Free Health Care in The USA

[Strike For The South]

Should we take a page out of Canadas book and nationalize health care? I think we should I beleive the benifits would overshadow the minor tax-bump

[Goofball]

Should we take a page out of Canadas book and nationalize health care? I think we should I beleive the benifits would overshadow the minor tax-bump

*waits for Sergeant-at-Arms to confiscate SFTS's Conservative Club membership card, rip the epaulettes from his jacket, confiscate all his guns, and send him on his way out the door with a swift kick in the arse*

[Beirut]

Viva socialized medicine!

The hallmark of humanity, intelligence, and civilization.

All we need is better implementation and control of it. The idea itself is sound and the right one.

[Goofball]

On a more serious note:

You should take half a page from our book. Have universal free health care, but also allow "for profit" private health care.

All of the evidence shows that countries that take a blended approach are able to offer a higher overall quality of healthcare to all of their citizens.

[Beirut]

On a more serious note:

You should take half a page from our book. Have universal free health care, but also allow "for profit" private health care.

All of the evidence shows that countries that take a blended approach are able to offer a higher overall quality of healthcare to all of their citizens.

God knows our system stinks sometimes, but the idea of socialized medicine is nearly perfect.

I think if the system is properly administered, there is no need for pay-as-you-go health care, which, as evidence shows, is a slippery slope to mass for-profit-health care, which is an abomination.

[Kaiser of Arabia]

No.

STFS, as a long member of the Conservative Club in good standing, I hereby declare your membership null and void.

May God have Mercy on your Soul, for we shall have none

[Strike For The South]

meh thats fine KOA I seriosuly think it would be great for us I see no downside espacilly in the long run

[Crazed Rabbit]

The hallmark of humanity, intelligence, and civilization.

All we need is better implementation and control of it. The idea itself is sound and the right one.

Reminds me of some things people say about Communism.

God knows our system stinks sometimes, but the idea of socialized medicine is nearly perfect.

I think if the system is properly administered, there is no need for pay-as-you-go health care, which, as evidence shows, is a slippery slope to mass for-profit-health care, which is an abomination.

Yup, better to make people wait for months for essential services than give them the ability to pay to get better! That's why people are crossing into the US for $25,000 sugeries!

Crazed Rabbit

[Papewaio]

I think for some aspects of Health care it is far more cost efficient to be a public funded insitution for others it is better held in the private courts.

[Beirut]

Reminds me of some things people say about Communism.

If you would be so kind, please offer unto me, any examples of how allowing all people equal access to life saving medicine, regardless of their ability to pay, equates with a dictatorial police state.

And if it is true that socialized medicine equates with the tenets of communism, and communism bearing the hallmark of mass incarceration of its own citizens, why does the US with its for-profit medicine have one of, if not the highest, percentage of its own people in jail? Far more than Canada with our quasi-commie healthcare. Where is the corelation there?

Yup, better to make people wait for months for essential services than give them the ability to pay to get better! That's why people are crossing into the US for $25,000 sugeries!

Absolutely true. Not all the time, but enough of the time to matter. Again, it's our management of the system that is lacking, not the system itself.

[Papewaio]

On a more serious note:

You should take half a page from our book. Have universal free health care, but also allow "for profit" private health care.

All of the evidence shows that countries that take a blended approach are able to offer a higher overall quality of healthcare to all of their citizens.

Australia has a blended approach.

I have private health cover but I haven't used it except for Wasabi's contact lenses. Public health is pretty good and we use it most of the time.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

So you pay for private health when you want it "snappy" or something like that?

[Papewaio]

For elective surgery yes. For emergency stuff the public hospitals are the primary ones.

For things like glasses, lenses, orthodontics ... anything that is a want rather then a need then you use private health care. Anything that you need to live is generally done in the public sector.

[Strike For The South]

becuas eCanadas in such strife

[Kaiser of Arabia]

becuas eCanadas in such strife

We're talking a nation of 32,270,507 people and 9,984,670 sq km. They have too much land and natural resources for them to have any form of strife. Also, they're unemployment is much higher than ours (6.6 percent average versus a 5 percent average.)

EDIT: You also don't see the US deporting people because of their political beleifs, no matter how radical they are...

[Red Harvest]

GM is becoming a candidate for bankruptcy. One of the big overhanging problems being named: healthcare costs.

