I.E. do you think that the government should provide free health care to all citizens? Personally I don't. I don't think anyone should get anything for free. Or, to put it another way, I don't think you are entitled to anything but life, liberty and the persuit of happiness just by existing. However, clearly, health care is in a sad state in this country. I don't think the answer is government provided health care as I think the problems are deeper than just having the government (or someone) pay for it. I also think that if government provided healthcare then the government should be able to tell you what to eat and how much to exercise as they would have to control costs somehow. I just don't see how the government could pay for everyone's healthcare but let everyone just live like they pleased. I think health care is too expensive. I'm not talking about health insurance here; I'm talking about what the actual costs of procedures and medical supplies are (have you priced what aspirin costs in a hospital?). Personally I think that if people actually paid their own money for health services you'd see prices go down. Right now, you don't care how much it costs as insurance pays for it which makes the prices really high for people who don't have insurance. I'm sure lawsuits don't help with the cost of healthcare either. So what would be the solution? I would like to see some way of providing health care for some fixed, reasonable cost that anyone could buy regardless of employment. Any doctors who accepted that cheap insurance might be exempt from malpractice and get a tax break for accepting it (give the doctors/hospitals some incentive to provide lower costs health care). If you worked for yourself you could buy into it. If you were laid off you could buy into it. Heck, your work would no longer have to even provide health care but some business's probably still would to get better employees (which is how work-provided health care started in the first place). Anyone have any good ideas? Or are people pretty much split between 1) the government should provide health care for everyone regardless or 2) keep it the way it is.
There is some thought toward Community Healthcare rates The policies would be guaranteed issue but there would be a waiting period for care- so you can't lay out and just go buy the policy when you need care. Clark Howard is a strong proponent of this type of health insurance. Employer provided health care has created a rift between the haves and the have-nots and the employers are having a rough time affording it.
No. The government shouldn't have to provide health care for all citizens. The cost is not worth the benefit.
I believe that the govt. should provide it. Other members of my family and I have been the recipient of free govt. healthcare in New Zealand, and it was terrific. I've also had prohibitive health care costs here in the U.S. that took me years to recover from financially despite my working multiple jobs. The nations that are listed as having the best health care all have national healthcare for their citizens. Health is not something only the wealthy should be entitled to.
However, those who usually rank these types of things favor that type of healthcare system anyways so they would be more inclined to rank countries with such healthcare systems highers. It would be great if the government could provide healthcare to everyone. However as was said earlier there's no such thing as FREE healthcare. Someone has to pay for it. Plus, as with anything paid for by government and run by a bureaucracy, quality of care is greatly diminished. There have been numerous documented shortcomings of said healthcare systems. By no means is our current system anywhere near perfect but I think that it's a better choice than any alternative that has been presented so far.
Many other devloped nations have national health care system, it does not have to be 100% free. There could be Co pays and % out of pocket, but there definately should be a national health care system. There should also be medical school reform by increasing the number of doctors.
Preventative Medicine and Basic care should be free. Everything else, people should pay. I'm tired of paying for the health care of people who don't take care of themselves. I exercise 5-6 times a week and eat healthy foods 90% of the time. Why should I pay for a guy who doesn't exercise, doesn't buckle his seatbelt when he drives, and doesn't eat healthy foods. It just screws over the rest of us. Funny thing is, national health care is a socialist idea. Very uncapitalistic. It's closer to communism and socialism.
ABSOLUTLY, Health care costs are spiraling out of control, and HMOs and PPOs are getting rich, while others can't afford it. There is no reason that the richest nation in the history of the planet should not provide healthcare for all it's citizens. Most of the other civilized nations have national healthcare plans, and so should we. DD
I was involved in an accident a couple weeks ago and had to be taken to the ER. A few x-rays, some stitches, some narco pain killers, some antibiotics, and a 90 second visit with the actual doctor..........$2100 worth of damage for my insurance company. The same care or better in two dozen other countries would have cost only a very small fraction of this. And the reason is that drug companies, hospital groups, and physician lobbies in the States have all had Washington slurping on their johnsons for decades now. Healthcare costs in America are an absolute joke. And I would have hoped that the Republicans taking over all 3 branches of government now would have done something about it what with their supposed love of free market economics. But on the contrary, they have only exacerbated the problem in the past few years by whoring themselves out with the prescription drug bill which is essentially guarantees price fixing for drug co's, malpractice reform which makes it near impossible for a negligent physician to get sued, and disallowing drug purchases from Canada.
You also would have had to wait an average of 8 months for an appointment such as that. So you did have to pay a large sum but you got the care you needed in a timely fashion.
Where are you talking about? In most places that have national health care ER visits are immediate. I know that when I went in, for New Zealand I just had some x-rays, and a was given a sling, but it was immediate. My mother had stitches, and an x-ray, my father had stitches and a cast, my mother's uncle had to be put in traction and then moved to a hospital that specialized in back injuries. He ended up staying in the hospital for a month. It was all free, and we never had to wait for anything. I know that in England if you need something and it is too full in England, they will find out what European country can perform the procedure right away, and they pay to fly you to the place right away, and it is all free.
But it isn't greatly diminished. Other nations have a lower infant mortality rate, higher life expectancy, etc. The care my mother's uncle and all of us received in New Zealand was free and equal to anything that could be gotten here. Of course the money to pay for it would have to come from taxes. But if we have a healthier society, that means more productivity, companies don't have to pay for healthcare of their employees, everyone is covered. Of course without the debt, our nation wouldn't have the interest payments and nobody would have to pay any new taxes at that time, and 21% of the nations total budget could pay for healthcare since that is the money that goes toward the interest now. After we paid down the debt, nobody would have to pay more taxes than they are now, and everyone gets healthcare.
I stumbled accross these 2 articles within the past month and thought they would both be relevant. The first deals with an example of a long wait for a seemingly routine procedure. Granted this does not happen with everything in socialized medicine but there are large numbers of cases that follow the same type of story as this one. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1592897,00.html The second one is a good look at comparing the British and US healthcare systems. Tells the pros and cons of both sides. http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110006785
Where did you get this average 8 month wait statistic for emergency room visits in other industrialized countries? Also, I didn't have to pay the large sum, in fact I didn't have to pay a dime. My insurance co paid the whole thing no questions asked. So I have to assume that $2100 for a basic ER visit must be the standard normal going rate these days, which is pretty ridiculous.
Health care should definitely be free. The fact that it isn't in the US is one of the main reasons why I would never choose to live there.
Totally free will cause the people to use resources even if they do not need it. So you should always charge some but not the prices currently being charged in the US.
This is America We are a capitalist country NOTHING SHOULD BE FREE It is not worth anything unless someone at the top is making a profit This is why toll roads are on the rise no one is fixing your plumbing so u must buy water soon they will be privatizing schools and prisons totally NOTHING SHOULD BE FREE SOMEONE *MUST* make a cash profit off it Rocket River that is the NEW America
I'd rather bleed money to insurance companies and doctors for good services than have the government take my money and provide what would be (let's face it) subpar ones.
