Would you be opposed to a Nationalize Healthcare Program?

Question

Do you know that the United States is the last country in the free world not to offer it's citizen's a subsidized Health Care program? Wouldn't it be nice to not have to worry about going backrupt if something major happened in your family?

It's not free, you do pay some through taxes and some through your state...however, it is like maybe $300.00 a year per person. That's what it is in Canada. However, you are taken care of - no more payment is expected, unless you choose to use the private healthcare system in which you would pay out for.

Answer 1

I think this is a matter of not knowing what you don't have.

If we had a NHP I bet 90% of the people would never want to be without it again. However without knowing what it would be like, many people are afraid to back any change.

The charges that this is a step toward socialism are pure lunacy. What kind of person worries about semantics when hundreds of thousands of children would be better cared for under such a plan? How about the fact that millions of seniors would be able to retire with some peace of mind?

A good American designed and run NHP would be the best thing that happened to the US since the Civil Rights movement.

Thanks for the question.

Answer 2

Yes

Health care in this country is an incentive. Most families work harder to keep a job that has good or reasonable health care benefits. A portion of our nation is already on socialized medicine, its called the Veteran's Affairs (VA) Medical System. If that is what the whole country wants there will be a bunch of pissed off people. Americans that have; HMOs, health insurance or pay cash expect quick service. I know from experience that when the VA (which has a fixed budget) runs short on funds because the price of drugs go up or have more patients than were forecast, then construction and upgrade of facilities is reduced or stopped. Maintenance and housekeeping are reduced. Backlogs of operations and therapies lengthens. Malpractice will become a thing of the past because the system protects the reduced number of doctors and the same system will fix the problems that it caused. What our country needs is a system for those who might fall through the health care safety net, so they will not have to go into bankruptcy for a major health emergency.

Answer 3

I'd be opposed for all the reasons it has turned out poorly for other countries that have it. I dont give a rats behind if we are the last country not to have socialized medicine. Calling it National Healthcare softens the real meaning which is socialized medicine. Short step from there to socialist government. Ask how long the waiting list is for surgery in those countries. You can claim 42 million American have no health insurance but I have never heard of a Hospital that refused emergency medical treatment yet. The emergency treatment is what will keep you alive. Waiting for needed surgery will kill you.

I work at a hospital. After the Doctors offices close, the emergency waiting room fills up. Why? because many of those people have no insurance. I dont see any of them getting turned away. It has made the standard wait in the ER about 2 hours because people are triaged, most serious first. You'd be surprised how many people get yelling angry because they had a rash for a week and other people are treated before them. These screamers dont have insurance. I dont see a whole lot of suffering going on in health care right now. I think it will get bad if it is socialized.

Answer 4

If you knew anything about the current healthcare system in America, you would know that we already have a national healthcare system.

States legislate which health care companies can come in and sell Health Insurance. The costs ALWAYS outwieght the revenues, meaning these health insurance companies are losing millions of dollars a year. They go to the state government, who bails them out, and then they turn to the feds, who bail them out.

More than two-thirds of all health care costs are paid by the government. This is not speculation, this is fact. What many people are opposed to is eliminating the final 1/3 of "free enterprise" money and finally offering poor people some type of health coverage through the state.

You see the Republicans don't want a "rationing" system like in canada, they don't want to give those people without health insurance anything at all. They'd rather have their money spent on unwinnable wars in Iraq.

Answer 5

Perhaps you don't know as much as you think you do about American healthcare. It is a different system and concept, which may leave a poor impression on those less educated about it. The fact that it is NOT universal care, means that doctors will constantly update their knowledge to stay competitive and viable in their field...like almost any profession. I do also believe that doctor's should not become ungodly rich from people's injuries or ailments. Being a doctor shouldn't be about money, it should be about helping people.

That said, there are NUMBEROUS programs for low-income families to recieve FREE and FULL medical coverage through Medicaid. The elderly are entitled to FREE and FULL medical coverage through medicare. The disabled are entitled to FREE and FULL medical coverage through social security. Any employer who employs 12+ full time workers are BY AMERICAN LAW to provide group health coverage at no more than 30% of their employees salary. (few states vary)

So you see, medical coverage is available to all. If you have more questions about medical coverage or the 'fairness' of medical coverage in the USA, please feel free to add details as so will I. I hope to educate you, that you may not look down on America, but rather see it as a different way of tackling an ever growing issue.

Answer 6

The other day I saw a homeless man in Walmart, he looked young, in his early 30's. He was on crutches and had a huge sore the size of my fist eating away at his leg, I felt nauseated just looking at it. The guy was looking at ointment and bandages when what he really needed was a doctor.

Yes, Yes, Yes, some form of National Healthcare is necessary. America needs to get with the program.

Answer 7

Nashnal Health care is estimated to cost American tax payers 339 billion dollars per year. Imagine the tax hike that would incur.

For all that tax money, we would buy surprisingly little health care.

The one common characteristic of all national health care systems is a shortage of services. For example, in Great Britain, a country with a population of only 55 million, more than 800,000 patients are waiting for surgery. In New Zealand, a country with a population of just 3 million, the surgery waiting list now exceeds 50,000. In Sweden the wait for heart x-rays is more than 11 months. Heart surgery can take an additional 8 months. In Canada the wait for hip replacement surgery is nearly 10 months; for a mammogram, 2.5 months; for a pap smear, 5 months. Surgeons in Canada report that, for heart patients, the danger of dying on the waiting list now exceeds the danger of dying on the operating table. According to Alice Baumgart, president of the Canadian Nurses Association, emergency rooms are so overcrowded that patients awaiting treatment frequently line the corridors.

This is just a few of the follies we would face. I see some people parising theses countiy's health care systems, yet they really don't know much about them and what really happens.

In the end, we lose money and health care we could have gotten in an emergency room.

Answer 8

I am all for it. I don't mind paying extra taxes either. I pay over $500 per month for health care for 3 people in my family *and* I still have to wait 2 months to see a doctor. If I paid even that much per month to have the health care and as a perk, help pay for teacher's pay raises or Social Security, etc. Then everybody wins. I can't understand the rationalization for being against it.

My main concern is that everyone have access to preventative health care (women should not have to pay for pap smears, or mammograms as men should have to pay for prostate exams, basic child wellness check-ups, etc.). And no one should ever have to go bankrupt because they were too poorer to pay for Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars of medical bills.

*Lack* of Universal Healthcare is a horrid way of enforcing that the wealthy are the only ones good enough to survive because only they can afford healthcare. Poor people should die or stay poor because they are unable to pay to stay alive. How sick is that?!

Answer 9

Yes, all you have to worry about is dying from not getting good medical care.

But the main reason is that look at what the US has done to medicare and that should be the best reason not to want US national health care.

Answer 10

I am in favor of a National health Care Program, one which we could have had with the 9 Trillion dollar debt that we now have to carry in order to carry on a senseless war in Iraq. I doubt that one will come about. What we need however, are more clinics, manned by Doctors who are schooled and licensed in America. We have foreign Doctors who graduated from minimal standard foreign Universities , who do not speak English very well, and who are not trained in their special fields.