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Will an America with free health care destroy our caplitalist society?
Gee, I don't know. Did an America with free national defense destroy our capitalist society? Did an America with free K-12 education system destroy our capitalist society? Did an America with a free interstate transportation system destroy our capitalist society? Did an America with a free police system destroy our capitalist society?
Or did all those things help promote our capitalist society? For some of us, your question seems backwards.
Now, before some bonehead points out that none of those things are free - we know already. But there are some things that work better when we handle them as a society.
Sorry about your uncle. Horror stories can always be found. We never hear about the successes that we do have here in this country. Lowest mortality of cancer, heart disease, and basically all major medical problems are best treated here. Patients fly from all over the world to have their care here. I've been involved in the health care industry for a long time, and I can tell you that mistakes happen in any system. Even under universal health. We are all human, and human will make mistakes. I just know that the government have failed at just about every think they get their hands on.
Thanks.
My response with a personal experience was to provide a perspective against a very rosy picture being put of our current system. In fact, the system is representative of what is wrong with America and the government. Corporations can throw millions at most politicians and get whatever they want.
Government is always wrong is a poor way of putting any argument in a democratic setup. Would you prefer corporations to run the country instead? This is exactly the kind of influence the founding fathers feared, who wanted to keep people in control of the corporations, not the other way around (it was really corporations they fought against, to begin with).
I'm a proponent of a single payer system, which many have suggested. It could simply be expanded (but reformed) medicare system and details of which could be discussed elsewhere (there's another thread on it). Why do you like having a bunch of middle men? (note the plurality).
83 percent of psychiatrists, 69 percent of emergency medicine specialists, 65 percent of pediatricians, 64 percent of internists, 60 percent of family physicians and 55 percent of general surgeons favor a national health insurance plan.
AMA also supports it. In addition, AMA believes that people should have their own coverage as opposed to being insured via employment. Now, under current system the average cost to insure a family is $12,760/year and that is no joke. Much of this is due to excessive waste in the industry.
Nationalized healthcare is, perhaps, the answer to much of this country's dire need for healthcare reform. It should help reduce, if not eliminate corruption, put power back into the hands of the people.
Now, I can see why republicans will be opposed to it. They fear a system that people will love and realize that GOP was it that stood between them and what could be the most practical solution to healthcare needs of this country.
Gee, I don't know. Did an America with free national defense destroy our capitalist society? Did an America with free K-12 education system destroy our capitalist society? Did an America with a free interstate transportation system destroy our capitalist society? Did an America with a free police system destroy our capitalist society?
Or did all those things help promote our capitalist society? For some of us, your question seems backwards.
Now, before some bonehead points out that none of those things are free - we know already. But there are some things that work better when we handle them as a society.
NATIONAL DEFENSE? What unWar have we won since 1945? And what about "securing our borders"? total failure!
EDUCATION SYSTEM? Our high school grad rate is abysmal. Aptitude test scores are skewing DOWN. "Socialized" Education rewards trying more than achieving. Teachers flunk basic English tests! Newspapers are dumbed down to the 4th grade level of reading.
INTERSTATE TRANSPORTATION? Duh? Every tank of gas has paid for it. And other taxes, as well. Frankly, subsidizing petroleum based transportation was the BIGGEST MISTAKE ever made. But that's not germane to this posting.
Finally, since you think you're in a "capitalist" society, when in fact, the U.S.A. has been socialist since 1935, only shows how GOOD the propaganda ministry really is.
Capitalism has been dead since the American socialist revolution in 1935.
CAPITALISM - An economic system in which the means of production, distribution and exchange are privately owned and operated for private profit.
- - - Webster's Dictionary
A farmer who owns his farm enjoys capitalism. A farmer who doesn't is a tenant.
A laborer who owns the fruits of his labor enjoys capitalism. A laborer who doesn't is a slave.
PRIVATE PROPERTY - "As protected from being taken for public uses, is such property as belongs absolutely to an individual, and of which he has the exclusive right of disposition. Property of a specific, fixed and tangible nature, capable of being in possession and transmitted to another, such as houses, lands, and chattels."
