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Here is the key question you have to ask yourself .......
Are you willing to let people die because they cannot afford treatment, because a treatment is refused by their insurer or because they cannot get health insurance? Are you willing to let someone lay in the street with a broken leg, having been hit by a car, because they do not have insurance and cannot afford to get treated or pay for the ambulance to hospital?
If the answer is "no" then you are in favor of UHC. The question then is how you pay for it and how you manage it.
I am not in favor of letting anyone die. As a matter of fact, I would pick them up from the street myself, drive them to the hospital and DEMAND that they be given the same treatment as is given to every illegal who walks through the doors!
The only way forward is to bring the insurance companies under control and make insurance affordable for all and to remove the "pre-existing conditions" clause. It doesn't help that too many people see a lawsuit against their doctor as a way to get rich quick, which also raises the cost of insurance.
Not necessarily free but nominal fee is the norm in much of the developed and developing world. While going through a typical medical degree in the USA could cost well into six digits (a reason one of my nieces opted to stay in Australia despite a scholarship offer of about $50K at UCLA), in Germany, for example, one could get by for about $1K. What you need in those countries is aptitude, not money.
Yep, and that socialized medicine isn't the Utopian Dream you seem to think it is. As I've explained before on these boards...I spent 8 years in the UK, becoming WELL aquainted with the HORRENDOUSLY POOR care received under the NHS. My husband and his entire family were raised with it and they ABHOR it. Not only do they abhor it, they FEAR it.
When you have socialized medicine you are literally putting your life and health into the hands of politicians. My husband's aunt lost her life because under socialized medicine and its inequalities she was not living in the "right" post code to receive life saving cancer treatment. I knew a young woman, only 33 years old, who needlessly lost her life to breast cancer, because 1. she was considered too "young" to have regular checks for breast lumps, and 2. she also lived in the "wrong" area to receive cancer treatment. Her family and friends rallied together and offered to PAY for the treatments and were told that it would NOT be accepted. In the UK the richer/wealthier post code areas receive more health care services and access to life saving treatments than do those who live in poorer post codes.
Do you really think, in the hands of the government, the poor would receive the same quality of care as the rich, through the same socialized system? Think again! Don't dream it, live it. Pack up your bags and go live in the UK for a few years.
I grew up in the UK and my mother still lives there. The NHS services that I received were fine. The NHS services my mother receives are excellent. I lived all over the UK. Where my mother lives is not known as a "rich" area.
The NHS has many problems. But it still provides a very decent service at a cost we can only dream about. This is supported by comparative public health statistics. I would not argue that health care in the UK is better than here. But it is comparable in quality and a whole lot cheaper. Of course Brits complain about the NHS. But they do not want to get rid of it and go to an American style system. What they want to do is make it better.
There are tons of jobs out there, the overwhelming majority of the US population is gainfully employed and a large number of the people who are unemployed right now refuse to take available jobs because they don't want to change fields of take lower pay than they're used to.
That is a VERY IGNORANT STATEMENT if I ever saw one! Most of these jobs DON'T HAVE HEATHCARE!!! What USA are you living in?? Do you know how much premiums are??? Many people can't even get coverage!!!! Thanks to a company that are paid bonuses to deny you!
I don't want Obama spending my tax dollars killing innocent Libyans any more than I want it spend on universal healthcare.
You do realize your are already being taxes as many dollars for health care as a UHC sysyem would cost, don't you?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cyanna
Yep, and that socialized medicine isn't the Utopian Dream you seem to think it is. As I've explained before on these boards...I spent 8 years in the UK, becoming WELL aquainted with the HORRENDOUSLY POOR care received under the NHS. My husband and his entire family were raised with it and they ABHOR it. Not only do they abhor it, they FEAR it.
Do you really think, in the hands of the government, the poor would receive the same quality of care as the rich, through the same socialized system? Think again! Don't dream it, live it. Pack up your bags and go live in the UK for a few years.
Well, the UK does have much better results than the USA. People live longer, their health lifespans are longer, infant mortality is lower, mothers have half the chance of dying in childbirth that they have in the USA, amendable mortality is less. So it'd probably be much better.
Those are all facts, btw. So I'm not going to take the anecdotal rants of someone anonymous on the internet too seriously.
NB4 someone doesn't realize that their insurance premiums pay for others people's health care and other people's insurance premiums pay for their health care
Yep, and all of us in the pool have to pay. Now a large number of people in the US pay no taxes at all, if UHC is government-provided healthcare how will the govenrment pay for the people who don't contribute?
I don't know if this is true, but I heard that England does have some private healthcare and private insurance available for people who are interested. Maybe I heard wrong.
Britain has always had a private sector that operated in parallel with and integrated with the public system. What many people do - either privately or through their employer - is to buy "top-up" insurance. That way they use the NHS system for primary care but, if they have something that needs to get done (usually non-urgent), they have the option of going private.
Question: Why is Medicare, designed to provide affordable health care system to the elderly, is unaffordable?
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