English Deutsch Français Italiano Español Português 繁體中文 Bahasa Indonesia Tiếng Việt ภาษาไทย
All categories

Do people understand the difference between all-out communism and socialized medicine? Do people realize that, with such a system, every American would have access to health care? Why does it set off a big red "commie" flag for people who wouldn't know an actual commie if it bit them in the butt?

2006-11-13 10:03:17 · 19 answers · asked by sarcastro1976 5 in Politics & Government Politics

Big G, did you read the whole question?

2006-11-13 10:06:36 · update #1

What is there that "doesn't work" if everyone is covered equally? It seems to work (the socialized medicine, I'm not talking about the economic system) in plenty of other countries for people's basic health needs.

2006-11-13 10:10:07 · update #2

It doesn't cost as much as Iraq.

2006-11-13 10:10:55 · update #3

For those who say they don't think the government should be involved with health care, they already are. The only difference is that people who can afford insurance get care, people without a penny to their name who can prove it get care, and the rest of people get bills they can't pay for basic health care. All I want is basic care for everyone, including the middle class.

2006-11-13 10:35:38 · update #4

Some people don't get it--you can have socialized medicine without having a full-on socialist system that controls everything.

2006-11-13 10:40:39 · update #5

19 answers

Americans are ridiculous about socialised medicine. Instead of putting government money towards a working plan that grants all Americans equal opportunity to be healthy, they shove it all into a big stupid war. In Canada, we are a capitalist country with a socialised medical plan that works well. Studies have actually demonstrated that Canadian medicare is overall more efficient and of a higher quality than American privatised health care. And doctors can manage to pay it off, because in Canada university education sin't as expensive either! i would know, as both my parents are doctors.

EDITED TO ADD: Canada is also a large contributer to medical research. This is usually paid for by research centres and universities and has little to do with the socialized healthcare system.

2006-11-13 10:14:39 · answer #1 · answered by Siobhan K 1 · 3 2

The reason is that for years the corporate media has brainwashed people to make the term socialized a dirty word. This is because the big insurance companies want to make profits from the health market which is worth billions. On the one side you may pay a little less tax, but what this is outweighed by paying a lot more for privatized insurance with profit maximization as the main goal. For the over 45 million Americans who don't have health insurance, and for the millions who have ridiculous insurance socialized medicine should be a lovely word, in fact, in reality, it should be a dirty word for the big private health insurance companies and the super rich, who constitute maybe 10% of the population, but have the means to universalize their agenda.

2006-11-13 10:50:05 · answer #2 · answered by peace m 5 · 1 0

Because people don't understand that we already have it, or they do and are gouging us!!

Head of Anthem made 1.2 Million last year and got a 12 Million bonus! and paid their shareholder $76.00 a share! That's socialized stealing of health care money to give to people who didn't work a day in their life for the most part! And they made it with a 25% overhead and denying benefits!

Someone ends up paying, and quite a few are left out until they are near death!

Anything that resembles a tax sets of the Commie word in a Republicans head!

Our health care system might work for the haves, it sure doesn't work for the have nots!

I loved the answer above about Md's having to pay back their low interest student loans that WE GAVE THEM!! Poor Doc's!

2006-11-13 10:11:09 · answer #3 · answered by cantcu 7 · 0 0

Ask yourself this question: How long are the Canadians waiting for practically routine surgery? why are they coming to the US to get it? Socialized Medicine will only make the situation worse. You should offer a solution but not make it mandatory for every citizen, which is what will happen if medicine gets socialized. Oh yeah, don't forget that the level of quality will go down because there will have to be a way for the government to keep costs low. One way is rationing. Look at England. See what their medical system is like. Not even close to what we have here.

2006-11-13 14:18:09 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

Socialized Medicine is bad because it gets the government too connected to the health care system. The government isn't exactly the best entity for running things efficiently. Another thing about socialized medicine is that specialized care quality goes down. This is because it has to be justified to the voters to pay for specialized care, and since most specialized care doesn't effect the majority of people it will be hard to get voter support when needed to push forward medical progress. Look at how the stem cell funding went. Health care should not be at the mercy of the government.

2006-11-13 10:22:56 · answer #5 · answered by Chris J 6 · 2 1

Remember Doctors pay a hundred thousand or more for their education, if you socialize Medicine how will they ever pay that back? Why would anyone ever want to be a Doctor? We have a system that makes us want to succeed so we can be the best! Socializing anything oppresses the people.
Canada is still reeling form ruining their quality of health care, not the ability to receive it, but the quality.

