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How did you come to the conclusion that these two programs are "dreadful"??? You just made that up in a lame attempt at furthering your conservative agenda. I can't speak for Medicaid but I know for a fact that Medicare is the most popular social program outside of Social Security. Ask any Medicare recipient if they want to drop it and go with the free market approach. Go ahead, ask them. I bet you won't because you know the answer.
My father has been on Medicare going on 20 years and has had nothing but good experiences with it. Any time he goes to the doctor he is seen almost immediately with very little wait time beyond what you would expect at a doctor's office during any busy day. All of his friends are also on Medicare and say the same thing. You'd see some mighty pissed off old people with hate in their eyes if you even suggest taking it away. And that's a fact you can bank on.
You need to substantiate your claims that these two programs are "dreadful". I don't think you can. I'm calling BS.
Medicare should be expanded to a universal single payer system for all Americans. This WILL happen, but not as long as the GOP owns the House and Senate.
It is impossible for any government to provide a Health Plan that works (that is, that keeps more people happy than the free-market plans used to). It's simply the nature of government, and the nature of Health Care. They are just 100% incompatible with each other.
We've fond out for the last decade or so, that when Government is given the responsibility for the nation's health plans, it immediately starts getting pushed and shoved in many directions, all with little or no control. If the Plan isn't perfect (and no Plan is perfect), someone will go running to the press and scream that this group or that group isn't being "fairly treated" - whether it's women who don't get enough prenatal care, or old people who have chronic maladies, or young people who are healthy but still have to pay high Health Plan costs, or whatever the "cruel, heartless" problem is this week. And next week it will be something else. And with bureaucrats not having to directly pay for the decisions they make, their decisions will be randomly arrived at, randomly (if at all) enforced, and randomly changed later.
The problem is not Republicans, and it is not Democrats. The problem is ANYONE who thinks Big Government can take care of the country's health care industry, better than private people and companies doing it themselves by free choice. And there are plenty of those big-government pushers in both parties.
For the last eight years, those big-govt pushers have gotten hold of the reins of power, and have actually tried to implement their pet theories. And as a direct result, the Health Care industry is now in chaos.
Part of the problem this week, is the concern over major changes that may come soon from government. Well, that's because we made the mistake of giving govt the power to make those major changes in the first place.
Private people and companies cannot make sudden major changes in the country's Health Care system. Somebody might invent a new medicine that does wonderful things. Or a less expensive way to do MRIs that make the treatments more affordable. Or some other "revolutionary" breakthrough. But such changes will only be implemented relatively slowly, and only if people want them to happen - a process that takes time and gives room to reflect, test, and possibly change minds. And at best, affects only a small part of America's health care system even if it does get accepted.
Government is the only entity that can suddenly change the entire industry... and it often does so for questionable reasons or poor and dangerous motivations. Government is invariably the source of the poor decisions and chaos that results. And then people demand govt "do something about it"... which just results in even more chaos.
The problem isn't this party or that party running Health Care. The problem is GOVERNMENT running health care. Because that is something that government is simply incapable of doing, anywhere near as well that the free market can (however imperfect that is).
Nah, it "can". The question is, will we allow it to? And will we hold these people accountable for a system that works for the patients, not the system of HC?
Currently, there is too much lobbying for it to work well - get rid of this money and these connections in our political system.
Other countries make it work. There is nothing inherently special about these countries that we can't replicate in this country.
Location: By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 2nd trick op
I'm given to understand (through CanAsian immigrant friends I've known for many years), that Canada pursues somewhat of a two-tier approach; one for the immigrants who come mostly from Third World societies, and quite another for the established middle class. What happens to the people on the "rough edges" on the outside (hard-core welfare dependents and the criminal element), I don't know. And I suspect that most European societies have a similar approach for their own "guest workers".
Most of the "high profile" cases such as Charlie Gard seem to originate in Great Britain which, I suspect, gets a special (and more polarized) treatment due to a long and bitter history of class-consciousness.
I have some friends native to France who carry dual citizenship, they have nothing but good to say about their French healthcare and seem totally baffled that the US doesn't have a similar plan.
There are reasons you cannot opt out of Social Security.
There are reasons you cannot opt out of Medicare.
They are the same reasons you cannot opt out of healthcare.
I have not paid into Social Security, since I quit flipping burgers at age 16, and they stole it from me before I had a say.
The entire public employees of Galveston Texas, do not pay into Social Security.
I don't pay Medicare.
I can certainly opt out of going to the doctor for a nice cut on the hand. Why can I not stitch it up myself, or wrap it in paper towels and a bunch of duct tape tightly?
Dems and Republicans alike cannot provide Health Plans that work... because GOVT cannot provide a Health Plan that work
True
But the cat is out of the bag. Obama showed the dependent class that the government MUST provide health care, everyone must be included, and that will be the standard for ever and ever.
That's a system whereby 150 million working people provide health care coverage for 55 million people who (mostly) do not work.
If the 150 million working people partook of Medicare it would collapse.
What if the money they spent on their HC (that they already pay for) went into this system instead? What if there was no middle-man insurance company taking a cut off of the top?
What if the money they spent on their HC (that they already pay for) went into this system instead? What if there was no middle-man insurance company taking a cut off of the top?
Where would the collapse come in?
I have no idea whether your plan would work. The question - and ones like it - was "What about Medicare".
And the obvious answer is Medicare, Medicaid, and the VA are all fed by huge numbers of people who do not draw any benefit, and may NEVER benefit, as in the case of the VA.
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