Health care in the United States...?
Before you read the question, I do know that this is a loaded question. I am looking for everyone's answers (to this question). Most people will concede that there is a problem with health care in the United States. General consensus (and statistics) shows that the population pays too much for health care. Insurance companies deny reasonable claims to save money when they shouldn't. Doctors and nurses are overworked and not (for the most part) paid based on performance. Preventative care doesn't hold as much importance, leading to more doctor visits down the road. Because of insurance companies, doctors and hospitals cannot give the care they would like to. Due to drug legislation (including recent bills passed) prescriptions are becoming extremely expensive. A drug can be sold at many times the production cost for a large profit (for the drug company). On the flip-side: Without drugs being expensive, companies have less want to spend so much in research and development. Remember that almost all statistics can be interpreted more than one way. For starters, see: http://www.who.int/ http://www.nytimes.com/pages/health/index.html My opinion: I believe we should look at the (much) more successful models of Canada, Britain, and France. Each is slightly different, but has benefits. Each is called social medicine, similar to how the US now has social firefighting (no more shields on houses) and social police (not so much guns for hire anymore). This is paid for by taxes. The amount that people generally pay towards health insurance would be, on average, the same in taxes. The difference would be that everyone gets care and there is no insurance company to deny claims. Why? There are no claims to deny. The government also cover all, or most of the cost of prescriptions. There can still be competition between drug makers and there would still be a profit to be made. It's just that now prescriptions are affordable for everyone. Are there downsides to this system? Of course. Nevertheless, I honestly believe that it's a better system than what we have now. The only drawbacks I've heard were mainly from the conservative groups. "It's Communist/Socialist." -So then, our police, firefighters, road-workers, etc. Communist policies as well? Then there was Giuliani with his whole cancer speech which was later found to be completely incorrect, and noted so by his aides. "Would you pay more taxes for this?" -For the assurance of health care? Of course! I would definitely stop paying insurance and just pay a higher tax. Our taxes are relatively low as it stands right now and there are plenty of taxes that can be abolished. "You would need oversight committees." -Yes. Is that such a bad thing? "You would have to wait longer to be seen." -Actually, it's quite the opposite as evidenced by the other countries with it. There wouldn't be half the crap that there is now so patients would be able to get in and out much more quickly. Again, what do you think? And please, let's keep this civilized and as informed as possible. They come here for better specialists I agree with. Overall, most doctors are paid more and trained better in the US. So, there are better ones here. And I don't think universal health care is failing in those countries due to the system. I think it has to do with the other problems in the government as well. Considering I'm also in health care, I see everything too. What I forgot to mention is that I DEFINITELY want to hear both sides of this. Being in health care, this is important to me and I've been reading news, statistics, and propaganda for both sides as well as seeing it up close. sgtpepper: Would you say that the VA's problems are due to the lack of sufficient funds? Would a generalized health care tax be enough to cover the problems faced there? Just thinking...
Other - Politics & Government - 4 Answers
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1 :
You do realize the systems of Canada, Britain, and France (EU) are on the verge of collapsing and to save their systems, much of it is now privatized or is being privatized. In other words, they've discovered that universal health care doesn't work, and they're adopting a system that is more like our's. Furthermore, have you ever been to one of our VA system hospitals? I have. I've seen first hand what happens when the government gets involved in health care. And as such, it's my firm belief that the government has NO place in our health care field. And your fourth point ("You would have to wait longer to be seen") and it's counter is actually wrong. There are hundreds, likely thousands, of patients annually from Europe/Britain and Canada to come to this nation for critical care procedures because our facilities are better, more modern, better trained doctors, and less time spent in line waiting to see a government specialist. I work in health care now. The politicians can't pull the wool over my eyes.
2 :
You make some very good points on the costs being out of control and health care being no more socialism than fire or police departments. That has been an argument I have used in the past. I have to admit this is a valid argument and forces me to think. I believe when it gets right down to it, I don't think our government is competent enough to put together an effective system that would be better than private industry. I look at the only model available for me to make that judgment on and that is the VA health care system which I currently qualify to use. I choose private practice, not because of the quality of care or competency of the doctors, but because of the unbelievable ineffective bureaucracy that exists. I believe there are measures congress could take to bring costs under control rather than take over another huge private industry and mismanage it.
3 :
Don't really have an answer but more of a story. My husband I got married and had children at a very young age. We were 16 and 18 respectively. Yes I know that's not good, we could of ruined our futures, blah blah blah but hey, it worked out. My husband worked his ass off to support us on a salary of nothing at McDonalds. We never got help from welfare or hand outs. We made it work. At 23 years old he was diagnosed with synovial sarcoma, a big tumor on his neck. We had no insurance. We were sent to our local welfare office to see if they could help us out with medical and were denied because he supposedly made to much. What pissed me off more than anything was to look around the room and see tons of people getting medical,money,and food from the government for free because they chose to be bums and not work. Us on the other hand who worked to support our family didn't have so much luck. We were turned down and shoved out the door with a nice good luck and I hope you live. What kind of bull is that? Lucky for us the hospital took the state to court and won. We ended up getting a "little bit" of help from the government funds that were supposed to be there to help out people like us. Had we been addicted to some drug and had too many kids to feed we would have had some relief but because we were hard working people we were told no. How can this be right? Our story, fortunately, turned out to have a happy ending. That was 8 years ago and we found our pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. It was the hospital and doctors that made that happen. We now own our own business and our kids are thriving teenagers on their way to college. What makes me wonder is how many people in this country didn't have the luxury of a hospital that is willing to fight for their lives? And how many drug addict bums are getting a free ride? I think our government needs to come up with some kind of health care for it's people. It's not just about the very rich or the very poor. It should also be about the hard working Americans in the middle.
4 :
Intuitively, you would say that a private system would be more efficient than a socialised system. As an Australian optometrist however I have seen how well our socialised system actually works. The only real issues are where State and Federal responsibilites overlap creating some friction over funding, but generally our health care system is first class at minimum cost. It is true there are waiting periods of up to a year for some elective surgical procedures, but generally there is no waiting at all for most treatment, and there is always the option to have a procedure done privately. It is also reassuring to know that everybody is entitled to top quality health care no matter what their financial status. Preventative medecine is given a much higher priority, for example the diference in the way AIDS was dealt with here compared to the US, with very different outcomes. Australian life expectancy is higher with a lower per capita health spend. My advice is to go with socialised medecine.
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