Let me play the advocate here for a moment. We tend to be against Socialized Medicine, (and I am), but is it really anything new? We already have a very socialized infrastructure here in the good ole USofA: Socialized Police Socialized Fire departments, (even Volunteer depts get funding) Socialized Roads and Highways Socialized tree trimming next to the above. Socialized EDUCATION Socialized Military Socialized Parks and recreation Socialized Literature (ie Library) Socialized Housing I could fill 10 pages of examples by browsing USjobs.gov but you get the point. We have adopted the Nanny State and look to our Government to take care of most of the "Necessary Services" of our lives. I even say that we have Socialized Medicine to a large degree anyway, If you can pay, you will have to and if you can't, Uncle Sugar will pick up the tab. Medicare, medicaid, disibility, and most Hositals can't turn you away if you can't pay. Who do you think pays for that care? U and I in the form of higher taxation. Our constitution does not lay any of these items out as things the Fed should be involved in save the National Defense. The rest are by defacto unconstitutional.
Yep your right, but people will only vote for the pol. that promises to pass the most Unconsititional laws. OGM
Socialized healthcare may be a bad word, but the capitalist system we have now sucks! If we took insurance companies and trial lawyers out of the equation we would have enough money for good healthcare for everyone. In a country with so much wealth, we rank just below crappy on most healtcare benchmarks. I'm not in favor of gov handling it all, but we need to get the worthless moneysuckers out of it. And as I read it, that's also Ron Pauls stance.
Yeah, first it starts with a mental evaluation, and if you don't pass that, you have to go to re-education classes, then be on their mind altering drugs and of course you can't have a firearm after that. Their drugs are poison alchemy. I have no want or desire to be "taken care of by professionals" paid off by the drug companies for a huge profit. These are just planks of the Communist manefesto, the last being total disarmament of the civilian population.
I am opposed to socialized medicine, but what difference does it make if the insurance company or the government controls it? Most of us, less 40 to 50 million people with no coverage at all, are covered by "insurance" that can cost up to $1,000 a month or more in New England states, and then your care may or may not be covered and if it isn't that local clinic or hospital will not hesitate a minute to take everything you own to pay the bill for the care that you needed and thought was covered. I am 69 and have medicare and still it costs me and my wife about $5,000 a year for drugs and supplemental insurance, dental, hearing aids, and eye glasses. That is about 1/3 of our social security checks for the year. The one thing I have noticed is that the cost of a MRI is billed at $4,000 and the insurance companies pay $800. That is all they get, but if you have no insurance, the bill is $4,000 and that is what you will owe. What is the cost of a MRI. I have no idea and you sure as heck aren't going to call up 4 places and ask for a price as the system "requires" that a MD require it. So much for any real ability to shop price and the absolute stupidity of all of the programs to "privitize" medicine by getting the consumer involoved. Give me a break, I am in the hospital and may die. I have jumped through the hoops and have a MD and hie is taking care of me. Now as I lie there in the MD's selected hospital, I am going to call 4 other hospitals and request prices and certification before I have that MRI? The good point is that when my pancrisis shut down, they got it to working again and until about 1960 I would have dies and when I went in they said I had about a 30 % chance of dying on average. Now how realistic is any system based on cost, pricing, choice and all for the INDIVIDUAL. That is the rub. We havae no control and the insurance and drug companies are making a fortune on that fact. When you are lying in that hospital bed, all you can do is pray that you have selected good MD's and a good hospital as they are in charge.
MaybeMichael Moores' "sicko" will embarass some healthcare industry ceo's??? Butthen again ;I wouldn't count on it...
We have socialized medicine in the military. The doctor doesn't have to be good, he just has to show up. I look at medical care like this - I'm the employer and the Med Dr/Dentist is the employee. If I don't receive quality care , I get a new Dr. Eventually, the substandard ones will fade from practice like a bad meat market. Unfortunately, HMO's and PPO's force us to select from their pool who may be the very ones who's practices were failing due to the quality of the care they offered their patients. Once again, the value of the open marketplace is proven. I don't want insurance company intervention in my medical care any more than I want government intervention. Alas, without wealth great enough to avoid dependence on insurance, we are limited by the rules they set.
