Paul Krugman Smacks Giuliani on Health Care
Krugman writes in his NYT blog:
Rudy Giuliani warned us about what would happen if a Democrat wins:
You have got to see the trap. Otherwise we are in for a disaster. We are in for Canadian health care, French health care, British health care.
And that would be a terrible thing
Short version: The US health care system is already a disaster being made worse under a Republican President. "By 2002–03, the U.S. fell to last place" in deaths that "are potentially preventable with timely and effective health care" in a study of 19 industrialized nations. Of course all of the countries that bested the US have some form of universal health care.
Bottom line: Rudy wants voters to grant him and his wife "CheneyCare" by saying it would be a disaster if you and your family had it too.
it's time to grab the corporate health care system by the balls and yank them off real hard.
What? Universal Health Care? Well that's just socialized medicine!!! I mean really, why should we pay to have a healthy nation...because if we only give care to those who are at the top then maybe the people at the bottom will die off and leave us upper one percenters alone!
I'm just screwing around...trying to see what it is like to think like a knuckleheaded republican...and now my brain hurts!
Rudy's just a tainted politician who was in office when New York was attacked. The fact that he was able to con a few hysterical and ignorant American's to think he is god is pretty remarkable. By using that terrible day to elevate himself is obsene, but that is your basic Republican.
Dahgrostab'ph-r-i @ 2:
They don't actually have brains- just a preset group of reactions.
Where does Mexico fall into this? Isn't Mexico industrialized?
(does it even matter...?)
I listened to Sean Hannity get OWNED - completely made a fool of - by Elizabeth Kucinich the other day.
The moron kept insisting that America has the best health care in the world and that in places like Canada and Great Britain you have to wait for hours / days / weeks / months to get health care that you need.
She basically said my entire family is in England, they are very pleased with the level of health care they get and you, Sean Hannity, don't have a clue about what you are talking about.
I personally think it's worse than that - I think he knows full well that what he says is not true but he is in the business of protecting corporations over people - so he tries to convince the masses with his deliberate lies.
But...but...but...how much will it COST!
UH, Edwards and Kuchinich's plans will cost about what we are paying now - and insure everybody!. They will end the 30% rake-off for the HMOs is all. THAT will pay for it!
A healthy population will do wonders for productivity - and end the competitive advantage that companies who offer health care to employees give up to competitors both local and foreign.
Electing Rudy will be like pushing the ▼ button on the elevator, and I'm not just ♫ Dixie.
Face it, none of these clowns care about Americans, they only care about their greedy Corporate CEO buds.
America is one of only a very few major countries which does NOT have a government sponsored health care program.
By your standards billw .... the healthcare system isnt in its current state due to errors or lack of attention.
It is what it is by design. You need to understand this. It is a profit enfine. It is protected by law (importation of drugs). And it is running smoothly.
It isnt broken and it doesnt need to be fixed.
It just isnt what you had in mind ... but then ... who the fuck are you.
This is only surprising if you have been living on Mars or in a Republican alternate universe. We have the worst health care of any industrialized nation. But we have the most expensive in the world. At least we are number one in that department! Single payer national health care is the answer.
anon @ 9:
Profit machine. not what I typed.
Timmy_D11 @ 6:
That's not hard. He humiliates himself every time he opens his dopey mouth. Mind you, Elizabeth Kucinich is super smart and beautiful to boot.
Timmy_D11 @ 6:
My condolences for you listening to hannity, especially if you had no choice.
Scott @ 10:
And getting worse. For an American, it's cheaper to travel to Thailand for Surgery and get a vacation out if it also. Try getting your appendix taken out here for $380. and three days in hospital.
yeah... In Canada we wait for days, weeks, months, (years?..nah) for some procedures... but emergency care?... never once have I or anyone in my family had a gripe about waiting in emergency offices.
My elder brother is an emergency room nurse... and also does Intensive Care duty... and was a shop steward for the nurses' union at one time... He knows the score... and one of the worst issues is our wealthy nations are not training enough doctors and nurses... there is a pitiful need for more medical staff but the schools for such seem to keep the tap closed to a mere trickle.
What happens? We end up raiding other nations for medical staff... when it should be the other way around... people should come here to learn and then return (or stay if they choose but we may have too many doctors, nurses, technicians, etc. for that to be viable.) to raise the standard of living in their home countries.
