Do you agree with the Democratic candidates plans to try and socialize the healthcare system? Why or why not?

Question

If you do agree with it, how do you foresee it working any better than the systems do in Canada and England which are notoriously bad?

How would we pay for a national healthcare system?

What impact would immigration, especially illegal immigration have on a national healthcare system?

Answer 1

no... right now in Britain, there is a waiting list to get on the waiting list for treatment.. Elderly people are losing some of the treatments that had been afforded them.. Wisconsin Democrats are passing a plan to insure every resident under the age of 65 in the state has "free"health care. The plan would cost an estimated $15.2 billion, or $3 billion more than the state currently collects in all income, sales and corporate income taxes. It represents an average of $510 a month in higher taxes for every Wisconsin worker. Employees and businesses would pay for the plan by sharing the cost of a new 14.5% employment tax on wages. Wisconsin businesses would have to compete with out-of-state businesses and foreign rivals while shouldering a 29.8% combined federal-state payroll tax, nearly double the 15.3% payroll tax paid by non-Wisconsin firms for Social Security and Medicare combined. Democratic Governor Jim Doyle proposed and the Senate has approved, a $1.25 a pack increase in the cigarette tax, a 10% hike in the corporate tax, and new fees on cars, trucks, hospitals, real estate transactions, oil companies and dry cleaners. In all, the tax burden in the Badger State could rise to 20% of family income, which is slightly more than the average federal tax burden.the health plan includes a tax escalator clause allowing an additional 1.5 percentage point payroll tax to finance higher outlays in the future. This could bring the payroll tax to 16%.
The argument for national health care saving money (about $1.8 billion a year) through efficiency gains by eliminating the administrative costs of private insurance is wrong.those costs won't vanish; they'll merely shift to all taxpayers and businesses. Small employers that can't afford to provide insurance would see their employment costs rise by thousands of dollars per worker, while those that now provide a basic health insurance plan would have to pay $400 to $500 a year more per employee. We can't afford to pay for everyones health care. I pay for my health care others can do the same....

Answer 2

Yes I agree because its the ONLY way to insure everyone has health care. Health care is a RIGHT, not a privilege.
Do you know what the average lifespan was for Americans back in 1900 was? Believe it or not, it was 40 years old. We have DOUBLED that in 100 years. People live longer, putting a serious drain on our current health care system as it is now. Thousands of children every year go without vaccinations and lets not even get into how the government treats our senior citizens. My in-laws had to sell their home of 40+ years last year because it was the only way to afford the medications...over $1000 a month.
Even hospitals are going out of business because people use the emergency room as a free medical clinic.

It is shameful. Like the Dems said, we are the richest country in the history of the world, but we can't insure decent medical care for everyone?

How do you pay for it? Combine Medicare, Medicade and increase sales taxes...this will balance out because nobody will be paying into private insurance anymore.

Illegal immigrants are just that...illegal. If they are paying into the system and paying the taxes, then okay. Otherwise, to bad, no coverage.

Answer 3

All adults realize the mess healthcare is in in the United States. If you've had a hospital stay or a surgery, you know how expensive it is. But more, if you have the adult capacity of intelligent empathy, you know how completely shut out anyone who cannot afford expensive (adequate) insurance is by the present system. To be poor should perhaps mean less frills. But to be poor shouldn't be a death sentence, in any but the most backward country in the world. We do not choose our healthcare in tthe United States. The government doesn't directly choose it for us. The insurance companies hold our lives in their hands and decide on whim when to honor their contract, and when not.

Canadian and British healthcare is rumored to be bad by conservative lobbyists, and no one else. The free market, so often invoked by Buscho cheerleaders here, has nothing to do with insurance and vice versa. Insurance companies are monopolies by virtue of the fact that there is no price competition, and no alternative. None.

Pay for it with taxes, the way we do roads and schools and fire stations and police protection.

Understand one thing: The immigration problem cannot deter us from doing the right thing by our citizens. Simple solution: issue citizens a medical card. Not a citizen, no card. That simple.

- - - - Anything else?

Answer 4

"If you do agree with it, how do you foresee it working any better than the systems do in Canada and England which are notoriously bad?"

Prove that, please. Yes you wait, but, you wait for ELECTIVE/NON-CRITICAL surgery. Exactly the things you should wait for in the face of someone who was just hit by a car.

"How would we pay for a national healthcare system?"

Close all the tax loopholes on the rich. And, a lot of people forget the money they will have to put into it when they aren't paying co-pays, deductibles, and out-of pockets anymore.

Cantcu?:

Who says they are bad? Really? Anecdotes? Some from people in the US health care system...the very people who lose out if you take their billions away?

