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Well tell me, How many millions of illegals do they have in their country? How much of their budget(s) are spent on educating, housing and providing medical assistance to that illegal alien population?
We are talking pure dollars and cents (or Peso's) here, nothing to do with racism....
I don't know the extend of it, but they do have some illegals from Peru, who immigrat for much the same reason as Mexicans do to the US. Chile & Peru have a history of animosity.
Isn't their Social l Security system top-notch as well?
Yes, that's what I was mentioning in a previous post. Chile still has a pretty big informal labor force who don't contribute to the Social Security system, though. That is probably the system's biggest problem....lack of contributions from the lowest wage earners becuase they're not part of the formal labor force.
Poor people don't have to pay the bill, so that's an ignorant statement at best, hyperbole at worst.
Not being able to afford health insurance doesn't automatically qualify you for Medicaid. There is a large gap between those that qualify for Medicaid, and those who can afford health-insurance premiums.
Not being able to afford health insurance doesn't automatically qualify you for Medicaid. There is a large gap between those that qualify for Medicaid, and those who can afford health-insurance premiums.
Yes, I understand that.
I'm sure you'll think I"m nuts, but I think insurance should only be for medical catastrophes. Everything else we should pay for out of pocket. If we must have government involvement, let the government give everyone X amount to spend on health care in health savings accounts, but let them go to the provider of their choice, and let people keep any surpluses for future medical expenses.
Our health care would be 50% cheaper if we could get rid of most insurance and let people shop around for their own doctors/care. People would also see the true cost of their unhealthy lifestyles, which would give them more of an incentive to take better care of themselves.
As it stands now, there's no incentive on the part of consumers or providers to keep costs in line because of the lack of competition and price transparency.
I'm sure you'll think I"m nuts, but I think insurance should only be for medical catastrophes. Everything else we should pay for out of pocket. If we must have government involvement, let the government give everyone X amount to spend on health care in health savings accounts, but let them go to the provider of their choice, and let people keep any surpluses for future medical expenses.
Our health care would be 50% cheaper if we could get rid of most insurance and let people shop around for their own doctors/care. People would also see the true cost of their unhealthy lifestyles, which would give them more of an incentive to take better care of themselves.
As it stands now, there's no incentive on the part of consumers or providers to keep costs in line because of the lack of competition and price transparency.
Single-payer puts the treatment between the patient and the provider, not between the provider and the insurance company as it is now. Single-payer allows you to walk into a clinic or hospital and get the treatment you need. You can't do that now with an insurance company, and unless you're extraordinarily wealthy, you can't walk into any hospital and pay out of pocket for something like cancer treatments or major surgery.
The cost of surgery these days is enough to bankrupt families. What makes you think someone who can't afford insurance to begin with could afford a $50,000 medical bill?
There is a great fallacy of conservative thought--"take the government out of it," as if privatization is a magic cure-all to social ills. I'm not targetting you directly, but as a matter of statement, "remove the government from X" is not an arugment not does it actually show why that would be in any way better or more effective than what the government is doing now, or counter arguments showing more government (abstractly) would improve X.
One of the major expenses of insurance now is administrative costs. When you centralize the entire program, you cut the fat of administration. It's one of many reasons single-payer is cheaper.
Maybe we can learn form Chile and interestingly enough, I do not see trickle down voodoo mentioned as the means to end poverty and boost the economy.
Oh really? Is that so?
Quote:
But after a decade in which savvy leftist legislators in Chile pursued a bold economic program to embrace the free market, while at the same time creating public policy measures to address the needs of the most impoverished in the country, poverty is rapidly becoming an anachronism in Chile, one of the world's fastest-growing economies.
What many of the politicians fail to acknowledge is the economic legacy of the Pinochet years. While poverty remained high when the general stepped down after 17 years in power, he did usher in a program of free-market reformsthat tore down tariff barriers and other bureaucratic obstacles, paving the way for the myriad free-trade deals that the country has in place today. The measures also ushered in a flood of foreign investment, including more than $7 billion worth of Canadian investment, mainly in the mining sector.
When centre-left politicians took over after the general's resignation in 1990, they might have had Pinochet's capitalist experiment in mind when they focused a great deal of their efforts on programs that offered small loans to Chile's most impoverished residents, allowing them to open small businesses in urban shantytowns and impoverished rural areas -- effectively turning Chile into a nation of entrepreneurs, as per Pinochet's original plan.
Funny how you didn't see it, because it's littered throughout the article. Guess you just happened to miss all that while quoting the other paragraphs, eh?
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