And yes... this is just more of the full-court press by HMOs to undermine socialized medicine. And I am bloody tired of people referring to the likes of Hannity a journalist. He is a shill for big business... no longer a member of the fourth estate - just a snivelling patsy of the property class...
dadams @ 1:
My agreement, you has it.
You've got to hand it to Giuliani, he makes a compelling case *chortle*.
►Will America Survive Itself◄ @ 14:
So wait you are advocating the outsourcing of high paying American jobs overseas? What about all the loyal union workers here in the US?
Rudy should know that bashing the French and Canadians these days is soooo BUSH.
Yeah, I'm in an ongoing discussion with a couple of Repubs on a local message board about health care.
One guy referenced Hillary's "socialized health care" and I asked for specifics on which parts of her plan he viewed as socialized. I also asked him if he also thought that Congress was the recipient of socialized health care. He ignored me on both points, but did come back and say that Hillary's plan "stinks."
The other guy says that he doesn't think it's fair for Congress to get specialized health care, says Romney has the best plan, and yet seems to forget that Romney, if elected, will have the same coverage as Congress. I've asked him if Romney, if elected, might show a bit of principle and turn down the government-funded health care and instead opt for coverage via the free market. Waiting for an answer.
I'm sick of Americans slamming our (Canadian) health care system. I have never had to wait in line, ever. Some non-emergency procedures like say a knee replacement may have a waiting list at certain times & in certain places (inelastic demand) but you have the option of either waiting a number of weeks, going to another locale or if you are wealthy getting it done in a private clinic. There is no cost/pre-approval required to get something 'checked out' at a family doctor (which you choose) or a 24hr neighbour clinic. Prescription drugs are very reasonably priced and completely covered for those who don't have the finacial means to pay for them. Believe it or not we are not 'taxed to death'. Your average Canadian has a very comfortable standard of living with many very wealthy neighbourhoods and more importantly there are no ghettos.
David Crowe @ 21:
But it is not fair that the rich get to cut in line in front of the rest of us for treatment, aren't we all equal? If we finally get a single payer solution they should ban those private clinics, or maybe make them pay extra taxes so the rest of us get the same level of care.
David Crowe @ 21:
Don't worry David, reasonable and informed Americans are well aware of this. But, because of the drastic changes that would be brought about here with universal health care and because of personal vested interests there are quite a few influential right wing pundits that do try to misinform a certain percentage of Americans with bogus propaganda. These people are the REAL America haters - they don't care about the backbone of America - the working class people IN America.
My Mother passed away a couple of years ago after a difficult fight with pancreatic cancer. She lived in Canada, in a medium sized city, and was in her mid-late 80's.
EVERYTHING, and I mean everything, was covered financially for her care. There were no waits for doctors or tests. The only wait, of a few days, was for a bed at the local hospice equivalent. All medication and doctor's visits were provided free of charge. Her last two months in the hospice-like situation were FULLY covered, with no costs to the family.
And she died as she lived, with respect, dignity, and according to her wishes.
Try and get that kind of care in the USA - I dare you to do it. Impossible, unless you are among the wealthy who wouldn't need insurance anyway.
Something needs to be done with this situation. A major crisis is looming as we boomers approach retirement age, and the age when good medical care is most crucial to the quality of life.
This whole conservative myth of the USA having the best healthcare in the world is right up there with idiot Glenn Beck saying America is the cradle of democracy. ???
But what do I know, I've only been an RN for 31 years.
"Oh, you're a male nurse," people say to me. "I would have thought half of that was obvious," I reply.
Wha? You mean.. Malpractice lawsuits don't actually result in doctors screwing up less.. who would've thunk it? (Except the rest of the world..)
I actually saw a wingnut make the argument that public health care sucks because you can't sue them...
The statement embodies a lot of what's wrong with the US.. And it's false as well.. AFAIK, you can indeed sue your hospital or whatever in the rest of the western world. It's just that people don't. Because a) In the rest of the modern world, lawsuits are considered the last resort of dispute-solving (you know, like they're meant to be..), not an end unto themselves. and b) Because in the rest of the world, they seem to understand better that "shit happens", and it doesn't mean someone was negligent.
