Sweeping health bill passes Senate panel (SFC)

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Yeah but you can speak for first hand experience too. After the experiences I've had here under the private health system - it makes you grateful for the NHS.

There's an article in the telegraph that says the NHS is introducing euthanasia "by stealth".

Well there's no shortage of exaggeration where that's concerned - I believe that column described a couple of badly handled cases in the Liverpool area. NHS policy actually differs across the country - in terms of specific initiatives.

You can bet that under a socialist medicine scheme run by Obama, every effort will be made to euthanize God-fearing Southern Republicans.

Probably no bad thing.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Left Coast Wrinkly Neanderthals?

LOL

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I'd actually not be surprised if a few people in this country had de-evolved over the past generation or so.

Edited October 14, 2009 by Gene Hunt

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Left Coast Wrinkly Neanderthals?

Close enough!

I'd actually not be surprised if a few people in this country had de-evolved over the past generation or so.

We are Devo!

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Whip it good!

[Joseph & Ana 0]

Germany actually manages to provide very generous social services (including a very good public healthcare system with supplemental private insurance) while keeping the infrastructure in a very good condition.

They even offer comprehensive programmes (medical, nutritional and psychological) to help obese people to lose weight.

I've also heard their public system is bankrupt.

[Joseph & Ana 0]

The only form of socialized medicine at all in the US is administered through the VA.

Impossible. Ask Joe. Socialized medicine will never pass.

Well - it won't - because that's not what is being proposed.

That doesn't change the fact though that Joe doesn't understand what socialized medicine is.

I know, I know. My point was that socialized medicine actually has passed long ago and exists in the US today. Same goes for public health insurance schemes. So, to make a claim that either will never pass is simply ignoring the very reality we live in.

Reinhard - We don't have socialized medicine in the US. Medicare is not socialized medicine. It's a government administered payer.

I am aware of the difference. In the VA system, however, we have a model where the government administers and delivers health care - i.e. the docs and nurses actually work for the government. That's what one might refer to as a "socialized medicine" scheme somewhat similar to the UK's NHS.

Again, no one has a problem with administering care to our nation's veterans. I really don't know anyone. My dad works at the Ann Arbor VA hospital, and is a beneficiary of it. I think most people see the difference. The VA isn't in competition with private insurance.

Joseph -

The only reason we started talking about the VA in the first place is to get you to realize that NOTHING in the proposed legislation is Socialized Medicine.

So stop calling it that.

It will become radically left by the time its done with. No one I know is denying that.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Germany actually manages to provide very generous social services (including a very good public healthcare system with supplemental private insurance) while keeping the infrastructure in a very good condition.

They even offer comprehensive programmes (medical, nutritional and psychological) to help obese people to lose weight.

I've also heard their public system is bankrupt.

They seem to be doing rather better in the recession than we are.

I didn't see boarded up shops or foreclosure signs when I was there the other week.

Edited October 14, 2009 by Gene Hunt

[Joseph & Ana 0]

Germany actually manages to provide very generous social services (including a very good public healthcare system with supplemental private insurance) while keeping the infrastructure in a very good condition.

They even offer comprehensive programmes (medical, nutritional and psychological) to help obese people to lose weight.

I've also heard their public system is bankrupt.

They seem to be doing rather better in the recession than we are.

I didn't see boarded up shops or foreclosure signs when I was there the other week.

I'm not talking about the entire country, I'm talking about the public health system. It was brought up as a comparison in something I was reading that said, it shares the same financial fate as our medicare.

Of course, many countries are either better off or worse off in this recession than we are.

[rebeccajo 14]

It will become radically left by the time its done with. No one I know is denying that.

Radically left?

You've gotten confused by the current political climate. NORMALLY a person's political persuasion isn't part of health care. At least I don't recall ever being asked my political idealogy the last time I saw my doctor.

Define that anyway, Joseph. I presume you mean people you know think the system of administering medical care will be radically left. Define what that means.

[rebeccajo 14]

Germany actually manages to provide very generous social services (including a very good public healthcare system with supplemental private insurance) while keeping the infrastructure in a very good condition.

They even offer comprehensive programmes (medical, nutritional and psychological) to help obese people to lose weight.

I've also heard their public system is bankrupt.

They seem to be doing rather better in the recession than we are.

I didn't see boarded up shops or foreclosure signs when I was there the other week.

I'm not talking about the entire country, I'm talking about the public health system. It was brought up as a comparison in something I was reading that said, it shares the same financial fate as our medicare.

Of course, many countries are either better off or worse off in this recession than we are.

So if a nations basic economic structure is in good stead, doesn't common sense mean they have a good foundation for repairing any problems they may have with a nationalized medical scheme?

Don't apply double standards. I've seen you state one best reason for the US not to go with a national scheme is because our economy can't tolerate it right now. So the adverse must apply to success with such a scheme.