The decades of double digit inflation in healthcare costs are taking their toll. They are finally reaching the point of making our nation *uncompetitive.*

I'm not as enamored of a fully "Free" system. Sharing the cost is probably best, but also making sure there is full coverage (not simply "free" coverage.) I would like to see a *uniform* system nationally, and some direct effective methods of controlling cost. There is a quite a bit in the way of overhead that could be completely eliminated in this manner.

I don't think true nationalization is necessary...although it would beat the current course we are on. The current course WILL lead to higher taxes, as well as a decreasingly competitive economy.

[Xiahou]

Should we take a page out of Canadas book and nationalize health care? I think we should I beleive the benifits would overshadow the minor tax-bump

Wait.... you're not joking?

[Devastatin Dave]

Nothings for free....

[Tachikaze]

Nothings for free....

That's right, we have to raise taxes to have universal healthcare. So, Americans can stop buying $40,000 SUVs and massive home entertainment centers. They can buy $18,000 Camrys and $300 27 inch TVs, and help support the health of the nation.

[fret]

minor tax-bump

Doubtful. The UK spends 8% of its entire wealth on the NHS, and the service is still desperately underfunded.

For the US to do that, the annual bill would be approx $1.02 Trillion p.a. based on 2004 GDP. To put that figure in perspective, the military budget for the same period was $370.7 billion.

So with a public healthcare system costing about 2.8 times more than what the US spends on military, the minor tax bump is more likely to be $8 a gallon.

[Aurelian]

Doubtful. The UK spends 8% of its entire wealth on the NHS, and the service is still desperately underfunded.

For the US to do that, the annual bill would be approx $1.02 Trillion p.a. based on 2004 GDP. To put that figure in perspective, the military budget for the same period was $370.7 billion.

Yeah, but we spend 15% of GDP (and rising) on healthcare every year in the US. Plus, we don't even get universal coverage for that. About 16% of the population doesn't have any insurance. About 27% are already covered under one of the government programs.

If we nipped the huge amounts of fat in the insurance and pharmaceutical bureaucracies I'm sure we could get decent universal health care coverage for something approaching the 10% of GDP that Canada spends.

It might be best though if healthcare taxes were split apart from the general income tax (though still preferably graduated) so we didn't scare people to death when they see their tax bill. If you could easily compare your healthcare tax side-by-side with your health insurance bill, it might even be a pleasant shock.

[Beirut]

It's important to note that a majority of Canadians view socialized medicine not only as a birthright, but as the defining aspect of our national self.

We view government run health care as the most important reason to have a government at all. Even our far-right conservatives tread on eggshells when discussing for-profit health care. It's a political career killer. Akin to a US politician trying to legalize pot in schools and daycares.

[Watchman]

Sounds oddly familiar, that.

[BDC]

I don't think you actually need to spend all that much, it's just keeping such a huge institution running efficiently is practically impossible. 8% of Britain's GDP might go on the NHS, but that would probably be enough if things were actually run as efficiently as possible, but they aren't. Equally if you doubled funding things would probably not improve all that much because it would all just disappear into more red tape and more pointless beaurocratic positions.

[Red Harvest]

Doubtful. The UK spends 8% of its entire wealth on the NHS, and the service is still desperately underfunded.

For the US to do that, the annual bill would be approx $1.02 Trillion p.a. based on 2004 GDP. To put that figure in perspective, the military budget for the same period was $370.7 billion.

So with a public healthcare system costing about 2.8 times more than what the US spends on military, the minor tax bump is more likely to be $8 a gallon.

We spend ~$1.7 trillion a year on health care and 765 billion or so of that is by the Feds and State govts. We spend nearly twice as much in terms of GDP as the UK for healthcare. And yet we can't cover about 15% of our population (and growing each year.)

The key problem is U.S. healthcare inefficiency, and it gets worse every year. It's a pseudo-free market that continually raises prices at greater than the inflation rate. In order to make health care affordable, we need nationwide cost containment. Stop the runaway growth in costs and each year we will stop losing ground in dealing with this.

The so called free market approach to health care in the U.S. has been an abject failure. If a "free market" is driving up costs rather than driving them down, then it is obviously the wrong tool for the problem. There is no way to deny that U.S. health care is the most expensive in the world. There is also no way to deny that in quite a few measures (infant mortality, etc.) the U.S. lags behind many industrialized nations.

[Taffy_is_a_Taff]

my experience of the NHS has been far worse than my experience of U.S. healthcare.

U.K. private medicine is the best experience I've had overall though.