If the US healthcare system spent half as much resources on actual "quality control" rather than "lawsuit control", maybe they'd be higher on that list. But as things stand now, if you change your procedures to improve safety, then you could be considered to be tacitly admitting that the former procedures were unsafe, and opening yourself to malpractice lawsuits. Yay..
Rudy wants voters to grant him and his wife “CheneyCare“ by saying it would be a disaster if you and your family had it too.
Will the Democratic strategists be strategic and bold enough to use this same point to explain the BRAIN DEAD electorate?
Hey folkth,
Rudy here. Look, it'th like thith. The cotht of rethearch that ith going towardth ridding me of thith lithp I have is gonna cost a lot of money. A LOT! I ain't payin' for it, tho Judy and I depend on CheneyCare.
And thcrew you if you make under $500,000 a year and want it, too! You poor thcummy heathens!
Remember, vote for me! 9/11!!!
Rudy
Conservatives sees us as useless eaters and want us to die
When it comes to our socialized health care system here in Canada, I think you'll find that the vast majority love the system. They may bitch about some wait times, but for the most part things are good, and getting better after being underfunded for a couple of decades. It's kind of like the NRA and guns, to take away my health care system you'll have to pry it from my cold, dead, fingers. Luckily, I'll statistically be living longer because of that system so you may have to wait a while.
dhkeen @ 15:
I've been pissed off about this for years; we're also one of the only countries that requires medical school applicants to spend 4 post-secondary years and a multiple thousands of dollars getting a degree (some degree, ANY degree; they don't care what it's in) before you can be seriously considered to even APPLY. Then, the cost of med school on top of that? Graduating with $200,000 of debt is almost certain.
So totally retarded; most schools (Latin America and Europe), it's straight to med school at age 18. I'm almost totally convinced that the costs and degree requirement is a means test used to keep people out and keep the number of doctors low.
Happy to see Canadians standing up for their health care system.
I have many Canadian friends. All of them tell like stories. There are minor snafus now and then, but on the whole they wouldn't trade it for the clusterf*ck we have stateside.
I'd give my left nut to have French, British, Canadian health care. We're in America so I better make sure I mark the left one with a Sharpie so they don't take the wrong one.
Good God, imagine what might happen if we were to have health care like Canada, France, or Japan! Oh, wait, I just did, and I'd take it in a heartbeat.
I've seen the darkest recesses of the US healthcare and insurance system, and I have firsthand knowledge of how Japan's "Evil Socialized Healthcare System" works, and comparing the two is like comparing a gated suburb of mansions surrounded by slum to a nice condo. Sure, the one looks really great from the outside, but unless you're stinking rich it isn't doing you the least bit of good, and everybody else would do a lot better to live in the condo.
The hilariously tragic part is that so many Americans have somehow convinced themselves that the slum is awesome because of the view of the mansions.
Oh, and anybody who complains about the "Hours, days or even weeks" that somebody has to wait for care in a socialized system has apparently never tried to go to a doctor for any problem between "routine checkup" and "bleeding from your head". I've waited literally hours in an ER waiting room in the wee hours of the morning when they weren't even busy, and waited MONTHS to get in to see a local specialist for a problem that, if treated sooner, probably wouldn't have eaten a YEAR OF MY LIFE.
I would wish that every one of these "socialized healthcare = bad" people could enjoy the same experience I've had with our "wonderful" US system, but I'm too Christian to wish that sort of misery on anybody.
Did I miss something? When did "socialized medicine" become the same as Communism?
Asshole Republicans.......
The Commonwealth of Virginia has a per capita GDP that is LARGER than France... Why can't VIRGINIA take care of it's own socialized medicine?
Well, the answer has something to do with the fact that Virginians don't WANT it...
What happens when you place all your eggs in one basket, and then the bottom drops out of the basket? You lose ALL your eggs...
The danger of allowing the FEDERAL government to control our healthcare has to do with monopolization. Yes, it's nice to pull the "Canada card", but Canada's government is ENTIRELY different than the United States. Before the 1970's, the United States had a medical system that was the envy of the world, but the tax incentives that were passed in the 70's encouraged corporatization of the industry. Hospitals are now run by monolithic, uncaring corporations, who care less about healthcare, and MORE about PROFIT.
