Should the US have a universal healthcare system?

Question

One man's opinon because according to stats the US is last in developed nations in healthcare.

Answer 1

Healthcare costs are skyrocketing, and at one time, only low-income Americans were affected. Recently, however, more and more middle class Americans are caught up in the vise of high healthcare costs. Inability to meet the expenses of medical bills are a major cause of bankruptcy and homelessness. In the face of rising health care costs, fewer employers are able to provide their workers with health insurance; the percentage of employers offering health insurance dropped from 69% in 2000 to 60% in 2005. Even if employers are able to provide health insurance benefits, the trend is towards providing high-deductible insurance that covers an ever-shrinking percentage of health care costs. The net result is that more and more employed middle-class Americans find themselves with low-quality or no access to health care.

Key Points
• Most of the uninsured either work or come from a working family.
• There is a higher incidence of un-insurance in the low-income, younger adults, and minority populations.
• Most of the uninsured are U.S. citizens.

At first glance, the adverse effects of being uninsured may seem to be limited mostly to the uninsured individual’s physical health. Yet, upon closer inspection, the consequences of being uninsured are far deeper than that. Indeed, there are four primary areas affected by the lack of health insurance:
• Physical Health
• Community Wellbeing
• Financial Implications for the Family
• Emotional Health

Answer 2

There are up sides and down sides with every situation. On the upside, everyone is covered. On the down side, everyone is covered. Think about it. Right now, you have doctor's offices and or HMO's that take certain health plans while others don't take the same ones. You need to see a doctor, and you call for an appointment, cause your particular HMO has a preferred physican roster, and you are assigned to that one doctor. He may have 200 patients, so, unless it is an emergency, you should be seen in the same day or the next day. Now, if everyone had the same coverage, the average doctor might have 500 patients, and instead of being seen the same day, you might be lucky to be seen on the same week.
The other issue is cost. Granted, the US government has a lot of money, however, regardless of what people think, it is a finite amount. Not an infinite one. So, if health care was covered by everyone, then the extra money used to pay those additional costs, would have to be taken from some other worthwhile program. If you are the one without medical coverage, then you'd be happy for any coverage. if you currently have the best medical coverage in the world, you might not be ready to "give up" some of those benefits. Or, like in Canada, where any one is eligible for an MRI. The problem is that there are only so many MRI's that can be given. So, you go on a waiting list. It might be as long as a year to get the MRI and, in that time, your disease or illness might worsen to the point of you dying. That is one reason, that those in Canada, that can afford it, come to America and have the MRI done, then take the results back to Canada, so that they can start the necessary treatment.

Answer 3

When I was a kid my mother used to say to me "...if all your friends jumped off a cliff, would you too?" What wisdom mothers have. Just because all other nations have universal health care, does not mean that the USA should as well.

There is a reason that all the european nations, and Canada which have universal healthcare have vastly inferior healthcare to the United States! There is a reason that all those who have the money to, come to the USA when they have to for their surgeries, and medical treatments.

You want to see how well "universal healthcare" works... here's an excerpt from an article I found in the Journal News:


While recently presenting a continuing education course to doctors in Ireland, and in a recent visit to a colleague in Canada, I learned first-hand how astronomical income taxes, long waits, and limited access characterize their universal health-care systems.

Ireland boasts the richest economy in Western Europe, but in a country of about 4 million people, there are 17 neurologists, it takes up to a year to get an appointment to see one for the initial visit, and patients could wait up to six months for a follow-up visit. It takes about four months to get an MRI scan, about 14 weeks for diagnostic ultrasound, and surgical cases are put on waiting lists.

Canadians pay roughly a 50 percent income tax to help support their national health-care system, but in Ontario, most Canadians who can afford it purchase private extended health coverage rather than relying upon the government-sponsored programs to avoid similar problems.

Government-sponsored health-care programs in our country also have serious problems. [1]


PJ O'Rourke said, "If you think healthcare is expensive now, wait until the Government gives it away for free." This is something we all need to realize, there is no such thing as a free lunch, and healthcare is no exception. Imagine how outrageous the costs will be when the government takes over!

Do you think it's any coincidence that the things we are most dissapointed with in this country... i.e. the post office, FEMA, public schools, Amtrak... are all government run monopolies! It's not... having the government take over will make the healthcare system yet annother example.

Do you remember the last time you were at the DMV? That is a perfect example of how "efficient" the government is. You think the wait at the ER is long now... just wait!

