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$100 per month per person? How was this calculated?
$100 was just an off-handed guesstimate on my part at the time. I figured it would be a nice round number even someone educated in the dumbed down modern liberal controlled US public education system could easily grasp.
The truth is that I am now looking at the numbers from Canada and it is far higher. The National Health Expenditure Trends for 2007 by the CIHI show that $160.1 billion was spent in 2007 for a country of only 31,612,897 (by Canada's 2006 census). $160.1 billion divided by 31,612,897 people results in a per person cost of $5,064.38 per year divided by 12 months for a monthly cost of $422.03 per person. See the problem. It could be MASSIVELY more expensive than $100.00 per person per month!
Now that includes all health expenditures so I'm assuming it would also include the proceeds the private Canadian health insurers end up spending as well. Supplemental insurance is purchased by individuals and companies in Canada and the cost of it can be $75.00 per person or $300.00 for a family in Canada meaning there is money spent on premiums to insurance companies that pay the claims and keep the difference that are not even included in the $160.1 billion dollars above!
Honestly, I think you are missing the point by even asking the question. You know medical care is expensive even if it is managed by the Federal Government bureaucratic organs.
$100.00 per person, especially without risk averse controls in place like modern medical plans require today in the forms of waivers, for example, for pre-existing conditions is way underestimated in my view now and we have to multiply that by two or three (I will allow for a reasonable economy of scales since our population is higher).
I personally believe that service would decline over time as competition for patients and a very strong profit motive is removed/dimished as well. And then you have the issue of conflicts of interest from having the state managing healthcare: euthanasia, prioritization of care and wait times, etc...
And of course, we would still have health insurance companies charging premiums for supplimental protection so you get to keep writing out checks for that and well it might start cheap it will go up I assure you. The falling dollar will see to that even if the politicans don't.
2: How many of those who are against universal health care have lived in a country WITH universal health care? If so where? What was your experience?
i haven't lived in any other country but the US, however, I was on welfare for a while, and did use the state run medical insurance. REALLY BAD! Which is why I really don't want the government running health care. They aren't set up for it, and nothing the government has control over (i.e. taxes, public schools, health care, etc.) is run very well.
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Originally Posted by Hobokenkitchen
3: How many of you have a serious illness or have a close family member with a serious illness?
yes to both. I almost died in an accident when I was 18, my mother and I didn't not have health care at the time. My sister had cancer AND back surgery. My grandmother had cancer, my grandfather had cancer, my mom was sick of various things. No lack of serious health issues in my family.
[quote=Hobokenkitchen;3068786]4: How many of you have lost jobs that have left you without health insurance even for a short period? [/qote] Lost jobs while having kids, was a kid when my mother lost her business and we had no insurance.
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Originally Posted by Hobokenkitchen
5: How many of you have watched Michael Moore's; Sicko? I know lots of people love to hate Michael Moore so I'm not looking for posts bashing Michael Moore - just wondering if you watched Sicko.
Sorry, i hate Moore. He's a liar, he doesn't present anything in a truthful manor.... his documentaries are NOT objective, they are extremely biased. I only watch something like that when I want my blood pressure to go up. LOL
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Originally Posted by Hobokenkitchen
6: Have any of you filed bankruptcy due to unforseen medical expenses (either with or without health insurance).
not yet, but my mom did when i was a kid.
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Originally Posted by Hobokenkitchen
7: ** I MADE UP THE FOLLOWING CATEGORIES** Do you consider yourself to be 'rich'(household income $200,000/year plus), 'middle class'(household income $50,000 - $200,000/ year) or 'poor'(houshold income under $50,000/ year)? Do these sound like fair categorizations?
Under your caegorie I am poor.... under NV's categories I'm poor... however, I make too much to qualify for any type of government help.
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Originally Posted by Hobokenkitchen
I am just wondering how the answers to these questions effect people's opinions.
