Why not free health care for every one? Its time has come """as america is 37th in health care /?
Question:
Answer:
Free Healthcare means higher taxes and longer waits for surgeries. No Thank You. I don't want the government involved in my healthcare.
The healthcare crisis would be helped if people purchased a high deductible catastrophic plan instead of $150 tennis shoes.
Over 50% of bankruptcies are due to medical bills. People need to be responsible. Get health insurance to protect your family!
There's no such thing as a free lunch.
let's do nothing and blame the liberals for it
Reducing the cost of Pharmaceuticals and capping malpractice awards would help a lot.
do the words " research dollars "
mean anything to you ?
Consider what your local hospital is like.
Now consider what your local hospital would like, if it were run like the DMV or the Post Office.
There's your answer.
We should have universal health care.
why? wouldn't you rather have the HMO's, insurance companies, hospitals and big Pharma overcharge you and rip you off..?
I think it's a little strange the way people want to fix what's wrong with health care in the US, by emphasizing the worse things about it.
I mean, it sucks - really hard - that insurance adjusters and HMO administrators are making decisions about our medical care, instead of us making the decisions with our doctors. It's not a good thing that Americans are insulated from the cost of thier health care by (often employer-provided, pre-tax) health insurance, rather than negotiating and paying thier own bills (it decreases the elasticity of demand for healthcare, supporting higher prices).
So, the solution? But the decisions in the hands of bureacrats, and go to a single-payer system, where you never see how much the health care you demand costs.
Brilliant.
If congress had the guts to get rid of the thousands of
million dollar earmarks in their bills, it could be done.
The fact that there are Americans who are totally
without health care, is a disgrace.
Another problem I have with today's health care is how
the insurance company can dictate the care your doctor
can or cannot give you. It' a mess. Something needs
to be done. Maybe health insurance companies should
be run by MD's only. Wouldn't that change things.
As the guy at the top pointed out - it isn't free. We would all pay taxes as a group to cover everyone.
The good news is the average american should be able to pay half of what they pay now. We'll live longer, be healthier, not have to worry about putting the family into bankruptcy for a catastrophic illness, and we'll all be better off for it - Employers, families, everyone.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but free health care exists no where. You will either pay insurance premiums to private companies or pay higher taxes to the government. Either way you ARE paying for health care.
I find it interesting that some people think that putting a large government bureaucracy in charge of health care is going to make the system better and more efficient. You only need to look at Medicare and Veteran's care to see what I mean.
Cons seem to believe with 45-47 million Americans without health insurance, 50% of all bankruptcies caused by health care costs, and over $15 billion taxpayer dollars going to healthcare for the un-insured ANYWAY, we already have the best healthcare system in the world.
Also, plans introduced by Barack Obama and John Edwards are NOT single-payer, socialized medicine. The only candidate to propose that is Kucinich. Rather, Obama and
Edwards' plans both allow people to keep their own private insurance plans if they already have them, encourage insurance companies to cut premiums by switching to paperless documents, encourage more employers to offer health coverage, help small businesses that can't afford it as of now provide it, and offer a federal plan for those who still can't afford it.
And yeah, they would raise taxes, but only for people who make $250k-$300k+. I'm pretty sure people in that income grate can survive the change. People who aren't in it might literally not survive without it.
Thus, the plans are actually pretty moderate and not at all socialist like a lot of people say without even looking at them. Just goes to illustrate how closed-minded most cons are.
The World Health Organization "ranked the countries of the world in terms of overall health performance, and the U.S. [was]...37th." In the fairness of health care, we're 54th. "The irony is that the United States spends more per capita for health care than any other nation in the world" (The European Dream, pp.79-80). Pay more, get lots, lots less.
The USA is "No. 1" in nothing but weaponry, consumer spending, debt, and delusion.
http://www.citypages.com/databank/26/126...
US Primary Health Care About To Collapse Say Physicians
http://www.rense.com/general69/rpom.htm...
Primary care -- the basic medical care that people get when they visit their doctors for routine physicals and minor problems -- could fall apart in the United States without immediate reforms, the American College of Physicians said on Monday.
"Primary care is on the verge of collapse," said the organization, a professional group which certifies internists, in a statement. "Very few young physicians are going into primary care and those already in practice are under such stress that they are looking for an exit strategy."
Dropping incomes coupled with difficulties in juggling patients, soaring bills and policies from insurers that encourage rushed office visits all mean that more primary care doctors are retiring than are graduating from medical school, the ACP said in its report.
The group has proposed a solution -- calling on federal policymakers to approve new ways of paying doctors that would put primary care doctors in charge of organizing a patient's care and giving patients more responsibility for monitoring their own health and scheduling regular visits.
U.S. doctors have long complained that reimbursement policies of both Medicare and private insurers reward a "just-in-time" approach, instead of preventive care that would save money and keep patients healthier.
"Medicare will pay tens of thousands of dollars ... for a limb amputation on a diabetic patient, but virtually nothing to the primary care physician for keeping the patient's diabetes under control," said Bob Doherty, senior vice president for the ACP.
The ACP plan called for innovations such as using e-mail to consult on minor and routine matters, freeing up expensive office visit time for when it is needed. Doctors would be compensated for an e-mail consultation.
The proposals include incentives for doctors to work more efficiently and to provide better care, ACP President Dr. C. Anderson Hedberg told a news conference. "ACP proposals would provide patients with access to care that is coordinated by their own personal physician," Hedberg said.
