Why Universal Health Care Would Work in America

[irishbobcat]

It was the liberals who threw the Tory Conservatives out....

Why don't the Conservatives head back to England.....your ancestors did 200 years ago....

leaves more turkey for us liberals on Thursday.....

[Elmo-Ytown]

We should pack up all the liberals and send them back to England, I don't think they get what we're trying to do here, which is sad, as they've had 200 plus years to figure it out.

[irishbobcat]

SpanOhio's plan is for people to pay if they made $98,000 a year.....if you are 70 years old and make more than that, you are an exception......

[Towntalk]

In my wallet are 6 id cards that cover every aspect of health care and the last time I used any of them was 4 years ago due to an automobile accident. Prior to that, the last time I used an emergency room was in 1964 when I nearly cut my thumb off on a table saw. The last time I saw a doctor was in 2000. The last time I had a prescription filled was 4 years ago after the accident.

I'd say that is a pretty good record for a person who will be 70 next July.

Hospital stays? None.

Am I an exception? No.

Since I'm not a burden on the health care system why should I be tipped upside down so that the state can get at every penny I have to my name?

I don't ask anything from others, and don't see why I should support those who frittered their lives away.

Do I have compassion for those less fortunate?

I support those organizations that help folks like the Salvation Army and Rescue Mission, but I refuse to support health care programs for the folks that could jolly well afford to pay.

If a family can find the money to buy frills such as cell phones, big screen TV's , and can manage to go to high price shows, and eat out several times a week, they are wasteful spendthrifts that don't deserve my support.

[irishbobcat]

Universal health care is a necessity too......

[Towntalk]

1. First, I have no rag rats, and  if I did, they would be going to private schools, because the public schools ... all of them are worthless, and we have the teachers unions to blame as well as the universities that buy into every whacko movement that comes down the pike. If the teachers unions were done away with, our schools could get back to the task of hiring compitent teachers and getting rid of the bad ones.

2. As to Police and fire ... they are a necssity in any society even in those countries that meet with the approval of the enviromnentalists.

3. Comparing police and fire services to universal health care is like comparing apples to parsnips or Blue Bells.

[irishbobcat]

Universal Health Care( single-payer) should be a right.

Why should I educate your kids?

Why should I care if you need police protection?

Why should I care if your house burns down?

Why do I have to pay for these items?


Dennis Spisak

[Towntalk]

Dennis:

Which model for universal health care meets with your approval .... Canadian ... English ... French or Sweden?

Nothing is free ... nothing comes even close to being free ... in all of those countries that have universal health care they also have higher taxes than we have.

Why should the tax payers be forced to pay the medical bills for your family at the expense of their own?

There are a number of ways that Congress can act to help reduce health care costs such as placing a cap on lawsuites. Reduce the amount of malpractice insurance doctors and hospitals must carry.

Why is it that you seem to think that government must care for us from womb to grave? By advocating universal health care that is precisely what you are asking for.

[our2cents]

Universal healthcare can work.....as long as your politicians who are ready to stand up to the HMO's, Insurance companies, CEO's, and lobbyists.......

Dennis Spisak

Thanks for the laugh.  My computer screen didn't like being sprayed, but thanks anyways.  I'm sure those politicians will love getting the thousands of calls from those of us that would be caught in the middle of the fiasco.  Good luck in any thought of that happening.

Every program, law, state, country, company...whatever...has huge loopholes that don't get fixed overnight.  With our country's current financial situation, and so many of us living day to day, month to month on a partially broken system...good luck with any hope on this. 

I just had to fight a medical provider, because they took a 50% cut on the bill from their agreed plan with the insurance company, but attempted to bill me for 20% of the total bill.  They finally agreed to adjust and accept 20% of the remaining 50%.  Just an example of a provider accepting less once they understood the argument.

Another aspect that I just remembered, ambulance chasers and BS lawsuits against doctors.  That sure messes with the entire cost for everyone.  Hmm, I wonder what a government ran system would do to this other side of the mess?

[Elmo-Ytown]

Oh is that all it will take . . .

[irishbobcat]

Universal healthcare can work.....as long as your politicians who are ready to stand up to the HMO's, Insurance companies, CEO's, and lobbyists.......

Dennis Spisak

[Towntalk]

A way to help pay for Universal Health Care:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ilL1Y65FU7yLzxLNY3YgBf4Wfxzg

[Towntalk]

Let me get it straight. Universal Health Care = birth to death free health care for everyone including the super rich. It's not universal if you exclude people with incomes over a certain level, so that means that the Rockefeller's and Bill Gates wouldn't have to pay for health care or would only have to shell out pennies on the dollar.

We know that the bill will have to be paid somehow, so where will the money come from?

Oh, the government, which means tax dollars, so the FREE isn't free at all because whether you have the present system or Universal Health Care, you will be paying for it whether it's through higher taxes or as it is now.

And what about Senior Citizens on fixed income, and the folks on SSI, do we tax them as well, and if so, how much?

Oh, the higher the income, the higher the tax bill.

If we have Universal Health Care, then all the companies that now offer heath care can opt out, which would help their bottom line, but wait, corporate taxes would go up in order to pay for everyone in America including those who are here illegally.

Any way you cut it, we pay, so free isn't really free after all.

As the last poster pointed out, and rightly so, Universal Health Care has major drawbacks that are not being addressed.

[jay]

This Saturday (see the forum calendar) a fundraiser is being held for a woman who has been in the hospital for months.  She does not have health insurance.  If you are able, please help this Youngstown resident.

[our2cents]

To go a step deeper in it all.  There are 2 huge problems with our current system.  And it starts with the medical establishment making contracts and agreements with insurance companies to cut this cost or that cost.  But yet those fees are not adjusted for anyone else. 

Our current system would be in a much better situation if all medical facilities used the UCR (Usual Customary & Reasonable) approach to medical costs and applied them across the board.  Then any insurance company would be in a balanced system and charge rates for true competition to win over people to join their plan.

If our country is to have a so called universal health care plan, it needs to start with these 2 problems and then plan out an option for people to choose their own plans (and therefore out of pocket costs).  Then the closest our government should have in this, is to possibly provide a system based on income to help pay for a portion of the costs that the person signed up for.

I've been in the Medicaid & Medicare system (as one of your quote "disabled Americans")...and it sucks.  I have meds that would not be paid for due to the damn donut hole system & therefore took out private insurance.  But my private insurance pays 80% which makes it much easier to find assistance for the other 20%...and usually from the drug companies themselves.  I would sure hate to see the system worse and have to find a way to pay for just one of my medications (that costs 35k) at more than the current 20% OOP.

I also know many people with the same disease as myself in other countries under other universal health systems.  And they sure aren't working for them.  They can be in a worsening situation and have been told, nope...we won't cover another MRI or CT this year for your illness...even if you've worsened and your doctor may need to see the changes that are happening.  They've also been told they couldn't have another chemo drug to be used because the plan only approves one type for your illness. 

There are so many problems that aren't addressed in any one of our current options in America.  A single plan being passed and forced into effect by the small group of politicians (that are taking bribes from this drug company, or that doctor organization) would take many many years and reworks to do correctly.  We're already in the middle of that with Medicare and all of the damn loopholes....my family can not afford any changes to break any part of the current system that is still working.