I say absolutely NO!  Socialized medicine does NOT work.  Just ask anyone from a country that has it.  You think it would be great to not have to pay (except through taxing) for medical insurance.  Have you thought about what would change if the healthcare system was ran by the US governement?  Ask anyone from a country with socialized medicine how they get into see a doctor when they are sick and how long do they have to WAIIT?  The waitlists just to get seen by a doctor will drive you mad.

I purpose that the government regulate the cost of medical care.  No more $25 boxes of kleenex billed to you after being in the hospital.  There is a lot of waste in the medical industry that could be adjusted or eliminated.  After the governement rgulates or puts caps on medical care, it should then adress the insurance companies.

The entire time I was reading that article, I kept thinking about the vicitims who just happened to be on the I-35 bridge when it collapsed in Minneapolis last year.  Did you know that the survivors have astronomical medical bills that no one could pay?  Families of the survivors are or have gone through bankruptcy and/or lost their homes in foreclosure.  Most of them had health insurance coverage that was maxed out because of the different injuries.  In the future, just think that when you are driving across the bridge in the near future you may not make it across to the other side and if you live through the bridge collapsing, you will go bankrupt from the medical bills.  This is a PERFECT example of why the government should NOT run the medical industry.  It will not even pay for the damages caused by it's own mistakes.  Shame on the state of Minnesota!!! 

Yes.  The cost of medical services must be regulated.  No more $25 boxes of Kleenex or $5 aspirin.  Also, the CEOs and other  managers must no longer be paid MILLIONS of dollars for denying care to those who need it.

I don't know where you get your information about satisfaction in countries with socialized medicine, but the facts are they citizens are VERY SATISFIED.  Of course, there are always a few who fall through the cracks, but no one in Canada, England, Denmark (all 1st world countries) dies from lack of care or loses their homes because they can't pay doctor/hospital bills.

Plus there are lots of people taking a piece of your healthcare premium that provide no care at all.  Insurance agents, management companies, plan administrators all take a chunck estimated to be between 20 - 30% of each premium dollar.

Our medical system is the purest example of Capitalism run amok.  Most medical economists agree.  The way our medical system is structured there's no free market.  It's also impossible to be an informed consumer.  The Wall Street Journal tried in vain to get costs / fees from several hospitals to do a story on cost of care and was unable to get the information.

I want you and yours and me and mine to have access to the same medical care our elected representatives get.  WE PAY FOR IT!  Citizens of Iraqi are getting free medical care. Guess who's footing the bill? 

And, yes, the people hurt in the bridge collapse should get  help with their medical bills.  If we had universal healthcare they would.

I repeat ... Universal Healthcare is NOT the answer.  Socialized medicine does not work and if you believe that it does, you have been sorely misguided.  My information comes from my friends from Russia, Sweden, Norway, Canada and New Zealand (Australia isn't that great either).  I develop software that alows hospitals, clinics and doctors offices to schedule appointment, surgeries, xrays, tests, etc.  A few years ago, the company decided to internationalize the software and begin to sell it to other English speaking countries.  There were HUGE features added that gave users of the software the ability for very developed and extensive, detailed WAITLISTS.  These features HAD to be added in order to market the software to Canada, England, Scottland, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

Did you know that if a citizen in New Zealand is suffering from depression he has to get onto a waitlist in order to see a phycatrist?  He may or may not ever get to see one because there are so few in the country.  So, what happens to the patient?  He falls further and further in depression.  What does that usually lead to?  Suicide attempt.  That will get this citizen in the hospital ASAP.  He spends time in the hospital, see the doc, gets the meds that he needs, his depression become manageable and he is released.  What is he released with?  Everything he entered the hospital with ... that would be his belongs.  He does not get ANY referral to see a therapist or a phycatrist for a follow up (and if he chooses to do that, he goes back on the waiting list).  There is no follow up care provided for him.  And, he has no way of getting the medications that were provided to him in the hospital to help him from being depressed.  So, what happens?  He's back on the waiting list.  He may eventually end up back in the hospital after another suicide attempt.  Or, he may just succeed.

If you think that Universal Healtcare (ie socialized medicine) works, you are have bought a bill of goods from some politician who doesn't have a clue about what realy goes on in countries with socialized medicine.  Even if I am wrong and it does, somehow, work for those countries you mentioned...WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THE US GOVERNMENT CAN DO IT?  I provided the example of the survivors from the I-35 bridge collapse as a perfect example of what the US government thinks about medical issues of it's citizens.  "Universal Healthcare" is something someone came up with to get elected.  IT WILL NOT WORK!

Aj,

Allow me to help you. You seem to be laboring under many misconceptions and that must be painful for you.

There is no such thing as "socialized" heath care and no one has suggested that "the government" buy everyone health care. This kind of flaming is the usual hysteria from the usual sources of misinformation and it shows.

Before you continue with your misguided rant, you may want to familiarize yourself with the information on this board. Reading is a good way to get informed.

