The cost of socialized medicine will be less access and less innovation. Our system is basically designed (consciously or not) to maximize those variables. Are we willing to make that sacrifice to get something along the lines of what Canada has? Maybe you should ask some Canadians ( A VC: Sicko (Due Diligence) ).
Excerpt:
I asked them if they liked their health care system. They all said yes, very much, particularly for the day to day needs and common procedures like childbirth. However, they also told me the system breaks down when you get really sick. There’s just not enough money for treating terminal diseases and so they “just let you die”.
[quote]Brad61 wrote:
We already have “socialized medicine” in the USA, it’s called the VA. Despite the problems at Walter Read (caused by a clumsy transition to privitized management) the VA generally works well, although it is perennially underfunded.
“Socialized medicine” means the government owns the hospitals and clinics. That’s not what Moore advocates, he advocates single-payer health care. We already have single-payer health care in the USA, it’s called Medicare. Medicare has a very high satisfaction rate among patients AND doctors, and runs very efficiently… a reported 3 percent overhead. Compare that to private insurance companies who operate with a 15 to 25 percent overhead, because they have to pay their shareholders a profit, for one thing.
The conservative ideal that ‘private companies do everything more efficiently than the government’ is a total fantasy, and you don’t need to look any further than Medicare for proof (or Halliburton, for that matter, but that’s a different topic).
I say lets open up Medicare to anyone who wants to buy into it (not just senior citizens). Let people who want to stay with their current private health insurance plan, remain with nothing changed, if they wish. Nobody is forced to do anything. Let the 3 percent Medicare overhead compete in a “free market” (sic) with the 25 percent private insurance overhead.
Little by little, those private companies will go out of business (or not), which would be less painful economically in the long run, than just turning the whole system upside down. You folks who hate the thought of government involvement in health care can continue to pay premium prices for private insurance, and be happy. Those with private insurance can get their federal taxes pro-rated, and continue paying the 400 dollars a month that private insurance costs (or whatever they currently pay).
Sound fair?[/quote]
Sounds most excellent, provided that you also let everyone who doesn’t want to be involved opt out of paying any Medicare tax.
[quote]Mufasa wrote:
Lastly…there will be no “Medical System” reform until we fundamentally reform ourselves and our expectations.
Mufasa[/quote]
Truer words were never spoken!
There is no way in this self-absorbed, entitlement, lack of personal responsibility and accountability, instant gratification society that a government run healthcare system would ever work.
[quote]BostonBarrister wrote:
Brad61 wrote:
We already have “socialized medicine” in the USA, it’s called the VA. Despite the problems at Walter Read (caused by a clumsy transition to privitized management) the VA generally works well, although it is perennially underfunded.
“Socialized medicine” means the government owns the hospitals and clinics. That’s not what Moore advocates, he advocates single-payer health care. We already have single-payer health care in the USA, it’s called Medicare. Medicare has a very high satisfaction rate among patients AND doctors, and runs very efficiently… a reported 3 percent overhead. Compare that to private insurance companies who operate with a 15 to 25 percent overhead, because they have to pay their shareholders a profit, for one thing.
The conservative ideal that ‘private companies do everything more efficiently than the government’ is a total fantasy, and you don’t need to look any further than Medicare for proof (or Halliburton, for that matter, but that’s a different topic).
I say lets open up Medicare to anyone who wants to buy into it (not just senior citizens). Let people who want to stay with their current private health insurance plan, remain with nothing changed, if they wish. Nobody is forced to do anything. Let the 3 percent Medicare overhead compete in a “free market” (sic) with the 25 percent private insurance overhead.
Little by little, those private companies will go out of business (or not), which would be less painful economically in the long run, than just turning the whole system upside down. You folks who hate the thought of government involvement in health care can continue to pay premium prices for private insurance, and be happy. Those with private insurance can get their federal taxes pro-rated, and continue paying the 400 dollars a month that private insurance costs (or whatever they currently pay).
Sound fair?
Sounds most excellent, provided that you also let everyone who doesn’t want to be involved opt out of paying any Medicare tax.[/quote]
I feel the same way about social security. Should we not have the choice to invest that money on our own? I think we should.
[quote]Brad61 wrote:
The conservative ideal that ‘private companies do everything more efficiently than the government’ is a total fantasy, and you don’t need to look any further than Medicare for proof (or Halliburton, for that matter, but that’s a different topic).
[/quote]
You are confusing private companies working in a free market with private companies that are nothing but the long arm of the governmet.
Neither Walter Reed, nor Haliburton had any kind of competition in the cases of obvious abuse and scandal.
No, private companies are not better than government run companies, a market system is superior to a planned system and requires private companies.
[quote]Brad61 wrote:
I say lets open up Medicare to anyone who wants to buy into it (not just senior citizens). Let people who want to stay with their current private health insurance plan, remain with nothing changed, if they wish. Nobody is forced to do anything. Let the 3 percent Medicare overhead compete in a “free market” (sic) with the 25 percent private insurance overhead.
Sound fair?[/quote]
Sure, and if Medicare goes bankcrupt because of mismanagemnet and too much political intervention let those patients die in the streets.
No unfair government subsidies if your little socialist experiment should fail and it is actually Medicare that goes belly-up in a free (sic!) market.