The Founders had the idea that the Federal government would only do those things that were ABSOLUTLY NECESSARY for the central government to do, such as provide for the common defense, and to leave the other things up to the states. The US military IS a monopoly, because no other military competes with the United States military for the common defense of the United States, nor should any be allowed.
Do we REALLY want to do the same thing with medicine? Is it fair to MAKE Virginians get on board with the same plan that your state is on board with?
I feel it is it better to allow each state to come up with their own plan, so that, if one plan fails, it doesn't drag the other 49 states down with it.
But go ahead, keep holding your hand out to the government. As long as giving you something will keep getting them elected, they will keep borrowing money from the Federal Reserve to keep paying you off. And the one's who suffer will be your children. But then again, that's the answer for ALL socialists: let the CHILDREN pay for it.
It's moral cowardice.
James @ 36:
YOU'RE A FUCKING FOOL.
First of all, it won't "fail" - what you refer to "socialized" medicine will have ZERO bearing on the quality of health care - only on how it's paid for.
And as far as your RETARDED coward and pass it on to our children comments are concerned - dopey people like you aren't too concerned about that when it's the military industrial complex that is raiding and looting our treasury and leaving our offspring in tremendous debt.
And WHO THE FUCK benefits from that?
At least our children and grandchildren will benefit from an all inclusive health care system.
MORON.
why is it that if my tax dollars go toward medical care for me, it's considered socialized medicine.....whereas if my tax dollars go to provide medical care for an elected official it's not? Must simply be one of life's imponderables.
richard @ 38:
Or to medical care for Iraqis after we bombed them back to the dark ages in an illegal and unprovoked war...
Anything with Mr 911 should have this attached to it.
http://www.docudharma.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3710
what did he say about 9/11?
These very same politicians have no qualms about socialized health care when they are accepting it for themselves and their families. I am damn sick and tired of paying for Dick-head cheney's by-passes when I can't afford any health care
I get so angry when I hear Giuliani talk like this. We DON'T have the best health care system in the world, it only costs the most. We are the ONLY industrialized nation that doesn't offer health care to everyone. Our life expectancy is NOT the highest. Our infant mortality rate is abyssmal. I'm sick of hearing of people that are going broke trying to pay for medical care, dental care or health insurance. I'm sick of hearing about people that don't go in for routine physicals because they can't afford it. I'm sick of seeing Americans with gaps in their mouth because they don't have the money to fix their teeth. I will not vote for anyone who doesn't commit to actively work towards universal health care. Supporting health care for all doesn't cut it. It's time it happens. If the taxpayers are expected to pay to escort your girlfriend around town (what's that called, Rudy - socialized security?), they can shell out to get everyone insured.
As a Canadian, healthcare does eat up a giant portion of our taxes and yes, there are a number of bad things about it. BUT, even with the bad things, I wouldn't trade you Americans for your system, even if you threw in all your smart bombs with your nukes, AND military aircraft. Not for a second. I would much rather have my neighbour's broken arm fixed without bankrupting him, than bombing his house to save his arm.
You do have universal health care of a sort. As President Bush pointed out you can just go to the ER. Of course that amounts to too little, too late as well as an enormous drain on health care resources.
I bet my little story is typical. After 4yrs I had same-day surgery to remove &
change an ICD implant. I was in the hospital about 6 hours. Well somebody goofed
& infection set in. I was sent to Yale New Haven Hospital for 5 days of anti-biotics that did squat. They sent me home for a month then back to Yale where a specialist
in lazier surgery was called in from NY. Six days later they sent me home where I
sit & wait for another implant. It's been a long wait. I'm an old man. I don't have
time to wait around while the cardiologists hope I die so I won't sue the pants off
of them. Best health-care my ass. BTW while in the hospital lots of horror stories
& bitching about our wonderful health care. Nah! I don't want Universal Health Care.
I'm a true American. We are the envy of every country in the world. :-(
I was wondering after reading all three articles, doesn't anyone know what the projected cost would be if we went into a single payer system? What would the cost be for one year taking into account that you jump over the grubby little middle man that is the insurance companies and paid directly to hospitals, doctors and the like. I don't know that I have ever seen a projection of cost on any website.
