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i love how some people are protesting about Govt interference being so bad. I remember Hurrican Katrina. The state should be the First responders. The mayor of New Orleans did not want the Govt to send anyone as it was "All under Control" But everyone now has criticised the Govt for NOT getting there quick enough. The Govt couldn't win for trying. Is it just the word GOVERNMENT that brings you out in a rash?
That was a good example of why I want to depend on the government less not more.
Those people who didn't depend on the government got out just fine. It was those who needed the government who were let down.
I do not want to trust my health care to a government that is already looking at over $3 trillion budget deficits.
But how does redistributing a hunk of my husband's paycheck to create a new class of government servants prevent people from becoming so unhealthily obese that they require gastic bypass surgeries in the first place?
Did our grandmothers "need" gastric bypasses? Maybe some of the things we "need" so bad are the consequences of decades of bad decisions-- but creating a new government beauracracy will not ameliorate this tendency, IMO.
I know a woman who had one of those -- very expensive surgery. And now she's having problems with bowel obstruction -- she just had a surgery and hospital stay costing $52,000 for that.
They can cut health care costs by eliminating the waste and extravagance -- but at least the way it is now with the cafeteria plans, I can choose to be in the group of the lowest users and pay less.
Would the UHI allow for that? Could you pick the user pool you wanted to be in?
We don't have a shortage now..what makes you think we will with UHI. I believe that KNOWING that EVERYONE who walks through a hospital door will ACTUALLYBE PAID FOR would be SO VERY WELCOME by Doctors and Hospitals.. NOT ONLY THAT.. BUT THEY'D GET PAID WITHOUT HAVING TO JUMP THROUGH SO MANY HOOPS WITH SO MANY LAYERS OF MULTIPLE PAYERS..ETC.!!
And..all those hospitals would also be happy to take private health insurance too.
When patients' medical bills are all covered by the government and patients themselves have little financial liability when they utilize health care resources, you will get overutilitzation of resources. The demand for health services will increase because the consumer will no longer feel the impact of prices on their consumption behavior. This is basic economics.
If you increase the demand for a good or service that is in limited supply while capping their prices, that good or service will be consumed rapidly. This happened during the 1970s when Nixon imposed price controls on gasoline. His intention was to blunt the impact of high prices on the consumer. But instead of solving the energy crisis, price controls merely exacerbated it because consumers were no longer deterred by the high prices, so they proceeded to buy up as much gasoline as they could, further depleting the supply of gasoline.
Prices serve an important function in a market economy. They provide critical information on the state of the supply-demand equilibrium. They provide feedback to the consumer to enable him to modify his consuming behavior accordingly. High prices will tell the consumer that a good or service is in limited supply and is being overutilized. If health care services are expensive, that means that we are overutilizing them, or that the supply of health care services is limited, or both.
The correct solution to expensive health care is to decrease the utilization of these services, or to increase their supply (i.e. produce more doctors, hospitals, drugs, etc). Mandated universal health care does not accomplish either one. It will only aggravate the problem because it will increase the demand for services while limiting their supply (ie, hospitals and doctors will go out of business since their ability to make profits will be capped by the government).
K.. you say it's abad idea.. but don't give any valid reasons as to why it's a bad idea.. what are YOUR ideas.. simply stating it is a bad idea doesn't make it so.
Universal healthcare would provide us with a watered down, subpar healthcare system. Think of it like a kid in a candystore, if it's free people are going to take advantage of it. People are going to make sure they get there 'piece'. You keep comparing it to systems like the ones that exist in England and Canada. Two countries with a combined populations which is only about one third of our population. I believe that dynamic itself would effect the system. Talk about bottlenecks. People already wait hours to see a doctor.
Most of our healthcare cost goes to preventable diseases. Universal healthcare doesn't fix that, hence it doesn't fix the problem.
They say 42 million people don't have insurance. I don't think that number is close to accurate. But they say it on cnn so it must be true right? We don't know the extent of the uninsured so to propose universal healthcare as 'the soution' makes no sense.
What we need to do is get people to live a healthier lifestyles and eliminate illegal immigration as best as we can.
I can't drive more than 100 feet without seeing a 30,000 dollar suv's or 3000 sqaure foot houses. Don't tell me people live frugal lives and use money for health insurance and disability insurance. And no I don't live in a rich area so don't even play that card. I live in a normal average area.
Granted, insurance companies aren't perfect. But universal healthcare will solve nothing for us. It will jsut create subpar care, longer waits, and more taxes.
At the risk of sounding boastful - yes, I believe I am. And, I acknowledge there are issues to be addressed. I have never indicated differently.
