▲
0
0
▼

Every Other Country Has Universal Health Care - And It Works


               
2009 Aug 30, 12:19pm   23,067 views  94 comments

by Patrick   follow (59)  

Every other industrialized country has universal health care. It works for them:

  • All other industrialized countries have higher life expectancies than we do in America. There are 41 countries with higher life expectancies than America.
  • No other countries bankrupt their citizens with health care costs. Only America bankrupts you with health care costs -- even if you have insurance. Medical costs are the leading cause of bankruptcy in the US -- and most of those had health insurance. So under our current system, you are fucked, sooner or later. Unless you're Bill Gates you're just one serious illness away from bankruptcy. Most of the medically bankrupt were average Americans who happened to get sick.
    Summary: You have no financial security unless we get health care reform.
  • No country tells its citizens to commit suicide rather than get health care. If you believe any health care reform would do that, perhaps euthanasia is right for you after all!
  • US private insurance companies are death panels - they ration health care and if they decide against you, you die. Every day, they deny care and rescind coverage to maximize profit. Got a serious pre-existing condition and applying for insurance? What do you think the private death panel is going to say to you?
  • US private insurance companies are already bloated bureaucracies worse than government. You have no choice in health insurance, except to pay whatever they say, or die. They are only a few insurers, they all offer about the same coverage for a given price, and they don't answer the phone. There is no market.

Something needs to be done about health care in the US. It is badly broken: it wastes money, it bankrupts families, and fails to provide the the quality of health care that all other developed countries get for far lower cost.

The Republican plan is... what? It's to do nothing except deliberately stoke fear of "socialism" and "death panels" while raking in insurance company lobbyist money. There are there are six insurance company lobbyists for every member of Congress.

Insurance industry lobbying money is killing the public-plan health insurance option. And you know that they are funding Fox News, Glen Beck, O'Reilly and others like them. "Fair and balanced" my ass. Turn that crap off and read the actual proposals.

Democrats are guilty of taking their money too, but at least they are talking about real solutions.

The Republicans won't even propose one.

#politics

Comments 1 - 4 of 94       Last »     Search these comments

1   ja   @   2009 Aug 30, 11:02pm  

Calling any side "death panels" is an bios simplification. They are just individuals looking for their best interest. The interesting part is that Americans will have to realize that a pure market system where there are no rules of the games (except guaranteeing the private property), can make wonders to produce and sell potatoes, but is extremely inefficient selling medical insurance. A society that chooses to follow always the same strategy without questioning it validity, is condemn to disappear.

Said that, I'd like to know if somebody has a strong (economical) argument for the public option vs. just reforming the market. Moral points, like "a well-off society has to care about the less fortunate" are reasonable but not what I'm asking for.

2   nosf41   @   2009 Aug 30, 2:45pm  

You have so much faith in Obama and big government.

How about starting slowly, government does not have the required trillions of $ for Obama health care reform proposal.

The CEO of Whole Foods wrote the following article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204251404574342170072865070.html

3   Patrick   @   2009 Aug 30, 2:55pm  

nosf41 says

You have so much faith in Obama and big government.

OK, so what would YOU do to reform health care?

4   1logicalthinker   @   2009 Aug 30, 3:09pm  

I don't understand why so many people are opposed to spending 1 trillion dollars on Universal Healthcare for ten years, but so few people care that the Pentagon spends over $600,000,000,000 every year with nothing to show for it.

Universal Healthcare will improve the health of millions of people in this country. What has been the benefit of killing thousands of people in Iraq or Afghanistan? or throwing money away on weapons systems that are outmoded before they are deployed, and spending more money on defense than the rest of the world combined.

Our military couldn't even stop 4 guys with box cutters. According to the Pentagon's own list, there are 865 U.S. military bases around the world, not including Iraq and Afghanistan. Close half of those bases, bring the troops home, and we'll have more than enough money to pay for healthcare. Of course, that would require "real change" in this country.

JFK tried that change, but the C.I.A. and the Joints Chiefs of Staff were opposed to it. Please read "JFK and the Unspeakable, Why He Died and Why It Matters" by James W. Douglass.

Comments 1 - 4 of 94       Last »     Search these comments

Please register to comment:

api   best comments   contact   latest images   memes   one year ago   users   suggestions   gaiste