2006-11-13 10:10:44 · answer #6 · answered by dakota29575 4 · 1 1

I would love to see everyone covered but we would be taxed about 80% to cover this and then the government will decide what doctor you use, what services the government feels you need, regular doctor visits would be limited, and if your doctor feels you need a specialist the government would first have to approve and you would wait months to have surgery, etc., the prescriptions would be limited to certain ones approved by the government, we would be short of doctors because they would be limited in what they will be paid for services and if they cannot treat their patients in the way they know is best they will be discouraged and leave, and we would all have to schedule appointments far in advance & then wait in the office for hours and physician & patient will no longer bond. We will be like sheep rushed through a mill.

2006-11-13 10:46:06 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0 1

Socialized medicine is expensive in the tax department, and largely ineffective and inefficient. Long waits can be expected for any procedure. Privatized medicine gets the job done easier provided you can afford health insurance (if you can't you will likely receive medicaid anyway..) The more things the government controls, the more money it takes from your paycheck.

2006-11-13 10:08:31 · answer #8 · answered by Black Sabbath 6 · 2 1

want a cure for cancer? parkinson's? aids? you want new procedures? new drugs? that all comes from research and development. we americans pay for that. You take away the profit incentive, why should a pharmaceutical company pay for research? they'd be losing money! Our system devolops those things. capitalism fuels innovation. It's no coincindence that the countries that have "free health care" haven't come up with anything new. They have no incentive to do so.

after we vote ourselves free health care, then what?? you can't live with out food, how about universal groceries? You can't live without shelter, universal housing? how about a free car to get back to forth to work in! What "right" do we vote ourselves next, and where does it end?

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage."
-Alexander Tyler. No, he wasn't writing about the United States. This quote is well over one hundred years old. Tyler was writing about the fall of the Athenian Republic.



EDITED TO ADD!!! Canada DOES NOT pay for research to the same tune we do. Sorry man. colleges and universities don't have the deep pockets our pharmaceutical companies do. They spend millions researching a drug becuase they know they are going to make that money back and generate a profit for doing so


.sarcastro, yes the government is involved. that's the problem.
did you read the answer from the lady who's boyfirend paid 250 bucks for pennicillin?
20 years ago, i got strep throat, had no insurance, went to the doctor, it cost me 45 bucks for the visit, and 18 bucks at the pharmacy for pennecillin. You can't do that now! The doctor can't afford to give you a cursory glance, give you a drug and send you out the door. If i came up with throat cancer 6 months later, I could get a lawyer go after that doctor and put him out of business. No, now he has to send you to 3 specialists, run a series of tests, all to cover his *** before you get your pennecillin!

2006-11-13 10:25:42 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

you already have family practice doctors quiting in droves because it COSTS them money with the little free health care for children that is abused so blatantly. doctors cant sustain a practice with full social medicine. Look at canada. its takes you 2 weeks to get a check up. Not to mention it still costs tax payers extra.

example. you take child medicare you get 4 dollars per visit. a person comes in on an ambulance for a sun burn. (yes this happens) the doctor pays for the equipment used to check, staff in office and in ambulance, electric, waste and many other things for 4 dollars. It now cost the doctor to treat your kid for a sunburn. But yea, I want to be a doctor. where do I sign up.

hey muscat if that is true why do your rich come to america for their treatment?
im not taking credit from this but here are some stats for you from a canadian.

The Costs of Free Care
The first thing to realize is that free public medicine isn't really free. What the consumer doesn't pay, the taxpayer does, and with a vengeance. Public health expenditures in Quebec amount to 29 per cent of the provincial government budget. One-fifth of the revenues come from a wage tax of 3.22 per cent charged to employers and the rest comes from general taxes at the provincial and federal levels. It costs $1,200 per year in taxes for each Quebec citizen to have access to the public health system. This means that the average two-child family pays close to $5,000 per year in public health insurance. This is much more expensive than the most comprehensive private health insurance plan.

As demand rises and expensive technology is introduced, health costs soar. But with taxes already at a breaking point, government has little recourse but to try to hold down costs. In Quebec, hospitals have been facing budget cuts both in operating expenses and in capital expenditures. Hospital equipment is often outdated, and the number of general hospital beds dropped by 21 per cent from 1972 to 1980.

There is no way to supply all medical services to everybody, for the cost would be astronomical. What do you do for a six-year-old Montreal girl with a rare form of leukemia who can be cured only in a Wisconsin hospital at a cost of $350,000 -- a real case? Paradoxically for a socialized health system, the family had to appeal to public charity, a more and more common occurrence. In the first two months, the family received more than $100,000, including a single anonymous donation of $40,000.
Source(s):
Report of the Enquiry Commission on Health and Social Services, Government of Quebec

Report of the Enquiry Commission on Health and Social Services

2006-11-13 10:11:59 · answer #10 · answered by CaptainObvious 7 · 1 1

fedest.com, questions and answers