I am part of a small group of Americans, who have been asked by Members of Congress, to meet, look over, and propose changes to the Heath Insurance delievry system in the United State. Our charge is to try to come up with proposals that would be introduced in the next Congress.
I did not plan on doing this - I was asked, after contacting members of my Congressional delegation with my own ideas for solutions.
We, the group, have seen specific details from a lot of different sources - including the candidates proposals (past and present) -
What I would suggest is, once the nominees have been selected, then is the time to "tie them down" to their specific and detailed, proposals.
Please suggest more programs like the HSA's -- I think that kind of solution is best along with a number of options.
With just $100 a month, people can invest $1200 a year into an HSA and that money can be used to cover the deductible they might run into if they choose the plan with the lowest premiums.
And for the uninsured, I think it would be best to have an insurance plan similar to what many of us have -- pay more monthly fees if you want lower co-pays and deductibles.
And another idea would be to just have catestrophic care -- people can manage to find $500 a month for car payments, $200 or more for cell phone service -- they can pay a $100 or $150 doctor's office bill for a routine checkup.
Hey I got an idea. How about people take care of themselves and lead healthy lifestyles. I'm sure a drastic change in lifestyle would save millions and millions in healthcare costs! Oh wait, that would require people being responsible.
Yes -- it might be better to look at how some people manage to live a full lifespan and almost never spend a day of it in a hospital and visit doctors very seldom.
I think it's a bit of a myth to think that you need a doctor to tell you're feeling fine if you're feeling fine. And there is no evidence that people who routinely see doctors are healthier than those who see them when they have a symptom.
And what about people who choose alternative medicine? If you wished to go to an herbalist instead of a pharmacist, or holistic medicine instead, or wanted to avoid back or neck surgery with chiropracters -- would that all be paid?
I, too, think it would be GREAT if there were some kind of "opt-out" choice, but that's not going to be the political reality at the end of the day, not anymore than one can "opt out" of paying for depressingly mediocre public schools.
If we COULD opt out, then most people with the means or sense to avoid the system will do exactly that... leaving behind a big pool of "underprivileged" beneficiaries who insist they have rights to all kinds of treatments at taxpayer expense. (and a very large class of newly-minted, cushily-paid government bureaucrats to "help" them plead their case.)
That's why the system is going to have to be all or nothing at all.
"Universal" does not mean "optional."
The government has never been reticent to rob Peter to pay Paul when it comes to big tear-jerking programs like this, either. They will be more than happy to charge the bill to China if that's what they have to do to keep getting elected. Most of the electorate is too stupid or lazy to care much about that sort of thing, frankly.
Meanwhile, the teevee will run ads with heartless Republicans slashing programs to give kidney transplants to disadvantaged Mexican immigrants. lol.
With a UHI system there will be no “levels”of coverage. Any disease, ailment you come down with .. If there is a treatment for it, you will be treated. Your Dr will decide with YOU what your course of treatment is and it will be done. The government will not be able to overide your Dr. If there is even a remote chance for recovery, you deserve that chance if you want it. You won’t have to fear financial ruin because you got sick. Every patient that walks through those hospital doors will get treated and every patient will have been paid for such a treatment. There will be no “losses” that must be passed on to the rest of us. THIS in itself, will keep the price of procedures down. The government, much like the many different insurance companies, will negotiate prices.. FAIR prices for both all of us insured AND the doctors etc. to be treated. Because our pool of people paying INTO the system with our income taxes will be the largest pool EVER it gives us as a nation of people more bargaining power.
Those who feel that they want even more (which, quite honestly WON’T be necessary) but those who “fear” that what we’ll have will NOT be enough, by all means purchase addition Private insurance. If you can’t because you can’t afford to, you still have nothing to fear because you are covered for EVERYTHING. Private health insurance will pay for those “elective” surgeries and private rooms in hospitals.
Choices.. We all worry about choices. No one wants to be told what they can and can’t do by the Government.. But NOTHING about UHI is telling you what you CAN and CAN’T do! YOU go to whatever Dr you want to go to, whichever hospital YOU choose. If there IS a private hospital that you want to go to that isn’t UHI, then by all means purchase additional insurance for that hospital. BUT there will be so many hospitals that ARE UHI that you will have so many choices, why would you need to pay more! There will be no Dr or Hospital that would not want to be UHI.. Because it’s simple, mainstream,gurantees payment and reduces their admin costs!
All the government does in any of this, is collect the money from our paychecks in the form of UHI tax AND write the checks to the Dr’s and hospitals for the procedures (and pharmacy for our medicines).
I see NO negative to ANY of this so far!
Will the system be perfect. .NO.. NOTHING ever is.
