If universal health care would cost you less -- why are you against it?

Question

To anticipate some answers-
"The government can't handle it "-- it's already handling medicare, and dr.s prefer dealing with medicare
"Medicare is going bankrupt" -- because the pool of participants is only the most needy. If you include all the healthy people then the costs reduce.
"Government shouldn't provide healthcare." -- Do you feel the same way about fire and police?

"Quality of care reduced" -- if the dr.s charge the same money, why would the quality reduce
"Long waits" -- I can't get a physical for 6 months with my health care plan.

"No faith in the government" -- where do you get your faith in private healthcare companies? At least you ELECT your government.

"Healthcare isn't a right like military protection" -- so if an enemy bombs us we should expect free military protection, but if they infect us with some germ warfare it's every man for himself? Where does it say that fire protection is a right?

"I don't want to pay for other's abuses" - You already do. If you use health insurance, or pay hospitals, or pay medicare.

"No choice in doctors" - um, if there's only one source of payment for doctors, which doctors will opt out? That would be 'NONE'.

The question isn't IF universal health care would cost less. That is a premise.

Answer 1

Well done!!

Your question is excellent, primarily for the long list of rationalizations it elicited about our supposedly excellent healthcare system.

The for-profit medical industry is in a fight for its life, and it's getting more dire as large corporations (owned by conservatives) are starting to push for nationalized healthcare to relieve the strain on their overburdened pension plans and, by extension, profitability. Nobody addresses how we taxpayers should end up paying the contractual obligations of large companies so that they can pay dividends to their shareholders.

America has an interest in a healthy, productive citizenry. Substitute the word "consumer base" for citizenry, if you want, but my point stands. The "system" we have in place now is a fiasco which gulps down $600 bilion annually in administrative costs alone, while behaving adversarially towards its clients/employers, those in need of medical care.

I gotta go get some insurance.....I think I'm gonna puke.

Answer 2

Alright, how's this for an answer, I don't like my taxes going up to take care of people who are abusing the system. How many people do you think need treatment because they smoke, or drink too much, or refuse to eat anything remotely healthy? Why should I have to pay for people whose illnesses are purely the result of lack of proper self-control?

The quality of healthcare is reduced because you can blame pharmecutical companies all you want for making healthcare so expensive, but they also are on the cutting edge of medical care. Every breakthrough in the last 20 years has been from pharmecuitical companies that invest in finding cures to diseases that could never be cured before.

Medicine is one of those fields that need to be filled with the best and brightest because they are the ones that comeup with the breakthroughs. Enlisting their help with opportunities to make money is the way that they do that. In Europe, due to the use of socialized medicine, they've had to start importing doctors from the middle east and India, and if you've read the news recently, have had some terrible results.

Answer 3

In what messed up world would you call what the government doing handling Medicare, one of the most bankrupt programs in the federal government. You however forgot the most important point against Universal Healthcare, the millions of uninsured Americans is more than any of the population of any of the current Universal Healthcare countries. If you want a fair debate get all the facts out.

Answer 4

Health care is not a 'right' you have as a citizen. Protection (fire, police, military) is. Why not provide all insurance (home, auto, flood)?

I would assume dr. prefer medicare because it pays out for everything, since it is only tax dollars. They come from a bottomless pool.

Banckrupt! What you are saying is that if you add people to draw off a banckrupt system it will become solvent. What??? Or are you anticipating more people to pay more taxes? That is even better.

Answer 5

When an American government bureaucracy takes anything over it turns to crap.

End of story.

When we elect someone to government, we have to choose between the lesser of two evils. With private health insurance I have at least a dozen choices of providers with different rates with different coverage options.

The only governmental intervention that we need in health care is for legislation baring the hospitals and other medical providers from charging people with no insurance 5 times as much for the same services provided to someone with insurance.

Answer 6

Because I have no real faith in the government.

Our schools used to be some of the best in the world. Now that the government is highly involved, they're festering money pits that are far outperformed by private schools. I have no doubt that the health care system will go down the same route.

Answer 7

Number One: I've lived in both France and England, and the system absolutely sucks. It doesn't work like everyone else wants you to believe. And those two nations are much smaller than we are.

Number Two: Because I can get better healthcare with my own money. And I'm tired of having to pay for everybody else.

Number Three: These Democrats say that they support the working man, but do they know how many working men they will be putting out of work?

Answer 8

It's not all about cost. Sure, I would love to pay less for health care, but I also want to be able to choose my own doctor. I want to be able to see my doctor when the need arises, not after waiting for months. I want competition between doctors and hospitals, to keep the best in business, and weed out the worst. I will get behind universal health care when people like Hillary Clinton agree to use it themselves. The proponents of universal health care seem to think they know what's best for the rest of us, but I can bet you their families would not be participating the this wonderful plan.

Answer 9

The current system in the USA is as good as it gets. People come to the USA from all over to world to use our pay as you go health care. Just this past week, my Mother found out on Monday that she needed open heart surgery. The doctor moved her to 1st on his list for Friday, no questions asked he did it with out talking to anyone but his Surgery room scheduler. That is reason enought for me. He does not need to talk to some government employee.

Answer 10

Who says it would cost us less? Try looking at Wisconsin's proposed $15.2 BILLION universal health plan. They plainly state that it will cost every taxpayer an average of $510/month in increased taxes, employers will be paying 30% in payroll taxes per employee, 20% of the family's income BEFORE federal income taxes will go towards taxation. Tell me how our economy could survive something like that multiplied 50 times. It would ruin us.