And we're 36th

Answer 5

i agree with it. Want to know why? because I am not rich, i guess! I cannot afford the $400 a month that insurance cost! Plus the $25 copay ...etc.
I am a single hard working mom. I am one of the people who suffers from not being able to afford health care!! And I am not poor either! I am a hard working middle class person.
Why is it that EVERYTHING right now is so expensive? What I can't seem to understand is how people prefer to pay hundreds of dollars a month to some insurance company that will turn them down for referrals when they do need something! And don't tell me it doesn't happen. My boss pays almost $600 a month for AETNA, a few months ago he found out he was diabetic and they barely cover his medicines or any other treatments he needs. Also about a year ago his doctor wanted him to get an MRI on his knee and AETNA refused!

Answer 6

It's amazing the number of uninformed people that simply spout off that UHC would be a disaster - without providing any kind of proof to back up their statements. Their lips are stained with Republican Kool-Aide.

1. Those who complain about paying for others health insurance: You already do. It's called pooling and all insurance companies do it. You are one of thousands if not millions that pay into the same pool of money. At any one time, only 10-15% of those pooled are drawing money OUT of the system. Not only that, but you are paying for the uninsured Americans and illegals who visit your local city hospital and receive treatment without the ability to pay for it. The hospitals raise their rates and pass the cost on to insurance companies, who in turn, raise your premiums every year.

2. On top of paying for these other people, you are paying for marketing, contract bonuses, CEOs with $255 million a year compensation packages among other things. Administrative costs for universal health care would run between 2 and 5% of annual budget. Administrative costs for your private insurer runs between 12 and 20%.

3. Universal coverage pays for itself over time. The more healthy Americans there are, the less usage of the system and the less it will cost over the long run. Emergency rooms will not be as packed because those less fortunate will have the same access to preventative coverage.

Answer 7

We are already paying for it and a lot of people are making obscene amounts of money that are in it!

Canada and England may be notoriously bad, but the rich still get taken care of. Additionally, they are in the top tier of providing quality medical care! I think we are # 26, 2 above Cuba! And we have one of the worst, if not the worst, Infant Morbidity and Mortality rates in the civilized world!

You think we are doing great do you?

Answer 8

Their plan, like any, need to be negotiated. The plan they have in its purest form may not be the best thing. At least the Democrats HAVE a plan. That is more than what the GOP has.

I would like to see a plan that would allow EVERYONE to have access to quality health care but I would have everyone pay some sort of premium and copay. The insurance companies would pay. Decisions as to what to pay for would be made by medical professionals and not insurance company people or bureaucrats.

Answer 9

I think its an absolutely horrible idea. First of all, lets look at the things the government is in charge of. FEMA, Homeland Security, yeah, these things run like well-oiled machines don't they. I want those kinds of idiots running my health-care system, not the best and brightest who are actually good at running things efficiently.

Now, lets take a look at this supposed universal system. Well we'll all be paying for it in the way of more taxes. Well not the poor people because they don't pay taxes anyway, but boy the middle class will get slammed. And of course, the rich as well, but according to some that's ok, because they are rich and can afford it.

Illegal immigration would have a large impact on the cost to consumers as it would only drive up the taxes of otherwise law-abiding citizens yet again, in order to pay for those who are illegal and shouldn't be here in the first place.

All this, and I haven't even mentioned that the quality of care will go down as well. With all doctors being paid the same (which is what would happen) then the competition is lost and thus there is no reason to give the best care available, because you competitor is giving crap care and getting paid the same. All in all, its just a very very bad idea that I hope and pray does not actually come to fruition.

Edit: hey given2fly, you are wrong in your assessment that more healthy Americans will reduce the cost of medical care. More healthy Americans means more older Americans who tend to take longer to die than those who die at younger ages. Now with all these old people taking months if not years to die, suffering from cancers and alzheimers and diseases of the sort, don't you think that drives health coverage up. Do you really think that a 25 year old man who rarely goes to doctor, and even less to the hospital is the reason health care costs are up? Do you really? I mean think about what your saying. If we have more old people, health care is more expensive for everyone. I'm not advocating killing off old people, but you must realize that this is where a major portion of health care cost hikes comes from.

edit #2: It amazes me how uninformed most of these people are. See there is a difference between health care and health insurance. Everyone in this country is guarunteed health care. Not a single hospital can turn you away for not having insurance. NOT ONE! And just because you don't have insurance is not the medical field's fault. You are the one who chooses where to spend your money and apparently the INSURANCE of your family isn't your top priority. Quit using your credit cards to buy stupid sh!t you don't need and quit complaining to me about how expensive health insurance is. Get off your @ss get a job and quit spending money in stupid places, then you'll see that health insurance really isn't that expensive. I know its hard to put the well-being of yourself and your family ahead of the next DVD or CD you want to buy, but stop and think for a minute about what happens when I get sick? Oh no worry, the government will pay for...well that's my money @sshole, I paid those tax dollars in and your probably didn't, so sit down, shut up and pay your share.

Answer 10

we already have it, its called medicaid and medicare. If any of you have ever lived overseas in a country with socialized medicine, then you will know first hand that it doesnt work. Competition breeds excellence. State run programs dont work and the US has about a hundred of them that dont work. Why add a bigger one to the mix that will just fail? Every one always complains about the gonvernment programs, why do they feel this one will be different?