How come the United States doesnt have Universal Health Care like Canada and Europe?

Question

I am a single parent and cant afford a health plan. I am wondering if any Presidential candidate is for this type of idea. It seems to work elsewhere.

Answer 1

because we are smarter than that...when SS works great then i might trust the government with something else...how much in taxes do you want to pay...most of those countries taxes rate is 40% or higher of your income...you can afford health care with that...but not much else...

Answer 2

Basically like any other time that the government gets involved it punishes those that are responsible for those that are irresponsible. The drastic increase in health care costs today correlates with the increase in Mmedicare and medicaid because people are not responsible with their health care because they do not have to pay for it. If you look around the world at their socialized system you would be loosing health care. It would take you longer to see specialists, if you were to be stricken by cancer the government would decide weather or not you would be eligable for treatments. Right now, anyone in this country can have top notch health care. It simply has to be their priority. I got a job at 18 that provided health insurance. I was a teller at a bank. It was far from my ideal job at that time, but I needed health insurance and I made it a priority. Basically the government is taking health care from those that have it as a priority andgiving it to those that do not. There will not be more doctors, in fact the government will cap their pay and highly regulate them meaning there will be less doctors. There will not be more hospitals. Basically the government will not create any health care, it will simply distribute it. Also, they will take the profit motive from all companies related to the health care industry and that is where the only cost savings will come from. This may sound good, but it really means no new innovation because they will nto be compensated for R&D and the risk of putting all that money on the line for research if they do not make anything off of it. In countries where socialized insurance exists, there is no new innovation. Also, When the government comes out with a health plan it will push out all other insurers. They say that it will not, but if the plan is not cheaper than current insurance, there really would be no point. If you go on youtube, there are videos of the Democrats like the senator from IL talking about how this will lead to a single payer system slowly. She is for the single payer system. I can not post it right now because I am at work, but it should be failry easy to find.

Answer 3

As a single mother of two children, (without help from their dad) I worked full-time and I paid my way through college. I paid for my kids health care and whatever else they needed and it was not easy. So, why can't an able bodied person take care of a child's health insurance? We do not need socialized medicine. I am an RN and I see already what the HMO's do for people. Socialized medicine is even worse and it isn't free. Can you afford 40% of your earnings in taxes? Go and get that child insurance!

Answer 4

Because the US is not "Socialist" country.

A lot of the "Socialized" (Not Universal) medicine plans do not work as well as you may think. In any case we are very close to it now. HMO's and other State plans are very close to what they have. Ask some Nurses that work in the US hospitals about what is happening. Too many folks with no insurance or the minimum are using the Emergency rooms as their doctors office. This is creating more problems than we know.

Find a job that has good benefits or pays enough to get a decent Health plan. Stop demanding the Gov't should take care of you at the tax payers expense. My two daughters are single parents, and get medicaid, food stamps, and one gets Social Security due to her husband dieing. (From drug use!)...Their benefits in the total dollar amount are more than I get as a retirement for serving this country for 20 years! What is wrong with that picture!?

Answer 5

The only candidate I know of who is pushing for Universal Health Care this election cycle is Dennis Kucinich. If people would take the time to study the issue instead of spouting the propaganda of the moneyed interests in the debate, they would see that Universal care is the best path to take. For anyone interested in knowing facts go to this site:

http://www.amsa.org/uhc/

The Times also ran an editorial about it today, see here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/opinion/12sun1.html

Answer 6

Cost. It would mean taking away money from military and space programs. Plus doctors would have to accept a ceiling on how much they could charge.

Answer 7

Because here in the good old US of A we believe in working to provide for ourselves. If you're a single parent who can't afford healthcare, that's your f*ckin problem, not the rest of ours. If you think it works elsewhere, ask the Canadians why they wait weeks for routine procedures and travel to the U.S. for the difficult stuff.

Answer 8

Simple enough move to Canada or Europe.

Answer 9

Simple answer - the almighty (?) dollar. Americans in the business, industrial and medical spheres cannot exist unless they can squeeze every possible dollar out of the general public by whatever means, ethical or unethical, usually the latter. In the medical sphere, if you don't have dollars, you die. In South Africa, life-saving operations are performed on many citizens who cannot really afford them, and on patients from the rest of Africa.

Answer 10

I just saw that " U.S. lags behind 41 nations in life expectancy rankings"

We are also one of the worst in infant morbidity and mortality.

I don't know how anyone can look at those figures and say there isn't something wrong with our system. Greed wins when it comes to health care!

We watch as people bleed to death on ER floors for 45 minutes!

Pobe, your system sure isn't working! And you know the Blues administer Medicare!