Kmarion wrote:
Flecco wrote:
SealXo wrote:
"If you think health care is expensive now, wait until its free" - PJ O'rouke
Why do many Americans seem to have such a big problem with a federal funded health system?
I mean it's not like you all complain about the federal government running the military, or the FBI, or federally/state run education systems...
Universal health-care hasn't exactly hurt Canadians, though I've heard some fucked up shit about the NHS in Britain.
Scale. Getting the cost under control doesn't mean that there needs to be a completely new system. The US government is already paying more per citizen than any other country. One approach is to get the cost of Malpractice insurance down. This means doing something about frivolous lawsuits and ambulance chasing lawyers.
All completely true, but one thing I never understood about people who are against healthcare reform, or even nationalized healthcare:
You already pay for other people's medical care. About 4/5th's of my direct family are either doctors, chief of medicine, or nurses. I never knew this factoid until they told me. You know when you go to the hospital and you notice the band aids are 15 bucks, the horrible food is actually like 40 dollars a day, if not more. One blood test can run you over 500. I mean the overcharges are obvious. What's not obvious is the reason. People assume it's hospitals pulling the "It's our movie theatre, and this is the only place you can get popcorn, so 20 bucks for a bucket" routine. But actually you are paying higher costs because for every person that goes into a hospital that can afford it, there are likely 2 or more who come in, never pay, and never see legal action because you can't bleed a turnip. So then they jack the prices on you, to pay for their losses on the people who couldn't afford it. You already pay for poor people's healthcare, everytime you visit the doctor...
Not to mention that poorer people, tend to have poorer healthcare overall in life, and eventually instead of catching something early, it's caught late and the expenses mount exponentially. Whereas a person who's well to do, and has probably had better overall life medical care, tends to run into little health problems that can be treated fairly cost efficient. Not case by case, but in the grand scheme.
Last edited by oChaos.Haze (2008-08-22 00:17:00)