To all conservatives out there...

[ahzzie]

Originally Posted by wutitiz

You were right about one thing: not much traffic in this thread. But the 'loud quiet' appears to be on the left side of the aisle, not the right. OP appears to have skedaddled from his/her own thread.

No one has "skedaddled" from here. I didn't make this thread to comment myself, I made it so I could see what other (viable) ideas the average person could produce. Information to satisfy a curiosity; nothing more, nothing less.

[TrapperJohn]

Originally Posted by ahzzie

To all of you conservatives out there who rail against socialized medicine:

You say you don't want your taxes to pay for other people's healthcare. I understand that point of view. Unless you've been living under a rock the last 50 years then you know that the price of healthcare has evolved to a point to where it is out of reach for the vast majority of Americans. My challenge to you if you oppose socialized medicine is to offer viable solutions that would bring that cost down to a point that the lowest wage earners in this country could afford an extended hospital stay and the necessary followup therapy and/or care that is required to treat a major illness.

You say you want people to pay for their own medical care, well either do something to bring down the cost or accept socialized medicine as the alternative. The system has gotten to a point where it cannot sustain itself in its current form. None of us choose to be sick so you cannot expect medical services to be reserved solely for the ultra-rich. That is a system that is doomed to failure.

What percentage of your salary are you willing to pay for a single payer plan?

[Yeledaf]

Originally Posted by TrapperJohn

What percentage of your salary are you willing to pay for a single payer plan?

Any opinion offered would probably would depend on one's age or general health. For example, I'm old and pretty healthy for my age. But I'd probably be a lot more willing to pay for guaranteed healthcare than a twenty-something out there.

I would think the way to approach this would be to put together a cost/benefits analysis and make an educated estimate of exactly what the cost burden would be per person/taxpayer, and engage the country in a meaningful debate.

It remains a mystery to me why the single-payer side has not done this. In the absence of hard data, one must assume that the answer involves taxation at a level that they think the public would reject.

[monkeywrenching]

Originally Posted by ahzzie

To all of you conservatives out there who rail against socialized medicine:

You say you don't want your taxes to pay for other people's healthcare. I understand that point of view. Unless you've been living under a rock the last 50 years then you know that the price of healthcare has evolved to a point to where it is out of reach for the vast majority of Americans. My challenge to you if you oppose socialized medicine is to offer viable solutions that would bring that cost down to a point that the lowest wage earners in this country could afford an extended hospital stay and the necessary followup therapy and/or care that is required to treat a major illness.

You say you want people to pay for their own medical care, well either do something to bring down the cost or accept socialized medicine as the alternative. The system has gotten to a point where it cannot sustain itself in its current form. None of us choose to be sick so you cannot expect medical services to be reserved solely for the ultra-rich. That is a system that is doomed to failure.

sure thing, easy fixes all around.

1. get goverment out of health care
2. let the citizen decide on what state they want to buy their insurance and what they want for insurance.
3. control doctors malpractice insurance.
4. if a doctor gets sued for actual malpractice, then fine he should be sued. but if the patient sues the doctor for their own stupidity, then they should be taken out back and beat with a stout 2x4.
5. people that are legally in the USA such as tourists, legal immigrants and migrant workers should be allowed to get insurance or care at a hospital.
but illegal immigrants that are here illegally, should not be allowed to even get basic medical care. they came here on a risk, and that risk should also include no medical care.