Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Politics and Other Controversies
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 06-22-2007, 02:37 AM
 
Location: NM
1,211 posts, read 1,849,972 times
Reputation: 1125

Advertisements

Nothing is ever free, funding for their healthcare system has to come from somewhere otherwise known as the taxpayer.

Having said that, something has to be done about our current healthcare system. There's something like 46 or so million Americans who are uninsured, for the world's most powerful nation, that's disgraceful.

Hell my parents will be retiring soon, they've decided if they ever needed surgery, they'll fly to India. Same quality care for a fraction of the costs, even with travel expenses factored in.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 06-22-2007, 02:58 AM
 
Location: Here + There = Everywhere
415 posts, read 703,982 times
Reputation: 123
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spudcommando View Post
Nothing is ever free, funding for their healthcare system has to come from somewhere otherwise known as the taxpayer.

Having said that, something has to be done about our current healthcare system. There's something like 46 or so million Americans who are uninsured, for the world's most powerful nation, that's disgraceful.

Hell my parents will be retiring soon, they've decided if they ever needed surgery, they'll fly to India. Same quality care for a fraction of the costs, even with travel expenses factored in.
Funny you say that. Because quite a few people come to Costa Rica just for that reason. Here the healthcare system has flaws, but doctors are way cheap. So are lawyers. A catscan or something that would cost 1,500 in the US costs $120.00 here. And if you are a tourist and need to go to the hospital, it's initially free. Not quite sure what the limit is, but a friend of mine had an emergency (the idiot stepped in glass walking home drunk from the bar) and the procedure to remove the glass which has already been walked deep into his foot was free.

A lot of people praise Scandinavia for its healthcare system, but looking deeper you realize that those making over 50k a year pay over 50% in taxes. That IMO is NOT a good thing. There is a reason so much is happening in the U.S. Free enterprise and entrepreneurialship needs to be encouraged and you won't get that accomplished by basically telling people "Go ahead, study harder, work harder, so you can pay more money to support whoever can't afford it".

There is no easy solution. Unless you have more and more doctors in the U.S. to create more competition amongst them.
But let's also face the fact that a ton of ailments in the U.S. are self inflicted. Smoking, overeating etc.
Maybe the solution is to work on creating better eating habit. The anti smoking movement seems to work well, but unfortunately being overweight and killing yourself with fast food seems to be socially accepted.


In many other countries they don't have the problems to that extent.
So rather than trying to change what is the free market, I think the best thing to do is work on preventing illnesses rather than finding cheaper ways to fix them, and maybe then there will be less of a demand for doctors and the prices will go down.

Mike
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-22-2007, 09:19 AM
 
Location: Burlington VT
1,405 posts, read 4,778,151 times
Reputation: 554
Thanks for doing some arithmetic for us, Cornerguy1.



Quote:
Originally Posted by Cornerguy1 View Post
Just a couple of clarifications:




LOL. Look again. While milk hasn't been sold here by the gallon for quite some time, 4 liters, (a tad more than an American gallon), was going for $3.79Cdn at the corner store yesterday. Milk prices, by the way, have precious little to do with taxes and considerably more to do with guaranteed prices for milk paid to dairy farmers by provincial marketing boards for supply management purposes.

Gasoline today was going for $.99 Cdn per liter. At 3.78 liters per US gallon that would put the price at $3.74 Cdn per gallon. Using today's exchange rate of .936, (the US greenback had been taking a hammering lately), that would put a US gallon of gasoline at $3.50 US at my local station. A tad pricey, perhaps, but not quite $6 yet.



Not quite. There are all sorts of private health insurance plans available with coverages for upgraded hospital accomodation, dental care, prescription drugs, physiotherapy, etc. What is illegal is for private companies to establish for-profit facilities offering non-elective surgical and medical care. In other words, no private hospitals creating a 2-tier health system.

There are, however, numerous private, for-profit, facilities offering cosmetic surgery, abortions, and various diagnostic services.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-26-2007, 03:10 PM
 
67 posts, read 227,318 times
Reputation: 35
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mooseketeer View Post
On the other hand if you were in France, your healthcare would be free and you would have seen a doctor TODAY. ( oh and BTW the French healthcare system is rated the best in the world despite being free by the WHO).
It’s perfectly amazing how so many people complain about the way things are done in the U.S. as compared to other countries, but they get up everyday and go to their well paying “American” job. If you don’t like it here, why don’t you do like the illegal aliens do to their country……LEAVE!!! Roll that in your "Universal Heath Care" brochure and smoke it.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-20-2007, 10:25 AM
 
2 posts, read 5,503 times
Reputation: 10
Canada Healthcare is paid for by a persons taxes: I didnt like it much but now that i have to have an operation, I've been treated with respect and kind care. Thanks Canada Healthcare>
For USA if heath insurance cost too much--look into health insurance for 1st rate care in Philippines, Thailand, India, Malaysia. This is what my American friends do and have a free holiday included.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-20-2007, 10:42 AM
 
2,137 posts, read 3,851,047 times
Reputation: 608
Quote:
Originally Posted by happyappy View Post
This is a very big subject and is full of complexities. Responding with short, terse comments as though the writer is expert on the subject is not helpful in understanding this enormous problem of healthcare in America.
The above post that questioned the "free" aspect of Canadian healthcare was short and terse and a very good question. Probably the first question to answer, if you are being intellectually honest and VERY helpful in understanding this enormous problem of healthcare in America. Why don't you have a go at it?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-20-2007, 10:45 AM
 
Location: In an illegal immigrant free part of the country.
2,096 posts, read 1,462,917 times
Reputation: 382
I didn't read through the thread. I lived in Cananda for 2 years and when you look at your pay stub and see the taxes taken out you can bet you are paying bug bucks for that "free health care".

I was in Canada last week and everything is still so expensive!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-20-2007, 11:01 AM
 
Location: Londonderry, NH
41,478 posts, read 59,627,700 times
Reputation: 24860
I would support a tax system based on all income from all sources (I mean all including drug smuggling or other crimes including bribes) with a base deductible of twice the median income. The tax rate above that would vary from 20% to 80% depending on income. There would be no sales or property taxes. Inheritances would count, above the deductible, as income.

The Scandinavian system seems to work fairly well because I do not see a flood of illegal immigrants, fleeing the tyrannies that tax them so heavily, invading our country.

This would collect enough taxes to pay for health care as well as colonial wars like Iraq and Vietnam and all manner of corporate socialism like the no-bid contracts passed out by this administration.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-20-2007, 12:19 PM
 
Location: Texas
320 posts, read 295,718 times
Reputation: 95
Quote:
Originally Posted by justone321 View Post
What is Canada doing right with healthcare that we are doing wrong? How can they have free Healthcare and we in the US can not? If free healthcare was that easy to implement wouldn't we have done it already? What's the hold up?
Healthcare in Canada is not free, but it is cheaper when the cost is shared among society. That's what they do, but through taxes.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 08-20-2007, 12:21 PM
 
Location: Texas
320 posts, read 295,718 times
Reputation: 95
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dingler View Post
In Canada it is nearly impossible to get an appointment for medical care. Do you want that?
Um, what makes you think that? Most Canadian's wait a day or two before they can visit a doctor. Heck, I have to wait a WEEK or two before -I- can visit a doctor, and I pay TWICE as much for health insurance as a Canadian does through taxes.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Politics and Other Controversies

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top