National Health Insurance Now, Not Later

[Nessa 23]

You need to stop working so much!!!

I agree with you. I like money (who doesn't??) but to pay the bills, buy food, have a nice dinner on valentine's day, why work your a$s off to achieve and buy and have more and more if you can die tomorrow, and guess what? none of that you can take with you. Enjoy the moment you know? Live!

[Nagishkaw 510]

The back of the dollar bill clearly spells it out : NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM .

[Ban Hammer 13,336]

You need to stop working so much!!!

I agree with you. I like money (who doesn't??) but to pay the bills, buy food, have a nice dinner on valentine's day, why work your a$s off to achieve and buy and have more and more if you can die tomorrow, and guess what? none of that you can take with you. Enjoy the moment you know? Live!

oh but i am gonna take it with me. just write a check for the full amount of what's in our checking account and throw it in.....

[GaryC 7]

Well fortunately there will never be national freeloader insurance in America. Most in Washington know its suicide to really try and pass it. They will talk to satisfy the socialists in the country but it will never get past that. If you want free health care and have someone else pay for it then move to Canada or Europe. It seems to work so well there.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Well fortunately there will never be national freeloader insurance in America. Most in Washington know its suicide to really try and pass it. They will talk to satisfy the socialists in the country but it will never get past that. If you want free health care and have someone else pay for it then move to Canada or Europe. It seems to work so well there.

Well as others have said, it isn't "free". I've actually worked it out and in the various deductions from my wages in the US, I pay out proportionally about as much as I was in the UK.

Similarly the only occasion I've tried out the US healthcare system (for a lymphoma scare in 2005), the care I received wasn't substantially different from the UK NHS.

While socialised healthcare has its problems, and systems vary in quality across different countries - the big opposition to it seems to be from the same corporate lobbyists who are stifling environmental legislation about the damage caused by fossil fuels, or the effects of passive smoking... I'd as sooner trust my own experience than take the word of someone's lapdog.

Edited February 4, 2007 by erekose

[TracyTN 237]

I agree that our system needs a major overhaul, but I remain unconvinced that 'national health' is the answer. Certainly not the way that it is run in the UK. I am wholly unimpressed with their system, as is my fiance (who has never been exposed to any other system, except when he was here with me and I went to the dr). I know there are a lot of people here who think its the greatest thing since sliced bread, but even if we sat here and debated it for 2 years straight, you'd never convince me.

Thank you and good day.

[Thingee 0]

I'd be willing to pay more taxes for socialized medicine. Yes, I'm one of those millions of uninsured. My children, however, are covered. Let's talk about that coverage shall we? It costs two hundred a month through the exhusbands employer. I have to drive 25 miles to the nearest 'in network' doctor(lemme say that's fun with a sick child). The nearest in network hospital is 60 miles away, let me say at this point I live 3 miles from the nearest actual hospital.

Orthodontics? 1k lifetime maximum coverage, anyone who has had to put braces on a kid knows that's BS, and yes, my children NEED them. 1 to the tune of an estimated 8-10k, the other 5k, the 3rd as yet unknown as he's only 4..but since I know already he's going to need them that indicates a rather hefty fee. NO vision care. Here's a kicker for you, want coverage if god forbid, you end up with cancer? Read the fine print of that policy you pay so much hard earned for. Even money you're going to be SOL unless you have AFLAC or some similiar secondary insurance.

My family is NOT the only one with this sort of ####### coverage, it's actually horribly common place. Something needs to be done, and socialized medicine sounds pretty good to me.

[mawilson 2,133]

I'm just afraid that a national healthcare system would lower the quality of healthcare

for everyone, not just the people without health insurance.

50-60% of Americans are currently insured through their employers. I imagine if there

was a 'free' system, these employers would no longer want to buy private insurance coverage

for their employees.

[Reba 2]

But even in countries that have "socialised" health care, we also buy supplemental insurance to cover costs of prescriptions, vision care, dental etc etc etc (I know NHS coverage in the UK is different in Canada, so I'm speaking specifically about Canada, and genralising the rest). As erekrose mentioned, I too have worked out the differences in what I was paying in taxes in Ontario, to what I'm paying in taxes here in North Carolina, and its about the same. And yet here in NC, I have *no* governmental services to show for my money. Nothing. Back home if I got sick, I'd call up my doctors' office and they'd fit me in asap. There were 6 doctors there, so even if *my* doctor was unavailable, someone else was. And I never had to pay a cent.

