Most powerful nation in the world - millions without access to quality healthcare

The world's most powerful nation doesn't have the political will to assure access to quality health for all citizens.

Why? It's a complex industry but the bottom line is we don't care about what happens unless it happens to us - or someone we love.

Today - if you're very poor, you get Medicaid. If you're old, you get Medicare. If you're somewhere in the middle, you better hope your employer - out of the goodness of their business heart - provides you with health insurance. And if they don't, or if you're self-employed, you better hope you're healthy and can afford the typically high premiums for those not covered by a group plan.

In America - no insurance = minimal access to health care. Try getting an appointment with a doctor - the second thing they ask you after your name is what health insurance do you have. And if you don't have any, you better have cash up front or you won't get an appointment. Then when the situation gets bad enough, you go to the emergency room - where they HAVE to see you. Who do you think pays for that???? We all do - through our taxes, or through the cost shift that occurs when hospitals provide more charity or Medicaid/Medicare care than they provide to the privately insured market. Health care providers negotiate with private insurance companies for reimbursement. The reimbursement they accept must cover the cost of the charity care they provide, and what they lose when they provide care to a Medicaid or Medicare patient - that is the cost shift.

We have a class system when it comes to healthcare in the US - whether you want to admit it or not. Those without health insurance struggle to get the medical care they need and those with insurance, expect to get everything, including breaking edge technology and highly advertised drugs, whether or not proven clinically effective.

Then we complain when our taxes go up or when we can't get in to see a doctor for a $5 copay. At some point, we're going to have to decide whether access to health care is a right, or a privilege. If it is a right, then we should assure the each and every individual has equal access to the same quality care. If you believe it is a privilege, I'd like to hear why.

Health care as a right is not listed in the constitution, the system of free market capitolism is what makes americas healthcare the most advanced in the world. Health care costs are high non the less and i believe this can be fixed with tort reform as well as immagration reform

Every working American pay taxes one way or another. . .

But the way the government ulitizes the money is at its discresion.

American population the one that are the hart of the nation and work the most are the ones that more often than not is forgotten when priorities comes of who and when they are to get benefits of from the tax they pay.

This alone should make anybody wonder what kind of government we actually got, one that take you tax money but it fail to provide with what you and you family need.

Originally posted by Brownpower
Health care as a right is not listed in the constitution, the system of free market capitolism is what makes americas healthcare the most advanced in the world. Health care costs are high non the less and i believe this can be fixed with tort reform as well as immagration reform

I agree. Healthcare, like education and economic stability, are not rights everyone is entitled to in America. They are things that must be worked for, because we are not a socialist country.

I have been without healthcare on alot of occasions, but would not change the system there.

Although i don't see what immigration has to do with the cost and access of healthcare.

Originally posted by Shawnna
In America - no insurance = minimal access to health care. Try getting an appointment with a doctor - the second thing they ask you after your name is what health insurance do you have. And if you don't have any, you better have cash up front or you won't get an appointment. Then when the situation gets bad enough, you go to the emergency room - where they HAVE to see you. Who do you think pays for that???? We all do - through our taxes, or through the cost shift that occurs when hospitals provide more charity or Medicaid/Medicare care than they provide to the privately insured market. Health care providers negotiate with private insurance companies for reimbursement. The reimbursement they accept must cover the cost of the charity care they provide, and what they lose when they provide care to a Medicaid or Medicare patient - that is the cost shift.

Thanks you for providing such a comprehesive argument against socialized medicine in the U.S. A trip to today's emergency room will give anyone who goes a sneak peek at what socialized medicine would be like.

The better things in life - including premium health care - are the incentives to work hard and better your circumstances and those of your family. Having it all handed to you breeds nothing but sloth. Not convinced? Research how many able-bodied people just sat in New Orleans during Katrina waiting for the government to do something to save them - because that's how they live their lives, waiting for government handouts. While in the surrounding areas many people worked like mad to save themselves and others.

Originally posted by Brownpower
Health care as a right is not listed in the constitution, the system of free market capitolism is what makes americas healthcare the most advanced in the world. Health care costs are high non the less and i believe this can be fixed with tort reform as well as immagration reform

Free market? The US has not been a strictly "Free market" for a long time...