For god's sake, wake up everybody! Socialism is not the answer to our problems. Please, abandon this path to certain destruction! Stop the discussion about Socialist healthcare, and realize the folly of such a program!

Answer 4

On some level, yes, somehow with private health care, we have the highest prices of any country in the industrilized world yet some of the worst care...why is that if everything in the free market works so efficiently...how does the US rank almost dead last in infant mortality rates? How we would go about it would be insanely difficult, though and the transition might be brutal but the current system is broke beyond repair and the 12-15% annual increases we've seen the past 7 years shows it. And Elizabeth, in what health plan do you not have someone deciding your care for you? Everyone against it uses that line but it's BS.

Answer 5

Ak

The answer is we do.

The problem we have now is government interference with the system.

It is honorable for us to want to provide for those who do not have the means.

The question is who is more behind this effort to have the Federal Government provide for them, rather than the family, the local community, the Faith based organization, the local government.

The answer is Large HMOS, Insurance Providers, and the Federal Government. All of these entities want it for one of two reasons, 1st Money, and 2nd Power.

Neither of those two reasons helps the average Joe or Jane.

Health care subsidized by government won't work long term.

It is unsustainable.

On the other hand if we let free market systems work free of aggressive governmental interference.

All who seek medical care will receive it. Only those who sit around waiting for someone else to care for them will go without.

Answer 6

Universal health care will just be a rip-off. I have spent some time in Australia. Australia has had one for years, but you cannot get into hospital unless you are in an auto accident or something like that or you buy private insurance or you wait up to 5 years. So you pay twice.
The doctors do not do anything for you there, unless you are a foreigner or you are otherwise privately paying. They get guaranteed their payments by the government, so who cares about you. You can wait in queues for hours, particularly if they just take the money from the government and not from you as well.
The government punishes the doctor if he "over-services" you, which means that they keep the costs down by not giving you treatment, including necessary pathology tests.
If you are over a certain age - about 70 - and do not have private insurance they just let you die, because others have greater priority.
They are now getting a card with all your health data on it on a chip and any doctor will be able to access it, so if you are getting a second opinion - watch out! Also if a doctor says you are trouble - watch out!
Further, the special interest groups want their say, so in Australia you can get a lot of life saving drugs if you are gay, but you cannot get them otherwise. Gays are an important voting bloc in Australia.
You have heard the expression "He went postal"? Refering to the incompetence of the Post Office, what makes you think that universal health care will be any different?
You only get what you pay for and if someone else is paying, then they call the tune. If there is no competition, then you get completely ripped off.
The government decided that the scheme was costing too much so they made a lot of new doctors wait for years before they could get a provider number - the number the doctor needs to get money from the government. This made doctors in short supply and gave rise to long queues.
So many Australian doctors go to the USA that they are bringing in Indians and Pakistanis and there are major malpractice allegations. If you want to search in news in Australia, look for the Bundaberg Hospital in the Australian State of Queensland.
The government did not like malpractice cases, because doctors were more scared of the malpractice cases, than being punished for "over-servicing", so they have changed the law and made it extremely hard to sue for malpractice.
Nevertheless, there is a huge amount of fraud going on - fraudulent claims on the system - and there is endless paperwork for doctors.
The government decided that too many people were getting subsidized medicine, so they paid money to drug store owners to close them down, to make it hard to get medicine.
The government also closed down a lot of its benefit offices to stop people getting refunds from the universal health scheme. You have to drive for miles.

Answer 7

We have a state by state type of health care, as a Veitnam vet that was told I would have the best health care the rest of my life,free.Now the VA is trying to , and is charging vets for the use of the service, if you make more $ then poverty level you get a copay.
So the govt has no interest in helping anyone but the rich.

Answer 8

stats are for losers...they can be spun anyway the spinner wants. why don't you try checking how many americans go to other countries to get help versus how many come here. THAT is the only stat that matters...
and to give an answer to your question, i think that if we have a universal health care system in this country, then those who are in the plan should have their behaviors controlled. why should i pay for you to be fat, lazy, smoke, drink like a fish, do drugs, or get pregnant? i will NOT be forced to subsidize an unhealthy lifestyle and neither should anyone else.

Answer 9

Well, I tell you what, I'm not gonna pay for the world's healthcare just because their government is corrupt. So my answer is no. If we do, who's the ones that are going to pay for, the US citizen. So I must deny on this question. Let the world solve their own dam problems, we have enough at as it is.

Answer 10

Yes and our economy is nor broke like a lot of countries with universal healthcare. Examples, Germany, Canada, and of course Russia.