Universal healthcare is not perfect no. And in Ontario just as I was leaving, the province implemented a user fee for OHIP (Ontario health insurance plan), which, as I recall, is nothing new. When I was out on my own after I turned 18 and had a job, I had to pay a quarterly fee to the province for my provincial health plan. As well as my monthly fees to my group insurance provided through my employer. The difference being of course, doctors and medical services staff in Canada have *never* been accustomed to making several hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars per year, and their fees are proportionately lower. My monthly fees when I last had supplemental insurance were about $24 per month. And AFAIK, the OHIP fees are based on % of your income er summat.

Here in NC, I make a whopping $8.25 an hour with overtime not particularly allowed unless absolutely necessary. They fuss if we end up with only 15 mintues of overtime My monthly fees for insurance premiums are over $200. Plus there's co-pays and blah blah blah. Imagine the money I'd have in my pocket, how much money we'd *all* have in our pockets every month, if our monthly insurance costs were reduced to $25 each? The disposable income that could then be spent elsewhere on other purchases like more dinners out, theatre, touristy things, travel etc etc would be amazing. I pay $2600+ every year for insurance now. On a wage of just slightly more than $18,000 per year. My husband isn't working right now, and because of health issues (which cost us a lot of money) he isn't planning to return to work any time soon. If I were paying only $50 per month instead of over $200, we could afford to go see a movie and eat meat more often instead of pasta or Ramen noodles.

I honestly believe that the US will never see so called socialised health care, and the reason is because the doctors and pharmaceuticals don't want to have to give up their Beemers and their 6 to 8 weeks of vacation in Europe every year. They're too greedy. I do honestly believe that the country could afford to offer healthcare to the masses on the taxes it currently collects, with perhaps a small user fee per year or month like Ontario does. But the doctors will never allow that to happen. Nevermind the far right lemmings who believe universal healthcare is the next best thing to communism.

[rebeccajo 14]

I'm just afraid that a national healthcare system would lower the quality of healthcare

for everyone, not just the people without health insurance.

50-60% of Americans are currently insured through their employers. I imagine if there

was a 'free' system, these employers would no longer want to buy private insurance coverage

for their employees.

Is that the actual statistic?

What about the other 40 to 50 percent?

That's appalling......

[Sofiyya 1,687]

I'm just afraid that a national healthcare system would lower the quality of healthcare

for everyone, not just the people without health insurance.

50-60% of Americans are currently insured through their employers. I imagine if there

was a 'free' system, these employers would no longer want to buy private insurance coverage

for their employees.

Not only would it lower the quality of healhcare for everyone, the well-heeled would STILL have better healthcare because they can afford it. So, no defeat for a two-tiered system.

[Caladan 19]

The argument for universal health care isn't that everyone must have the exact same level of coverage, just that there's some coverage that shouldn't be fee-per-use.

And it doesn't eliminate the possibility of private insurance. Private employers in Canada, e.g., still offer health care packages much as you might get a health care package in the U.S. C.'s benefits right now are far better than mine, and mine aren't half bad.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

We forget that doctors and other health care professionals have bills to pay too. If you're paying them straight up, thru insurance or thru subsidized government programs, they are still getting paid by us. It's simply another means of achieving more income redistribution.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I'm just afraid that a national healthcare system would lower the quality of healthcare

for everyone, not just the people without health insurance.

50-60% of Americans are currently insured through their employers. I imagine if there

was a 'free' system, these employers would no longer want to buy private insurance coverage

for their employees.

Is that the actual statistic?

What about the other 40 to 50 percent?

That's appalling......

I guess they either buy it privately (which is somewhat more expensive) or take their chances. When we were living in California, a lot of the people we knew had no coverage - including my mother in law. My wife's father has a heart condition and up until recently (when he got a job with much better benefits) they couldn't afford to add her to his plan - because his monthly premiums were disproportionately high (due to the aforementioned heart condition).

People were even telling me that to "take my chances" with the lymphoma scare. Something I noticed is that some people are so afraid of the massive debt from even the most minor hospital visit that they will risk their health, and even their life to avoid having any but the most superficial dealings with health professionals.

Indeed, as I write this a friend of ours who had a mild stroke before Christmas is now undergoing tests in an outpatient clinic to find out what went wrong. He's insured (he runs his own business), but doesn't want to incur daily charges greater than a Rolling Stones hotel bill. You can't really win it seems - either the insurance companies make inapproriate medical decisions on your behalf, or you're forced to gamble with your health for fear of incurring financial ruin. Hardly a world-leading system...

Edited February 4, 2007 by erekose

[kitkat1 5]

I realize health insurance is outrageously expensive in this country but I cannot understand how someone could choose to go without insurance and take their chances. There are all levels of health insurance available. Catastrophic coverage for emergencies and accidents with a high deductible has reasonable monthly payments. Not having it seems unbelievably risky to me.

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