about the health care war going on right now.
2007-08-10 07:46:07 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Cultures & Groups ➔ Senior Citizens
It's not a health care war. It's a war about health insurance. We have the best health care on the planet. But, the insurance system to pay for it is badly crafted.
Health care is one of the last contracts of unequal bargaining power left. The provider tells you what's wrong, what needs to be done to fix it and what it will cost. The patient has no leverage over any of those demands except to forgo treatment and get worse or die.
Having the government run the health care delivery system is the wrong approach to solving the problem. Because government will ration care. Otherwise the system will go broke. Folks speak of Canada with glowing admiration. But, each province there runs their own system with financial help from their Federal government. The joke about the health system in Quebec is that it's really called "Plattsburgh, New York". Lots of Quebeckers are sent there for elective surgery because of the backlog in Quebec. Even in Norway, with an excellent well-funded national health system and a population of about 8 million people, has a quarter million on waiting lists for elective surgery.
We need something along the lines of a plan which was put forth in the mid-1970s by a Congressman from Oregon called Al Ullman. Under his plan, those wealthy enough to pay for their health insurance premium would do so out of pocket. Those too poor would have it paid by the government. Those in the middle would pay a percentage cost-share based on income. If their income went up, their cost-share went up. If they lost their job, the government would pay the premium until they were employed again.
Even though Al Ullman was a liberal Democrat, his plan was endorsed by the American Medical Association and the American Hospital Association. It's called "Ameriplan". It was introduced as H.R. 1 in 1976 and sits in a dusty file drawer on Capitol Hill. We need to dig it out, dust it off, hold some hearings and take another look at it.
2007-08-10 10:23:13 · answer #1 · answered by desertviking_00 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
We don't have the best health care on the planet -- we're on the bottom in some categories -- and we as a whole pay much too much for it. Take the profit out of it, and it becomes affordable. Medicare has less overhead than any other insurance plan.
Much as I thought Sicko was over the top, it got a lot right. We have to do something and soon.
2007-08-13 13:34:45 · answer #2 · answered by merrybodner 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think, that should it be put in place, it will bankrupt the US...Wisconsin just passed a preposterous health care program that will, in my opinion, put that state under. 15 Billion dollars is the expected cost per year, and the legislature thingks that small businesses will carry the burden...Small businesses will abandon Wisconsin in droves! California has tried this crap on the backs of businessmen, and the state has lost more companies than you can shake a stick at. We are not a socialist government...nothing comes for free. Heath care is expensive, no matter how you look at it. Why people think they are entitled to free anything is beyond me, but health care???? these are the same people who jump up and down, then sue big time anytime a doctor touches them. We have lost so many doctors due to the cost of their insurance, this is one more step to insure that, as a paying nation, we will have inadequate health care for anyone, let alone those who can afford it. Why is it that everyone assumes that a small businessman is rich???? This one really amazes me. While everyone else is out spending their money on the latest TV, Iphone, etc., the small businessman must forego spending, hoping to build finances to insure that his staff doesn' t loose their jobs when times are slow...If we want health care, we pay for it...simple as that.
2007-08-10 15:14:10 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
I think we should join the rest of the civilized world and have a national health care system.
2007-08-10 20:05:27 · answer #4 · answered by geniepiper 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
How about writing to your Government they will age one day then what..who will they mooch off. Health care is tops for everyone, I know.
2007-08-10 16:55:18 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
It's pretty obvious the only ones winning are the HMO's.
2007-08-10 15:42:48 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
What I think & what's going to happen are two different things. It's a sad state of affairs, is all I can say. :(
**goldwing....Do you own a Goldwing? (just curious)
2007-08-10 17:17:02 · answer #7 · answered by Shortstuff13 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
It would be nice if the prices went down.
2007-08-10 18:27:33 · answer #8 · answered by RB 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It's been going on as long as I can remember. What do I think? DO SOMETHING!
2007-08-10 16:25:28 · answer #9 · answered by Granny 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