Everywhere I look the states set a price floor for cigarettes, that is not free enterprise that is communism, and communism at its worse.

market prices are often dictated in the market, not freely competitive....

and immigration reform "brownpower" :shk: why dont I just call myself white power? yet that wouldnt be allowed on the boards because that is the double standard by which the western world has its balls gripped by. Freedom for some, but not the decendants of the founders of these freedoms

how the hell does immigration reform = better healthcare?! maybe for immigrants...not for Americans!!

Americas healthcare is the most advanced in the world because at one time we were the most industrialised in the world and a leader of technological innovation.

That is quickly going down the crapper....

If we spendt all the money on health care we would be broke and unable to invade everybody

Originally posted by Royal76
If we spendt all the money on health care we would be broke and unable to invade everybody

Yeah, and you'd have an army like we do
Well, anyway, I am happy with the system we got, I pay taxes, but I don't have to worry about health insurance, every Canadian is covered.

Not the best system, but it's fair.

PS, I was waiting for a post like yours to come up, good one

People should question every time our government ask for Billions to use as it seems fit, to wag wars, pay for Reconstruction of other nations and pay for the benefits of other nations . . . when people in our own nation struggles everyday on low pay jobs to feed their families.

Look at the the Katrina victims, until this day people are still waiting to get their homes fix to be able to go on with life.

Something is definitely wrong in our nation and we the people have the right to ask . . . where our tax money goes, specially the billions use for aid other nations. . . that has gone missing for lack of accountability.

Why we have to depend on corporate America to dictate who can afford heath care or not because many can not afford their insurances, why people have to depend on corporate America when they turn their back and decide no to pay for insurances afterduring hard times as disasters.

Something is definitely wrong.

and yet, let an employee get sick, or hurt, and they call in sick a few times.....these same corporate giants might just require a dr's not for them to retain their jobs!!

schools will often require doctor's notes before they will let a child back into school.

and well, we all know the horror those terrorists are desiring to send our way, what, with their nuclear and biological weapons,...the threat of bird flu, ect. ect. ect.....

the fact is, if something was to come our way, we'd have so many people sitting at home hoping the symptoms would just pass so they don't have to swipe the 100 or so from their rent payment that we'd probably have a pandemic real quick! especially since, the ones sitting at home wouldn't be the poor unemployed or elderly person....they have the medicare or medicaid to help them out. they'd be the working class, the one's whose bosses would be telling them to either get their arses into work or get to a doctor for a stupid note explaining why they can't./......I'd just go to work sick!! prove to them that I can't work...and pass the bird flu around!

IF the terrorist threat is real, IF the chances of them getting a hold of some biological weapon is real, IF the bird flu poses a legitamate threat......then our present healthcare system poses a national security threat!!!!

Socialized healthcare will be a disaster for the US. We have too many illegal immigrants and too many major businesses invested in the medical market. I really dont feel like waiting 6 months to see a doctor, do you?

SOCIALISM DOESNT WORK!!!!!!

Socialism does work, the alternative works for some, but not all.

So you may have to wait, because you are not bumped ahead just because you can afford to, while poor Mrs. Durtpo gets bumped.

Is that a system that works fairly?
In the Canadian system, if you need emergency care, you get it now, wether you are an eater of cat food or filet mignon.

If you ask me, the American system is broken, and expensive. How can paying private insurance companies be better than paying public medicare through taxes? Sure public can be bureaucratic, but insurance companies exist to make and retain profits, so it costs a lot and they deliver as little as they possibly can.
IMO.

I'm not a big fan of socialism either, being a selfemployed entrepreneur, I love the American Bootstrap approach, but there are plenty of European countries that are basically socialist, that enjoy a higher standard of living than the US. They have a universal health care, cradle to the grave, system that works.

I know the argument is that they pay much, much more in taxes. But if the system works for the citizens instead of corperate profits, maybe we should take a closer look at countries like in Nordic Europe. They have a shorter work week, shorter work days, much longer vacations and attractive people. Can't be all bad.

Amsterdam Rawks!

[edit on 3-2-2007 by whaaa]

[edit on 3-2-2007 by whaaa]