YOUNG DOCTORS AVOIDING PRIMARY CARE
The ACP cited an American Medical Association survey that found 35 percent of all physicians nationwide are over the age of 55 and will soon retire.
In 2003, only 27 percent of third year internal medicine residents actually planned to practice internal medicine, the group said, with others planning to go into more lucrative specialty jobs.
"Primary care physicians -- the bedrock of medical care for today and the future -- are at the bottom of the list of all medical specialties in median income compensation," the ACP said.
The group, which represents 119,000 doctors and medical students in general internal medicine and subspecialties, joins others that warn the U.S. health care system is untenable.
"If these reforms do not take place, within a few years there will not be enough primary care physicians to take care of an aging population with increasing incidences of chronic diseases," said Dr. Vineet Arora, chair of the College's Council of Associates.
Dr. Sara Walker, a Missouri physician, said she believed doctors were leaving general practice because of drops in Medicare reimbursement to doctors.
"A drop in Medicare payments will not only force me to stop taking Medicare patients but could force me out of business," agreed Dr. Kevin Lutz, a solo practitioner in Denver.
See:
Drugs and Doctors the Leading Cause of Death in U.S. http://mercola.com/2003/jan/15/doctors_d...
The American Medical System
Is The Leading Cause Of Death And Injury In The United States
By Gary Null PhD, Carolyn Dean MD ND, Martin Feldman MD, Debora Rasio MD, Dorothy Smith PhD
http://www.ourcivilisation.com/medicine/...
Organic Food Standard Ruined By Congress
Congress Rams Through OTA Sneak Attack
On Organic Standards Despite Massive Consumer Opposition
From Organic Consumers Association
http://www.rense.com/general68/orgh.htm...
Psychiatric Drugs: Chemical Warfare on Humans
http://www.newstarget.com/011353.html...
Ten Lies About Health Your Doctor Taught You
http://www.newstarget.com/007348.html...
THE CHOLESTEROL MYTH
http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/cholest...
Forbidden Cures
http://educate-yourself.org/fc/...
HOW DISEASES ARE CURED
http://www.angelfire.com/ny2/bass/diseas...
I used this on a question concering Sicko, so I paste my answer here..
______________________________...
Instead of giving you just my opinion on US...I'll talk to you about the world's healthcare (US included). Full perspectives are necessary.
Most countries out there have a form of universal healthcare. The difference vary, but they're fundamentally similiar. Universal healthcare is usually still privately operated, but government-funded ie you're taxed, but the hospitals are still private operations.
Costs are said to be low, but that's really not a clear perception of the given. Many people compare US costs to foreign cost, but they don't take into account 1)The relative difference in wage earning compared to their country and the cost of living that associates with a higher standards 2)The costs involved with fraud and it's detection 3)Economic effects.
Let me focus on economic effects. Throughout Europe you're seeing a lessening of the productive class. What's happening is there's not enough people being born. Due to the inequities, there's a growing older population. This population will consume vast amounts of the healthcare system, and stress the tax base (which it already is). The same occurences are also happening in America, but to a different degree and extent.
Europe will at one point not afford their system. They'll have to privately operate and they'll have to focus on proper birth rate...fully expecting immigration to take those short-falls is a very bad route to go for.
Mind you, the biggest job growth in America has been due to medical demands, and this has added significantly to wage earning in that sector.
Now America's problems are dealt with structure. We have government/employee dominated system. That must change.
First of all, setting up an employee system (which is organized and mandated by law to be collective in nature) is heavily influencing an upward trend on healthcare costs.
America must:
1)Allow individuals to write-off medical expenses.
2)Allow individuals to buy insurance from any state in the union. Currently they're are state regulations in the way, but the commerce clause allow Federal intervention, and it's necessary.
3)We must slowly divest ourselves from SS and medicare. These programs should be sunsetted over a long coarse of time. The reduction in taxes should be given to the individual contributors, which must be put in 401k, money markets, etc. They must allow tax-free usuage of these funds for medical expenses. This will increase savings in this country and produce a higher efficiency out of our capital. Reducing deficits and producing a free-market system.
High deductable or mid-size deductable insurance plans could be implemented and paid for easily. And gains over a lifetime will still be sufficient for those medical expenses and retirement. Not to mention the tax burden would be reduce incredibly.
4)We should have some sort of mandatory high deductible for everyone. Like car ownership, but for your body.
I have many more ideas, but frankly there's a lot of aspects that can be improved in America. Looking toward Universal Healthcare as a solution, is both inadequate and backwards. Anyone that take a clear look at this issue forsees a more reputable method to clearing this issue from our slate. Of coarse the particulars must be refined and must be presented honestly.
Are you prepared to have your taxes doubled to pay for that? Health care is expensive. Providing it for everyone in America will be astronomically expensive. In addition, the quality of health care will inevitably drop since there will be no incentive for health care professionals to excel (other than personal gratification). Every procedure will cost the same regardless of the talent and ability of the person performing it. It will cost the taxpayers the same amount for a surgeon who can barely make an incision to perform an operation as it would for the world's leading surgeon to do it. This is good as long as the world's leading surgeon is the one who operates on you. Hospitals will become meat factories where people are shuttled in and out like cattle.
I agree something needs to be done, but universal "free" healthcare will just create a series of new problems.
By whom is it ranked 37th? Does that organization have a bias? Why don't you lead by example and start paying your neighbors' health costs?
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