- - - Black's Law dictionary, sixth ed., p.1217
If you concatenate capitalism with private property, you can see the "inconvenient truth".
Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production, distribution and exchange are absolutely owned by individuals and operated for their individual profit.
Anything else is NOT capitalism, including usury (which likes to call its nefarious scheme "capitalizing") and limited liability artificial persons (stock corporations) who engage in usury.
Remember, if you fail to pay your "socialist" taxes, who really "owns" you and your property... THE COLLECTIVE STATE.
Every day I listen to the talking heads argue about Obama's free health care plan. Some say it would lead to everyone in the USA looking for a handout i.e a free car, free food, free movies, a free computer etc etc. I don't really buy that. Do you? Why or why not? I guess I don't understand what free health care has to do with the entrepreneurial spirit of America. What does the security of someone getting treated for an injury/illness have to do with limiting his/her ability to create a business, or invent a desirable product, or learn a skill etc. etc in order to create capital.
I mean, couldn't free health care save some companies from having to pay for the insurance of its employees thus giving them more money to expand the company?
How much more would taxes be in order to have a free health care system?
Also would hospitals become nationalized under this plan or would the treatment be covered under some sort of government health insurance plan?
Would the quality of health care be diminished with a free health care system? Why or why not?
I guess I am looking for LEGITIMATE non-political party based reasons as to why Free Health Care is or isn't a good endeavor other than it's democrat or not republican. Politics and its tians are what divide this country....but that is a different thread topic.
I mean, couldn't free health care save some companies from having to pay for the insurance of its employees thus giving them more money to expand the company?
How much more would taxes be in order to have a free health care system?
Would the quality of health care be diminished with a free health care system? Why or why not?
Health care costs are a very large and difficult to control cost element for businesses. Shifting the responsibility to government should be welcomed by business. Huge staffs are employed in business to monitor, track, look for scams, etc. There is great uncertainty about projecting future health care costs. I presume that those staffs would over time be transferred (merged, purged, or in some way) to the government payrole eliminating a major headache to the business community.
I forsee increased requests for disability since the government will be setting the standard and SS disability paying for it, further putting pressure on the Social Security system. Attorneys will see business increase. Clinics will become much more crowded, and time off for people to get to see a provider will increase. Lines will become unbearable, with people normally expecting a short doctor visit will spend huge amounts of time in the clerical system that will be created by government health care. Paying for the system will become the responsibility of individual taxpayers, and those individuals will be paying for their portion and that of those who pay no taxes.
Small businesses will especially be glad to be rid of this burden - it is no longer they who are the bad guys, it is the government if you have a beef about coverage.
So, I think it is good news for business. Things will not change for those at the top (congressional health care will not suffer). Things will get better for the non taxpayer, and the folks in the middle will bear more and more of the brunt to pay for the system.
So, this is my response to the question as it affects business. The moral issues I leave for someone else.
What causes medical costs to go up?
[] inflation (loss of buying power of the current monies)
[] increased overhead costs (insurance paperwork, legal costs, bureaucracy)
[] scarcity of care givers (medical schooling is suspiciously restricted)
[] usury (interest on debt)
[] taxation
What would cause medical costs to go down?
[] deflation (increased buying power)
[] reduced overhead costs (eliminate 'insurance' paperwork, etc)
[] increased supply of care givers (expand opportunities for medical training)
[] ban usury (and 'medical insurers' who take profit from the premiums paid)
[] eliminate taxation on production and labor
There is no solution to astronomical medical costs by doing anything that drives the cost up. That includes any government scam (I mean plan) to make single payer health care insurance the law of the land.
EDUCATION SYSTEM? Our high school grad rate is abysmal. Aptitude test scores are skewing DOWN. "Socialized" Education rewards trying more than achieving. Teachers flunk basic English tests!
Wow, you think this has anything to do with the fact that the educational profession is not financially rewarded in capitalism, because it has no measurable economic return? Teachers in more socialized countries produce much better results.....I wonder why that is...
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Another one
