Universal Health Care

[GaryC 7]

You are most likely correct, we will never see UHC, why, GREED. So do we get rid of Medicare, screw the old folks, let them work, and keep their insurance. What happened to this country, where we don’t care about one another? So we should just let the government run the military, and how about privatizing the police force, the fire department? If you get a house fire and you don’t have insurance or enough money to cover the cost of the firemen putting out your fire, than let the home burn to the ground. Or the police, if you don’t pay police insurance, than you get no service like health care. Where does it stop? So give up your health care with the military, you believe that the government doesn’t owe you anything, then don’t take the health care or your retirement check, you want money and health care work for them. Easy to fight for something when you already have it, you are not worried, get stuck in a situation where you have no choices, and face your own morality and maybe you might see things differently.

Your not helping your argument by these rants. No we don't get rid of Medicare. No we don't privatize firemen or police. I defy you to show me where I advocated that. Military retirees paid for their health care benefit with their service. Those are not the issues at hand.

I will ask you again, if insurance and health care reform were instituted and you were able to pay for your own insurance would you still be ranting like this?

[GaryC 7]

Ah, I do think I have it as far as Gary is concerned - health care should be run for profit because otherwise it's 'socialising' the country and the economy. Personally, I don't have a problem with the idea of something that is fundamentally social in nature, taking care of the sick, being put under the 'socialising' umbrella. It's not like it's dampened the economies of all those wealthy nations that have invested in the health of their people.

Too bad that some people think that socialism in this context is just another word for evil.

I don't think it's evil. It just isn't America. I believe in the free market. Sometimes the free market needs regulated. Health care is one of those instances.

[Peikko 1,575]

How can medicare ever work efficiently if it only takes care of the quarter of the population that is most at risk? I really don't see why the government should be asked to finance the highest risk folks while the private insurers get a free ride on those people. A more efficient way would be to incorporate everyone into the same system but then that wouldn't be a private one because the risk load would not ensure a healthy profit.

[kaydee457 13]

I'm all for UHC as long as one can figure out how to remove the government from its administration and management.

If there's a way that perhaps it can be subsidized by providing cash to the privatized HC industry, on behalf of the taxpaying customers, then by all means bring it on!

My nightmarish fear is that another dark grey building gets built in D.C. and is later occupied with another gaggle of inept 'crats (bureaucrats and democrats) that dictate, and administer the terms of heath care in the classic, mindless, and inept manner they now administer and manage immigration........And we're all intimately knowledgeable about that, aren't we......

[Peikko 1,575]

So, the fact that the Taiwan government can run an excellent Universal Health care system with admin costs of 2% of total budget doesn't impress then? Knowing this can be done, it's rather surprising more people don't demand this level of efficiency in more government departments everywhere.

[kaydee457 13]

So, the fact that the Taiwan government can run an excellent Universal Health care system with admin costs of 2% of total budget doesn't impress then? Knowing this can be done, it's rather surprising more people don't demand this level of efficiency in more government departments everywhere.

Demand if you wish, however their past record demonstrates otherwise.....Social Security? Medicare/Medicaid? Homeland Security? The models of inefficiency!

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

So, the fact that the Taiwan government can run an excellent Universal Health care system with admin costs of 2% of total budget doesn't impress then? Knowing this can be done, it's rather surprising more people don't demand this level of efficiency in more government departments everywhere.

Demand if you wish, however their past record demonstrates otherwise.....Social Security? Medicare/Medicaid? Homeland Security? The models of inefficiency!

I guess the point is - why is noone demanding that the government get its act together.

Why do we always sit back and accept same-old over and over and over again? Are people really that apathetic about the whole thing?

[Heracles 417]

I'm all for UHC as long as one can figure out how to remove the government from its administration and management.

If there's a way that perhaps it can be subsidized by providing cash to the privatized HC industry, on behalf of the taxpaying customers, then by all means bring it on!

