it to see if it works for them and how it works for them. There still is no proof that it would work in the original city, but there are real examples of it working.
Also here is another thing for you, out of all the countries that have universal healthcare, there are countries that are doing it right and ones that are doing it wrong, simply study the differences of each system, study the differences between what we have and what they have and figure a system that best fits us that gives us the best chance of having a successful system. It is a lot of work, but to say it can't work here because we don't have it is a copout argument.
Negotiate with a group of health insurance companies? Didn't you just say you supported universal health care?
yes I did, universal in the sense of healthcare for everyone that is given from the government, does that mean it needs to be government run? No, I would want the most efficient system, if that means the government going through private companies, I am fine with that, if it means the government does it themselves, I am fine with that too, I would want to go with the one that worked best.
yes I did, universal in the sense of healthcare for everyone that is given from the government, does that mean it needs to be government run? No, I would want the most efficient system, if that means the government going through private companies, I am fine with that, if it means the government does it themselves, I am fine with that too, I would want to go with the one that worked best.
Single payer means no insurance companies. Although I believe companies in western europe offer supplimental insurance as job perks, there are no negotiations with insurance companies in a single payer system. The government is the single payer.
Actually you can because you use their program as a template on how to run your program. If a city wants to add light rail to their city, they visit other cities that have it to see if it works for them and how it works for them. There still is no proof that it would work in the original city, but there are real examples of it working.
Also here is another thing for you, out of all the countries that have universal healthcare, there are countries that are doing it right and ones that are doing it wrong, simply study the differences of each system, study the differences between what we have and what they have and figure a system that best fits us that gives us the best chance of having a successful system. It is a lot of work, but to say it can't work here because we don't have it is a copout argument.
I didn't say it wouldn't work here simply because we don't have it, I said it wouldn't work here because we're too fat, lazy and unhealthy to take care of ourselves. In these other countries, people actually care about their health it has nothing to do with who pays for the care, it has to do with a mindset and mentality of people. People in Spain/France/Canada, they walk, they eat well, they take vacations, they eat fresh foods and they live healthy lifestyles.
my argument is that I do not want any government in between me my physician.
Then you better leave the US. Two examples, from my experience as a nurse in a physician's office:
Child has a head injury in a trampoline accident. Doctor wants MRI. Insurance company requires "prior authorization", meaning a flunky in an insurance company call center gets to make the call regarding medical necessity.
Patient has life-threatening allergies. Doctor writes prescription for an epi-pen, to be injected if patient inadvertently is exposed to the allergens. Insurance company wants prior auth.
I didn't say it wouldn't work here simply because we don't have it, I said it wouldn't work here because we're too fat, lazy and unhealthy to take care of ourselves. In these other countries, people actually care about their health it has nothing to do with who pays for the care, it has to do with a mindset and mentality of people. People in Spain/France/Canada, they walk, they eat well, they take vacations, they eat fresh foods and they live healthy lifestyles.
Then we will continue to fall behind other countries until we hit the point of being nothing more than a stagnant amount of land that doesn't contribute anything to the world.
As for single payer, that doesn't mean that the government must run the health insurance side, if that were the case we would all have single payer with our jobs. My job offers me an insurance plan and I take it because that is their offer, thus a single payer plan. I am actually all for having private health insurance companies, but I am also in favor of the government making sure everyone is provided with health insurance and not have it attached to employment.
They pay less because they actually take care of themselves and practice preventative medicine.
Quote:
Originally Posted by VTHokieFan
I didn't say it wouldn't work here simply because we don't have it, I said it wouldn't work here because we're too fat, lazy and unhealthy to take care of ourselves. In these other countries, people actually care about their health it has nothing to do with who pays for the care, it has to do with a mindset and mentality of people. People in Spain/France/Canada, they walk, they eat well, they take vacations, they eat fresh foods and they live healthy lifestyles.
Please provide links regarding obesity rates, exercising rates, vacation rates, fresh food eating rates, and healthy lifestyle rates in Canada. Last time I was there, it seemed like almost everyone was smoking. At least, the smoking rate was higher than what one sees here in the US.
Then we will continue to fall behind other countries until we hit the point of being nothing more than a stagnant amount of land that doesn't contribute anything to the world.
As for single payer, that doesn't mean that the government must run the health insurance side, if that were the case we would all have single payer with our jobs. My job offers me an insurance plan and I take it because that is their offer, thus a single payer plan. I am actually all for having private health insurance companies, but I am also in favor of the government making sure everyone is provided with health insurance and not have it attached to employment.
So you don't care about quality, health, health care or people at all, you just care about everyone having a product and you think that will solve the problem? It seems like you're just focused on the monetary aspect of it.
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