I have had to think of these things in one way or another my whole life. There has been a time when I thought that socialized medicine would be the answer, but the reality of it is, that the government DOES have medical insurance at the state levels for people who are extremely poor. They also have insurance that is affordable for children or famlies with children. All of these systems suck. LOL! I've used them, i've used kaiser, I've had Blue Cross, I've had the worst insurance and the best, and none, I've even had military health coverage! The government run health coverage is by far the worst I"ve ever had to deal with.
lol, then why do socialist countries with free health care, paid vacations, subsidised apartments(there is no free cable, clothing, cars, food in socialism, but i know its a conservative value to lie) such as france and norway have higher work productivity then the us?
how will free health care cause a lazy society? some countires with free health care such as japan and s. korea work more hours per year than the USA, quit your right wing propaganda, i guess its socialist that the government provides free books, free education, free police, free figherfighters?
I'm interested in hearing opinions on this question.
I think america is struggling because basic needs such as health care have become out of reach to many americans. Stressed out people riddled with fear cannot maintain the US as the "best country in the world"
lol, then why do socialist countries with free health care, paid vacations, subsidised apartments(there is no free cable, clothing, cars, food in socialism, but i know its a conservative value to lie) such as france and norway have higher work productivity then the us?
i guess its socialist that the government provides free books, free education, free police, free figherfighters?
None of those things are free. Each and everyone of us who pays taxes, pays for those "free" services. And they do so in other countries as well. Nothing is truly free... you just don't always know exactly where each and every penny is going.
lol, then why do socialist countries with free health care, paid vacations, subsidised apartments(there is no free cable, clothing, cars, food in socialism, but i know its a conservative value to lie) such as france and norway have higher work productivity then the us?
how will free health care cause a lazy society? some countires with free health care such as japan and s. korea work more hours per year than the USA, quit your right wing propaganda, i guess its socialist that the government provides free books, free education, free police, free figherfighters?
I was reading this earlier and feel it's the best option for healthcare, its an article from one of our senators here in the great state of South Carolina.
United States Senator - Jim DeMint (http://demint.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Issues.Detail&Issue_id=0e20aa 78-f456-4820-8d34-b619732757d1 - broken link)
Can you post other statistics then. It doesn't appear that europeans, asians and others with UHC are a bunch of lazy people who get nothing done.
I'm support reforms that allow all americans to get their own insurance and I like HSAs, but we need major reform. the status quo in american health insurance is unacceptable.
If you're working more hours and paying more taxes your health care may not be free
That's true, UHC is not free, I don't think anyone here is saying that, we would have to pay for it with our taxes(I use UHC for arguments sake, I prefer reforms at this time). That doesn't answer the question though. If UHC, paid vacation, sick time etc. cause people to become unmotivated why are they still working and achieving in life.
In the UK we have taxes that pay for our health service. If we didn't have a UHC it would cost us much more each month to get health cover that is any where as near as good as our present system. Our private health schemes here cost much less than in the USA as it has to compete with a UHC that works. Our monthly tax for UHC, Which is much cheaper than any American private health plan, also includes, Unemployment payments for people who are out of work, Pension for every man over 65 and woman over 60, sickness benefit for anyone who cannot work due to ill health and housing benefit for anyone who cannot work. In the UHC we also get free contraception, free backup for long term illness, free help and advice on quitting smoking ( nicotine patches etc), choice of doctors that treat us and hospitals that we can choose to be seen in, Local GP service and E & R service. Free senior citizens "meals on wheels" for pensioners, Council tax relief for the unemployed and disability benefit recipients. Bus passes and travel passes for senior citizens, Cold weather payment for senior citizens and many other benefits. This is for every man woman and child in the UK. We also get child benefit for every child born here until they are 18, regardless of your earnings. This is ALL provided for by taxes which are much cheaper than any private health care plan in the USA AND if you want private health you can get that cheaply too with payments made to you by the Private insurance companies if you use a NHS hospital and not a private one when staying in Hospital. It has been disclosed that the A & E depts in many US hospitals are about $5,000,000 in debt at the end of each year and more hospitals are closing every day. Also a large percentage, over the normal death count for heart attack patients, are dying in the USA because of full A & E depts and patients being diverted in their ambulances to other hospitals. I wonder which Health Service you would pick? The more expensive failing system or the less expensive UHC that gives healthcare and so much more for much less each month?
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