My nightmarish fear is that another dark grey building gets built in D.C. and is later occupied with another gaggle of inept 'crats (bureaucrats and democrats) that dictate, and administer the terms of heath care in the classic, mindless, and inept manner they now administer and manage immigration........And we're all intimately knowledgeable about that, aren't we......

The problem with the private industry here is that there is no repercussions if they defraud the government, aka the people. It happens all of the time on military contracts. I support a free market 110%. Whereas ###### over other Americans for a profit is like saying stuff about my parents and beliefs to me. Something that should never ever be tolerated.

The solution is to clearly ensure that good, honest and performance oriented people are placed into both government jobs and private sector contracts.

[Empress of Groovy 373]

If there's a way that perhaps it can be subsidized by providing cash to the privatized HC industry, on behalf of the taxpaying customers, then by all means bring it on!

Sounds like Canada.

[SaadBell 0]

Your not helping your argument by these rants. No we don't get rid of Medicare. No we don't privatize firemen or police. I defy you to show me where I advocated that. Military retirees paid for their health care benefit with their service. Those are not the issues at hand.

I will ask you again, if insurance and health care reform were instituted and you were able to pay for your own insurance would you still be ranting like this?

If I could get health insurance, of course I would be happy, but how much money? What will it cover, I have two pre-existing conditions, does that make my fee go up, and by how much? What do I get; can I get the experimental drugs they come out with? It is known that people who don’t have health insurance wait most times until it is too late to see a doctor, because of money. Yes they do throw out people out of the ER who don’t have health insurance, or if that ER doesn’t take your kind of health insurance. One man died here in Florida in the parking lot of the medical center, bled out, in his car, was refused care, why, insurance was not current. Yes the family sued and got rewarded, but the fact remains, someone lost their life over profit. Another mother took her daughter to ER, they refused her, said she had to go to another hospital; they made this mother take this sick baby to another hospital, where she died. If they would have treated her at the first hospital they would have been able to save her. Oh of course she will win her law suit, but, she lost her baby, her daughter, nothing is worth that. So if you think you just walk into an ER and get treated, than you are dreaming. Once again, why not privatize firemen or police or Medicare, and military, if it works for health care as you say, than why not everything? We just need to tweak it a little, right.

Demand if you wish, however their past record demonstrates otherwise.....Social Security? Medicare/Medicaid? Homeland Security? The models of inefficiency!

So why don’t we get rid of these people and get some fresh blood into the system. So if you don’t think Medicare/Medicaid, homeland security works, what should we do with that? Get rid of them, or privatize them?

What I think you mean is that you earned your retirement from the military for your sevice. How about someone works for a large company for the same amount of time, gives their lifes for this place, loyal worker, who retires, and than a few years later find out, they are taking away their retirement check, happens everyday, why them and not you? Being this great country, our health care system is a joke and a tragedy.

[Peikko 1,575]

Actually, they aren't all models of inefficiency, or not if you believe the article posted recently by VJ Troll. However as I have already suggested, having a quarter of the country on a government health care program, that quarter being made up largely of high risk people serves no one. The only effective way to grant affordable and effective health care is to have everyone in the same pool. Insurance works on the premise that less people will require the money in the pool than the pool has in it. What is being asked of government currently is to take a smaller pool but have more people needing the money in the pool than the pool has in it.

[Heracles 417]

can I get the experimental drugs they come out with?

Two things here. You realize that UHC systems overseas do not cover medication right. And they definitely do not cover experimental medication.

You either have to be on a pension or unemployed to get subsidized medication in Australia. Even then it only coves the basics.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

However as I have already suggested, having a quarter of the country on a government health care program, that quarter being made up largely of high risk people serves no one. The only effective way to grant affordable and effective health care is to have everyone in the same pool. Insurance works on the premise that less people will require the money in the pool than the pool has in it.

[Peikko 1,575]

Notice I can now spell 'premise'

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