I just watched Michael Moore's documentary "Sicko", and he claims that the US is the only country in the Western Hemisphere not to offer free healthcare. I know Michael Moore is known for twisting the "truth" and editing his documentaries to exaggerate his opinion, but why doesn't free health care work in the US? In the documentary he claimed that our government was bought off by the insurance/drug companies; if true, can this be reversed?
2007-12-20 17:53:27 · 6 answers · asked by David M 2 in Politics & Government ➔ Law & Ethics
You watched a micheal moore documentry? Imposible he doesnt make documentries. He claims he does, but that doesnt make thme documentries. A documenty is a film produces showing all sides of an issue without bias. Micheal moore makes films to show the side of an issue he wants to show.
1st no country provides free healthcare. Every county that has socialized healthcare (correct term for it not free) the people pay for the health care through higher taxes.
I am american and have lived under our healthcare and I live in england so I have lived under socialized healthcare.
The Tax burden to pay for the "FREE" healthcare is crippling. You pay outragous sales tax, income tax, You pay taxes on just living. I am not talking about property tax which you have to pay if you own a home. I am talking about counsel tax. Each person over a certian age has to pay a tax for living in that city. It doesnt natter if you rent own or what ever you have to pay taxes. You pay to park anywhere, You pay VAT tax
Then when you do need medical care, you have to wait on waiting lsit to have things done. I waited 6 months to have something taken care of.
Then you have the lack of medical personel to patient ratio. There are not enough doctors or nurses to treat the people becuase they get thier budget from taxes and can only afford so many doctors. Then you have MSRA virus that runs rampant through hospitals there
What is MSRA it is a virus that forms becuase of un-hygenic conditions in the hospital. They can not hire enough people to keep the hospitals clean enough to aviod having this virus.
People in the UK are scared to get admitted to the hospital becuase of MSRA.
In many countries if you pay 30k for a car the car actually only cost 10k and 20k of it is taxes to pay for the free healthcare they enjoy
If Micheal Moore was truley making documentaries he would have pointed these things out
ADDITION: By the way medication is not free in the UK even though it is socalized health care. You either have to pay for each medication or you can buy a prescription card that will eith cover all of your prescriptions for a 3 or 6 month time period.
2007-12-20 18:06:45 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
Having "free" healthcare isnt as glam as it sounds. For someone making the same income in the UK, half thier income is taken away by taxes (because of the "free" things they recieve from the government); whereas here one would keep most of their income and have to pay up for some health insurance and other medical as you need.
Both systems need major work, i coldnt really say one would work better thanthe other more likely we need to have basic free emergency care and free basic care and evaluations for every citizen every year... then take it from there.
2007-12-20 18:05:58 · answer #2 · answered by Mandie 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Free healthcare would require a high tax rate to pay for it.... Canada has a tax rate of %16 and that pays for standardized medicine, but everyone gets taken care of. When you try to raise taxes from 5% to 6% Americans yell and scream like babys.... no one wants to pay for free healthcare..... thats the problem.... it would require millions of dollars to fund it..... but no one wants to contribute.....
2007-12-20 18:03:53 · answer #3 · answered by Stampy Skunk 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Big corporations own this government and the politicians, who do you think gives the candidates the millions of dollars to campaign with? No America has been sold down the river and the corporations, insurance companies etc. will not allow universal healthcare to cut into there profits!!!!!
2007-12-20 17:59:50 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
There is no such thing as "free" healthcare. Everything costs something. The real question is do we as taxpayers want to pay for universal healthcare, and is the U.S. Federal Government the best available entity to administer helathcare?
I think that it would be a horrible idea.
2007-12-20 17:58:12 · answer #5 · answered by Citicop 7 · 4⤊ 1⤋
I live in Canada and I believe that us gov has to cut spending somewhere to make universal health care possible,
2007-12-20 18:30:15 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