Which sucks more: Private health insurance or socialized medicine?

[Kralizec]

They never heard of "poverty trap" in Washington?

[Xiahou]

I'd prefer a system of pay-as-you-go general healthcare supported by charities for the poorest and then sensible insurance for emergency and long-term care.

I'd rather see government mandated HSAs before socialized medicine. The way to better healthcare is to get patients to care about service and cost, not to further remove them from them.

Everyone agrees that far too many Americans lack health insurance. But covering the uninsured comes about as a byproduct of getting other things right. The real danger is that our national obsession with universal coverage will lead us to neglect reforms — such as enacting a standard health insurance deduction, expanding health savings accounts and deregulating insurance markets — that could truly expand coverage, improve quality and make care more affordable.

As H. L. Mencken said: "For every problem, there is a solution that is simple, elegant, and wrong." Universal healthcare is a textbook case.

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[Papewaio]

Where do vaccines go?

User pays or the broad population? After all who is the beneficiary of vaccines... just the user or having enough to create moats of immunity.

The economic benefit of having a healthy working age population is fairly obvious . What is often missed is the economic benefits of having a healthy elderly population... so who should pay then?

[Shahed]

Smoking, drinking, fast foods, processed foods, etc. All this contributes to an unhealthy elderly population. To take care of them the state pays i.e taxpayer pays. I'm not saying we should'nt do it, I'm saying more could be done to ensure a healthier elderly population.

[Kommodus]

Smoking, drinking, fast foods, processed foods, etc. All this contributes to an unhealthy elderly population. To take care of them the state pays i.e taxpayer pays. I'm not saying we should'nt do it, I'm saying more could be done to ensure a healthier elderly population.

I'm sure this isn't exactly a new idea, but perhaps we should impose large sales taxes on fast food like we do on tobacco? I mean, fast food is popular in part because it is quick and cheap. If people had to pay as much for fast food as they did for healthier food, maybe the healthier options could better compete!

Now I'm off to Wendy's...

[Divinus Arma]

A danger in the public health care system is that the government could then justify passing laws that limit our liberty in order to "keep us safe and healthy". Kind of like motorcycle helmet laws, but worse.

No fatty foods! No smoking of any kind anywhere ever! These are the entry level possibilities, but imagine how far the tyrants of congress could take it. After all, we don't really elect anyone in this country. We elect from the pool of crap that they give us.

[HoreTore]

How about.... Private clinics, but the state pays?

[Peasant Phill]

The key to to a good social or socialized health care system is IMO the quality of the hospitals and medical staff. The problem most people have with social (public) health care is the poor quality it provides in comparison to private health care. Long waiting time, less competent medical staff, worse equipment, ... This is, however, not inherent to a social health care system itself. Belgium for example is a benchmark on the matter of health care and is a social health care system.

The biggest problem IMO is the capitalism in health care. Private hospitals have more resources than public hospitals due to low governmental funding (in comparison to other countries). Private hospitals can then 'buy' the best medical staff. Doing so lowers the quality of public hospitals.
One should lower the average wages of medical staff to the point that public hospitals can afford to rival or at least approach private hospitals. I'm aware that this is unimaginable in the USA but I think that is the best (cost/effectiev) way to improve health care in general: the price will drop, comfort will rise and more people will have access to better health care.