US Healthcare reform

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To be brief, I feel America needs to change the paradigm from Health Insurance to Health Care.

I think everyone should pay so much each month towards a health care plan that allows you access to fundamental medical, dental, vision care whenever you need it. The plan should not be "all inclusive" so that there is a market for "insurance" which pays for stuff that goes above and beyond basic medical care. It'd take a lot of time now to detail where that line should be drawn. So, I'll not dig too deep right now.

Currently, all health care in America is based on "insurance." You pay for a policy that kicks in once you incur X amount in medical bills. Many "underinsured" people have health insurance but can't afford to see a doctor. The better (more expensive) insurance plans give you affordable medical access as its way of catching stuff early and saving money on more expensive treatment options.

Even Obama's proposal to mandate everyone have insurance is falling with sour notes on people's ears. Why should I pay money for a policy that makes me pay out of pocket when I need a doctor just so I have coverage if something expensive happens? We don't need a mandate for everyone to be insured. We need to reconstruct how we manage health care as a nation. We don't need government-run health care, we need to eliminate waste and bureaucracy so that people can have access to affordable fundamental health care.

I only see two links in that post. One is from a former member of the Bush administration. The other is a blog by a professor who says of himself "Since 1997, Professor Perry has been a member of the Board of Scholars for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a nonpartisan research and public policy institute in Michigan." Nonpartisan my ass! Wikipedia describes the Center as "...the USA’s largest state-based free market think tank." Obviously he has a vested interest in keeping the current free-market system, and keeping the government out of it.

My cousin posted the following on his facebook page:

His policy is that health care should only go to those who can afford it. At least he's honest - I think many other people feel the same way, but won't actually say so.

Do we have a breakdown of cause of death for these? If not, it's hard to attribute those varying rates to a failing of the medical system. You're proceeding on the false assumption that any difference in death rate, life expectancy, or overall health is a direct result of the quality of medical care.


Except that most Americans do have private health coverage, usually through their employer. And any university student can get health coverage from their school, if they are not covered by their parent's employer.


I believe AG already demonstrated that that number is disingenuous at best.


We have the best quality care. This is not necessarily the best system. As I said- it needs to get cheaper and more accessible. There have been a variety of studies demonstrating that the results of the WHO rankings are skewed badly by factors that have nothing to do with the healthcare system, and the WHO rankings are heavily biased towards socialized systems as well.


I agree, changes are needed. But I don't think those changes should involve socialized medicine. Handing over our medical system to government bureaucrats will ruin the quality of care. We just need to increase access to the medical system that's already in place. And if we want to compete in the numbers games with other countries, we need a cultural shift so that people will start to take care of themselves (eat better, exercise more, etc).

That's basically social Darwinism. Lotsa sick, dying and dead people.

The USA also has to get the lawyers out of the way. A VERY LARGE part of the bill for medical care involves keeping liability lawyers happy. Set up a malpractice compensation fund that will cover actual costs of honest mistakes, OUTLAW 'punitive' damages and make the losers in lawsuits responsible for 100% of the legal bills of the winners will cut a BUNDLE from the costs of health care in the USA.

Unfortunately, the current bills do not address that.

Mike

But a temporary state of affairs. In the long run we have a better, stronger society. We should be breeding Winners and Warriors, not Loosers.

ruveyn

Ah yes. The old Ayn Rand bit. I'm not particularly enthusiastic about breeding super hit men, no matter how loose they may be.

ummm... during World War II, which side were you rooting for?

Mine. Of course. The Stronger, Better side won by the way.

ruveyn

That's what I thought... but when you started spouting the NAZI line, suddenly I wasn't sure any more.

Friedrich Nietzche was no Nazi, but he nailed it right.

Die Macht ist das Recht.

ruveyn

And that's what the Romans said when they nailed up Christ and Christ answered,"I'm nailed but you're screwed."

Right, he died decades before the NAZI's. He was merely their inspiration



"Power is the Right"... yeah, sounds like the way the NAZI's ran their empire all right.

So I'm basically hearing 2 types of objections to government healthcare - it costs too much and it goes against a free market economy. So to address these issues, I'll pretend that putting a price tag on someone's life is an OK thing to do.

Yes, insuring every american is going to cost a lot of money. But opponents must know that with the way things are going now, the economy is destined for further disaster. The typical middle-class american has seen their healthcare costs skyrocket over the last several years (mine have actually doubled over the past 3 years). There is nothing in place to keep costs from rising at these rates. Many employers are dropping healthcare benefits all together. This can only lead to more american becoming uninsured, as we are already seeing. The less people are insured, the more unpaid medical bills roll back into the system inevitably rising costs even further. It's a dangerous catch-22 that happens to be a really big deal. So while many may say, "Oh, it really doesn't affect me, I've got good affordable insurance" just wait about 5 years or so. You may then find yourself in the same boat as those of us struggling very hard with this issue.

Secondly, to say that government healthcare would make us a socialist society is a rather bogus claim. We need a balance of government and the free market. No one is pretending that public schools and the police department don't have much room for improvement, but could you really imagine what our country would look like if everyone had to pay for these things. We've come to an agreement as a country, thankfully, that there are certain rights that we must afford to everyone, in spite of their economic status. We ALL have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The american dream is supposed to be attainable by ALL which is why we have agreed, as a nation, that education and safety are a right. I'm pretty sure that healthcare falls into the right to life category.

I can already hear opponents saying "Well if you want healthcare, go out and buy some!" If only it were that simple. Pre-existing conditions and annual allowance caps are preventing many of us from receiving care at all. It is the nature of the free market beast. The only way that insurance companies can remain profitable, with costs rising as fast as they are, is to deny care. They actually hire people who's sole job is to find loopholes that help them to not have to pay out. I will agree that the insurance companies have become quite efficient in keeping their costs down, but I thought the goal was to care for people. In that aspect, they are completely inefficient. That doesn't even cover those who simply can't afford to spend 10, 15, or 20% of their paycheck on premiums. Opponents can argue on the statistics of how many are really uninsured all they like, the fact is that there are many, and many more are guaranteed in the future if we do nothing.

When did we, as Americans, start getting our priorities all screwed up? When did the dollar become so almighty? When did we start putting profit over people? It wasn't always this bad. You used to be able to walk into the doctor's office as a patient, not as a consumer. Approximately 2/3 of bankruptcies filed last year were medical bankruptcies. Today if you are uninsured and need an organ transplant or chemotherapy, you can count on having to lose your house to pay for it. When did this become acceptable. Why do we sit back and watch a poor person go without needed medication so that they can pay for rent instead. I thought we were better than this. I'd like to think that there are at least some of us out there fighting the good fight!

It's ok ruveyn, even Charles Lindbergh approved of the way the NAZI's did things.