A lot of the opposition is “why should I pay for others”. But we already are for so many things. Now I know that schools are run differently and taxed differently based on State, County or local towns.. But the bottom line is that schools are paid for through taxes. Are they perfect? NO . but we ARE getting an education. A lot of the quality of our education varies from location to location. I believe that is based on the make up of the people, their attitudes toward schools, their participation in the local formation of schools and curriculums etc. You can’t simply blame the government for a schools failure or success. Do they play a part, absolutely. Bottom line is we are all paying for all our kids of this nation to have an education AND we are paying proportionate to what our “worth is”. I can only use what my local area has as an example but here it goes.
You have a town where property values range from $200,000 - $1,000,000 (really higher.. But this is an example) Property taxes are based on assessed dollar amount. 65% of our tax bill is for schools, the rest is for local services like garbage, etc. So one persons tax bill might be $2000/year.. Another’s might be $15,000 a year.. But their kids go to the same school district. So while contributions from the wealthy are more in dollar amount it is not disproportionate to their “property values” . That same principal can be applied to salaries as far as paying into UHI.
IT can also be argued that the “wealthy” do not HAVE to send their kids to the publicly funded school.. Actually no one does. If you can afford to and have the means to and feel better about it, you can send your kids to private school and pay a tuition for that private school. This DOES NOT affect the property taxes that they pay, it’s still the same. But let’s say that they meet harder times and Private school is no longer an option, then the public schools are there for them!
We value education because if education wasn’t free, we may have a nation of uneducated bufoons! We agree that educating our population is for the betterment and advancement of our nation and it’s people.
Healthcare should be given the SAME if not more so than education.. We are talking about HUMAN Life. Good health is NOT a luxury that is available ONLY to the rich.. Just like education is NOT only a Luxury available to only the wealthy.
If people got past their “fears” and really opened their eyes to UHI they could see so much possibility and promise. For one UHI is given to EVERY INDIVIDUAL.. The employer doesn’t OWN the plan you have.. All the plans are the same.. ALL the plans include EVERYTHING (with exception to plastic surgery and elective surgeries, of course). Many of the rich feel that it’s only “the minimum cookie cutter”.. No .. it’s the maximum but for ALL NOT just the wealthy! This would mean that businesses.. Big and small, would no longer have to pay per employee for health insurance.. It’s paid for out of their taxes. Yes, they would have to contribute something to the UHI pot out of their profits, but it could be significantly less than paying for each individual employee through a prive plan. And hey if they want to offer private health insurance as an added benefit.. That‘s their perogative as well. That savings can be passed on in so many ways.. Like product development. Or better yet, when employers factor in salaries they also have to factor in benefits to that salary. That savings can also translate to offering a higher gross amount to the employee! Or for re-investment into the market.
Small businesses would be able to compete, as they will feel these savings as well (which will be significantly more for small business because they paid much more proportianaley than big business).
When someone looses their job, they don’t have to worry about whether or not they will loose their insurance because NO one looses their insurance. It goes where you go. Yes, this person will not have a salary to contribute to the pot for the time they are unemployed BUT eventually they will be employed again unless they want to be a bum and live on the streets!
Hypothetically the pot could be so big that any SURPLUS in the UHI fund can be used to invest in new medical technologies and medications!! Or just left alone.. Whatever.
With so many numbers into one pot the offsetting will be so amazing we’d all be paying LESS for getting MORE than EVER possible with a private health insurance plan.
And here is one of the best parts.. The decision s will not be made based on PROFIT .. But based on HUMAN need, human life!
Are there some problems that need to be ironed out .. Certainly . For one, we’d have to figure out a fair percentage to tax income .. But it would be a flat percentage (IMO) so proportionately we are all paying in the same. We have an immigration problem.. But here’s an idea. . All those that have a SS# get an insurance card. If someone without one doesn’t get a card, then when they are ill and seek treatment we will know then that they ARE illegal and we can find out a little more.. Where have they been working? Living? Are they criminals, if so we’ll need to deport them. They WILL get treatment, yes, but it’s a good way to find those that ARE illegal and then , based on whatever policy the nation comes up with.. Deal with them. Remember.. Our pool is so large, that it can bear that cost without breaking our backs. We are already bearing the cost for this, but because the system is so splintered it’s hurting us more now than it would under a UHI.
I actually have this more thought out.. But for lack of space, and after all this is a posting board .. I’ve shortened it.. Even though it’s long..LOL.. My point is.. If you STOP and REALLY REALLY think it out and think it through and take FEAR out of the picture, you’ll see that ray of light that the UHI will be FOR ALL!!!
I’m not going to go back and forth anymore.. If you are thinking only with fear, you are not thinking with an open mind and no amount of back and forth is going to change that.. I just watned to get all my thoughts into this post and say what I needed to say.
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