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Please explain how the public option is socialized medicine.
Socialized medicine involves health care professionals being government employees. Under the public option, that isn't so.
Also in socialized medicine EVERYONE has to pay into the system, with the public option it is just that an OPTION. No one is REQUIRED to join it.
Please read up on what socialized medicine really is.
Selling health insurance across state lines is bad for consumers and will create a race to the bottom.
No one has claimed the public option is socialized medicine. They have claimed it will lead to socialized medicine and it will. If one of the big players is the government, they have unlimited resources to undercut private insurance companies. This will lead to the dissolution of several private insurance companies until we are left with only a few private insurance companies that will cater to the wealthy. The majority of Americans will be on this public option and the government will reduce benefits and service to pay for it. There is no way the government can pay for this without reducing service and quality care. Of the major government health administered systems (Medicare, Medicaid, the VA, Indian Health Clinic), only Medicare offers quality service. The other three are notorious for rationing care so I'm not convinced the government will provide quality care like Medicare if they essentially take over
Please don't apply weak examples regarding the Post Office versus Fed Ex. It's one thing to pay a few more bucks to use Fed Ex to ensure your package arrives on time versus paying thousands more to a private health insurance company.
No one has claimed the public option is socialized medicine. They have claimed it will lead to socialized medicine and it will. If one of the big players is the government, they have unlimited resources to undercut private insurance companies. This will lead to the dissolution of several private insurance companies until we are left with only a few private insurance companies that will cater to the wealthy. The majority of Americans will be on this public option and the government will reduce benefits and service to pay for it.
Please don't apply weak examples regarding the Post Office versus Fed Ex. It's one thing to pay a few more bucks to use Fed Ex to ensure your package arrives on time versus paying thousands more to a private health insurance company.
Please tell me exactly why I care about health insurance companies going under? I think they have screwed the American people long enough.
It seems like private health insurance is pretty much for the wealthy anyway or someone with a generous employer.
The "system" in the U.S. works well for the rich, not so much for the poor.
In the U.K., they have socialized medicine. They however do have a choice to have private health insurance if they want it. I don't see why such a system couldn't work in the U.S. If you want private health insurance, buy it. If not, you can be on the government plan.
The way things are now, you don't have very much choice. You can choose to be uninsured and pay out the nose for health care, you can pay through the nose for private health insurance as an individual, or you can wait until you qualify for Medicare in hopes you don't have a major illness.
I see nothing wrong with offering a government plan for those who want it.
Quote:
Do you favor or oppose, "Having a national health plan in which all Americans would get their insurance through an expanded, universal form of Medicare-for all?"
Favor 58%, Oppose 38%, NA/DK 3%
I realize the poll is from 2003 but it's interesting to note this:
Quote:
Here are the key findings:
- Question 48 in the poll shows that 79% of Americans say they support "providing health care coverage for all Americans, even if it means raising taxes" over "holding down taxes, even if it means some Americans do not have health care coverage."
- Question 49 shows 62% say they support a universal health care system "run by the government and financed by taxpayers" over the current system.
- Question 50 shows 57% say they would support this program even "if it limited your own choice of doctors" (which doesn't necessarily have to be a side-effect of a single-payer system).
- Similarly, question 51 shows 62% say they would support this program even "if it meant there were waiting lists for some non-emergency treatments" (again, not necessarily a side-effect).
No, that is not true. The public option (socialized medicine) is out, and selling across state line is in (and has been from the start). But of course the Republicans oppose it because it is promoted by Dems.
Riiight AZRiverfan...NO ONE has claimed the public option is socialized medicine.
I don't get this fear of socialized medicine. I guess that propaganda ran during the 50s and 60s has really stuck with some people.
Please explain how the public option is socialized medicine.
Socialized medicine involves health care professionals being government employees. Under the public option, that isn't so.
Also in socialized medicine EVERYONE has to pay into the system, with the public option it is just that an OPTION. No one is REQUIRED to join it.
Please read up on what socialized medicine really is.
Selling health insurance across state lines is bad for consumers and will create a race to the bottom.
Yes, you are right in saying that it is not socialized medicine in the traditional sense where everything is paid for by tax money. But the public option was called socialized medicine by the Republicans because it was the closest thing to socialized medicine in the package. When it was removed, no one can call the bill 'socialized medicine', because there is nothing 'socialized' in it anymore.
Riiight AZRiverfan...NO ONE has claimed the public option is socialized medicine.
I don't get this fear of socialized medicine. I guess that propaganda ran during the 50s and 60s has really stuck with some people.
The United States operates with a government that makes it difficult or impossible to socialize industries or sectors. The founding fathers made it that way on purpose, and all this end runaround to subsidize this or nationalize that is breaking our backs. Again, exactly as the founding fathers have intended it to be. Of course, they didn't intend for our politicians to keep driving over the edge of a cliff even under such circumstances. But, then again, Jefferson did mention that the tree of liberty must be quenched every now and again, and perhaps that time is coming again.
Yes, you are right in saying that it is not socialized medicine in the traditional sense where everything is paid for by tax money. But the public option was the closest thing to socialized medicine in the package, and when that was removed, no one can call the bill 'socialized medicine', because there is nothing 'socialized' in it anymore.
So are you against Medicare?
Basically the public option would be a lot like Medicare.
Quote:
The public health insurance plan being discussed as part of national health reform would work more like Medicare, in which the government runs the insurance coverage, but the doctors, hospitals and other health care providers people go to are the same private, independent providers that currently care for them.
I don't think "buying across state lines" will ever work. Insurance in each state is under control of an Insurance Comissioner. You would have to force every state to re-write all of its insurance laws.
An insurance company has to be liscenced in each state it wants to do business in. Each state has its own set of regulations. I don't think it would be constitutional to do away with current practice.
I have asked before, why can't each state set up like the federal health plan? most people say it the best plan in the country.
So are you against Medicare?
Basically the public option would be a lot like Medicare.
If you favor Medicare, consider this: Medicare benefits are being CUT. Seniors are finding fewer choices in Physicans and services because many doctors and providers have STOPPED taking Medicare.
I don't recall mentioning that Target was forced by anyone. I agree it was their decision alone. Where we might disagree is that I believe it is their right to do so.
I don't recall mentioning that Target was forced by anyone. I agree it was their decision alone. Where we might disagree is that I believe it is their right to do so.
No, we don't. They have that right.
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