After you get informed, you may want to let us know how you are going to resolve this complex and costly issue re all of us Americans (working or not) purchasing accessible and affordable health care for ourselves and our families. All of us Americans, not just a few and even for those of us who work for a living. My information comes from real life.

We await your plans.

I think all the talk about national health care is a trillion dollar increase of bussiness for the medical insurance industary.  This will be nothin more then a DIVINE gift.

With some canidates offering FORCED coverage. I can only dream of the CASH that will be flowing in.

They offer these ideas that IF everybody has medical insurance , this will translaite into cheaper insurance for all. they will tell all the theorys about healthy people who dont have coverage, and will.
               This was done before in florida. with car insurance.They said all the same speaches about , "if everybody has , it becomes cheaper." Decade later, Floirda's insurance can be some of the costliest in the nation. Prices have never gone down. Yet,insurance companys do much more cash flow then before.
       One time  they said they can make medical prices drop in Florida. They capped mal-practice siuts to 250,000 USD, They said this will make insurance cost for doctors to drop,Trainlaiting into doctors charging less for medical care. Fact is:  I never seen one doctor charge less after. Infact prices have gone up each year.

   So tell me national "everybody has insurance" plan will make the prices drop? Time to buy stock in insurance my friends. 

My freind is A Doctor in germany, he explains to me, if he makes about over 350,000 DM, (1997) he has to return this money. CAPED INCOME for doctors!  yes i know this wuold never pass in the USA.  MY opinion is a person becomes a doctor becuase he/she wants to help people. pick some ethical reason as you like. but a doctor shuold never say " I became a doctor cause i wanna make millions!

Its ALL about the money.

Y,

Yeah. I have heard all of this kind of thing before and smoke blows everywhere. Again, the issue is not about handing out "free medical care to all these people", etc.

Human beings, even those who work for a living, need to be able to purchase health care coverage. That's it.  Why? Don't have the space or the time here and I have posted all of this before many times.

If you actually care to get informed, go to the sites which have the information. I will transfer that list to this post and you can check them if you wish. People who actually care about this national issue will get informed. Those who don't care will go on telling themselves whatever feels good today. That's fine but change is coming anyway.

The election is in November and it is a good idea to find out what we are talking about before you show up at the polls.

www.healthcare-now.org

www.dividedwefail.org

www.cancer.org

www.covertheuninsured.org

 

The editorial from the New York Times lists one of the reasons why health care needs to be removed from the burdens that businesses need to cover. I bolded the short paragraph re the issues GM and other businesses face. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Fighting Chance? Published: February 16, 2008 There seems to be no end to the Big Three automakers’ woes. This week, General Motors offered a new buyout plan to its 74,000 unionized workers in the United States — those who didn’t take the 2006 buyout offer. The Ford Motor Company and Chrysler also have plans to buy out thousands of employees. Still, there is a glimmer of hope: the companies plan to hire new workers to replace at least some, and perhaps a substantial share, of those they let go. Detroit wants to take advantage of the contracts signed last year with the United Automobile Workers union. They allow the carmakers to hire new entry-level workers at much lower wages and with smaller benefit packages than current employees. This would reduce their labor costs significantly, giving them more of a chance to compete with the foreign car companies that are eating their lunch. Foreign carmakers already have about half the American market, and analysts forecast that within the next five years they will build more cars here than Detroit’s automakers. Though the Big Three culled tens of thousands of workers in the United States in the last couple of years, they are still operating way under capacity. Detroit’s troubles are only partly because of their failure to design cars that Americans want to buy. Labor arrangements put together decades ago, in an era of less competition, have saddled them with an older work force and higher labor costs than the Japanese and Korean companies that have set up plants in union-free states. The American carmakers’ problems underscore the need for a government-backed system of universal health care, which would relieve some of the costs that have made competing so much harder. The good news is that the carmakers and the union seem willing to change their old ways of doing business. As part of the new contracts, automakers agreed to put up billions in cash and other assets for trusts that would pay for retirees’ health care, taking those costs off their own books. The union allowed the companies to hire cheaper noncore workers. These measures will reduce labor costs and give Detroit a better chance to compete head to head with Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Hyundai. If Detroit’s carmakers can also design more desirable cars, this might be the beginning of their turnaround.

And not to put too fine point on this:

As someone who cares about small business, the costs of providing health care coverage access makes them less competitive in every way. Check the facts. 

This should matter to every proud capitalist who can read. Small business is the engine of this economy. We are killing it. When small business cannot survive, we an kiss the idea of upward mobility bye-bye. Opportunity? What opportunity?

We can make good faith efforts to choose intelligently or we can blow the opinions from talk radio airheads.  Check the information out there and start to think critically and for yourselves.

We are part of a larger country and this matters more than anyone's political misunderstandings. Please make the minimal effort to get informed before November. It is the least you can do before you vote.