What is the answer to the health care problem here in the United States?

Question

45 million Americans are without access to affordable health care, what would you propose to take care of these people? Do you think that in a country as rich as the U.S. that people should be without Health care? Are the insurance company's gouging those that do have health care, and if so what can be done to change that?

Answer 1

Universal health care. Will cut down on the number of uninsured people who become permanently disabled from postponing medical treatment, will make US industries more competitive. Did you know that health care costs add $1500 to every car that GM makes? Will also unleash a lot of entrepreneurial energy from people who can't make that new idea fly without health care for their family.

Answer 2

I think the health care providers are gauging the insurance companies, who in turn gauge those who can afford health care insurance. How about the hospitals stop charging four dollars for a tylenol, and the insurance companies start refusing to pay the four dollars. and the big drug companies should stop demanding so much money for their drugs. Once they make a breakthru, the price of that particular drug should come down. Especially if it one that is widely prescribed. I know they spend money on research and development, but they get a lot of money from the government, and the remainder should come from their own coffers. They make billions of dollars in profits, they don't need to gauge the sick for the sake of a ceo making a million dollar bonus.
The government should not be required to provide health care for anyone, except veterans and government employees. I sure don't like my tax dollars going to some shitbag that won't go and work, but has no problem running to the emergency room for a cold.

Answer 3

I think it all comes down to one key issue...

how much is good health worth to you/most Americans...

the answer is... it's priceless... so how can you put a price on it?

you can't...

health care companies have realized this and have been raising prices waiting on the point where the market will level off and demand will go down... but guess what? they can't find it because people will pay anything...

have you seen how much costs have increased over the past 10 years... 20 years... it's insane and that alone is CLEAR PROOF that the system is not working...

and what's more... people don't shop around for the "lowest prices" before they go to the hospital or doctor..

this is the fundamental flaw with health care in a capitalist society... you can't put a price on it... so it doesn't regulate its self...

same with education for the most part... thus our public education system...

Answer 4

Everyone who is a legal resident of the country needs to have at least standard medical care opportunities. I find it ridiculous that 45 million people do not have something that is a need. We have to look at Massachusetts as an example of how to make health care nationalized without over spending or making the system inefficient.

Answer 5

First, do not conflate health care and health insurance. No one goes without health care in the US unless they decide not to.

The only way to fix the health insurance problem without continuing to degrade care quality and inflate health care prices is to have less government involvement.

1) Companies should no longer get tax breaks for providing health care benefits. That is a relic of WWII. They could then pay higher salaries to workers, who in turn could shop for whatever health insurance they wanted. If they decided not to buy, that is their freedom and not our responsibility. Competition between insurance companies would lower prices and keep quality high. It would be similar to the auto insurance industry.

Group policies have companies paying for benefits that employees don't want or need. When I was 23 and single, I had expensive and comprehensive coverage for drug rehabilitation and maternity. I used no drugs and had no wife. Why was my employer wasting money on these?

2) Third party payers tend to foster the mentality that people should not be responsible for their own health care. Everyone now thinks that someone else should pay for their doctor appointments and prescriptions. I often pay for my own medication. When a doctor wrote a prescription for Levaquin, I asked for an alternative that would work as well but be cheaper. Instead of paying $125 for Levaquin, I paid $7 for tetracycline. If I had "prescription benefits" I may have had someone else waste that $118 that was not needed.

3) People who need the most help paying for bill will often not be covered by cheap insurance policies. If we must have government involvement, either subsidies for more expensive policies could be implemented, or a national catastrophic health cost insurance program could be used.

As far as those 45 million people without health insurance, most of those are transitory between jobs, and have refused to buy short term coverage. Millions of others are illegals. Millions are young people who gamble by not buying any insurance. In a free country that is their right. But the general public has to stop paying the bills for those who refuse to get insurance because they know somebody else will pay for it anyway.

Most important, the public has to lose this dangerous mentality that it is the responsibility of the government to pay for health care. Government has no competition and can arbitrarily cut benefits for anyone at anytime for any reason, without losing customers. Many drugs available in the US are not available in Canada because the Canadian government cannot afford them. The Health Service in the UK refuses to pay for kidney dialysis for anyone over the age of 55 because it is not cost efficient. Other nations with "universal coverage" are routinely euthanizing old sick people, and refusing to treat struggling premature babies because they are too expensive and have little chance to live.

Beside mandatory immunizations for all children and catastrophic coverage (like the federal flood insurance program), I am hard pressed to think of what the government can do to that would not make health care worse in America.

Answer 6

that's a nonsensical question...the answer to the lack of health insurance is to increase the availability of jobs. BTW, there is universal access to health care here, nobody can be turned away from emergency care by law

Answer 7

The same link as everything else ill or wrong in the USA. You can not trust Representative Government being bought & sold by a wealthy minority ruling class mob! They must be stripped of their power & role. The constitution needs to be amended so as to replace ultimate rule & control over everything by the legal majority of citizens willing to be involved.Just imagine companies in any industry would have to make quaility products or not be patronized cause the common person would have rule & control over Money/Power/Wealth!!!

Answer 8

You can't live this life without money, right? heh.. So make health care free. Like it Should be.

Answer 9

the key word here is _affordable_.

I think a good portion of the program costs to have a publicly available program should come from the pharmaceutical industry's profits.

Answer 10

Get the government out of it. Let the free markets bring the cost of care down so it's affordable.