After reading the articles though it seems that Rudy wants to give people tax breaks to pay for insurance while Obama and Clinton want to make employers pay for insurance. The problem is the insurance companies to begin with, doesn't matter either way if you just keep feeding them money.
I don't see this big aversion from just cutting out the middle man in the next decade, phase out the insurance companies. If you are a working stiff with insurance at your job, you have to pay into it, how is that any different than Uncle Sam just taking that money out of your check every week. At least you wouldn't have to fill out forms and get denied for some bogus pre-existing condition or some other loophole.
I know the Republicans are big on National Security, even more so since 9/11 but really what good are a bunch of F-22 Raptors and $8 billion a piece nuclear attack submarines against Al Queda. Star Wars missile defense shield? Why can't we spend some of that money on things that we need here? I mean, we are the ones paying the taxes right?
And who's plan does Krugman like???
Hmmm. I wonder??
Oh, yeah.
MN USA @ 43:
I'm sick of having to see some poor child dying of leukemia picture on a bell jar at every convenient store. I'm tired of 3 medical lobbyist for every congressman. If America is such a great democracy how come We The People can't get something we want.
Token Canadian contribution:
I am a 40-something, life-long, single-payer public health care participant. I have never had to pay a cent in user fees, co-pays, deductibles or retroactive charges for medical care. I have never had to wait an unreasonable amount of time for a doctor's appointment, specialist referral, medical test (blood test, ultrasound, MRI, etc.) or hospital service (orthopedic surgery, emergency treatment for sprains, etc).
The idea that you could be denied service for some kind of pre-existing medical condition is totally unknown in Canada, because EVERYBODY IS IN THE SAME INSURANCE POOL. [Pardon the all-caps there, but it's mind-boggling to me that Americans don't get how absurd and costly it is to divide the population into innumerable different insurance pools managed by for-profit insurers, whose profits depend on the extent to which they can DENY the service they are contracted to provide. This makes absolutely NO F*CKING SENSE. The overhead cost imposed by this system is INSANE.]
A few years ago, I had surgery on my ankle to repair my blown ligaments. I waited six weeks for the procedure. This wasn't a problem - if it had been an emergency, I would have been moved up the list. My surgeon was one of the top guys in North America. He was team doctor for the local National Hockey League franchise - that's right, the same guy who fixes the knees and ankles of million-dollar athletes is in the public system. In the US, I doubt I would have been able to afford care of this calibre, even if I was fully insured.
The operation went perfectly, I had lots of post-op care and physio (all covered). My ankle has given me no trouble since.
At about the same time, a close relative of mine in the US had surgery to remove painful bone spurs from her heel. Her insurance was minimal, so she used this up and paid the balance of the cost for the initial operation out of pocket. This was several thousand dollars. She was left with a pin in her heelbone, which was to be removed after 6 weeks.
As bad luck would have it, she found herself unable to come up with the money for the follow up surgery to take the pin out. The hospital refused to admit her or discuss payment over time. They wanted cash up front, right now, before they'd operate. So she left the pin in until she could come up with the $$. This was difficult to walk on and inhibited her ability to work.
Her heel became infected. The infection got so bad the bone around the pin began to disintegrate.
She eventually scraped the cash together and got her heel fixed before her foot was permanently damaged or gangrene set in. Her recovery was much longer and costlier than mine.
I can tell lots of stories like this, as can almost any Canadian with friends or relatives south of the border. Most Canadians won't ever travel to the US on short trips without travel health insurance, knowing how expensive even a minor medical emergency in the US can be.
There is simply no comparison between Canadian and US health care. No Canadian wants what you have.
here is my Canadian story about our health care and that this story costed me zero dollars.
I fractured a bone in my hand by stupidly punching a brick wall for missing a bus late at night. I broke my hand.
A few days later I visit a clinic and the doc x-rayed my hand and yup it was fractured. He lent me the copy of the x-ray and told me to go to an hospital early tomorrow morning.
-Early next-morning I went to the hospital and show my medicare ID and my x-ray. Due to it being a fracture, I skipped the waiting room and went straight to see the orthopedist and gently place my bone back into place and place my hand+wrist into a cast.
-I went back one week and half later for a x-ray check up (but this time I waited like a bitch). It's okay, come back again after the full 3 weeks are done.
-3 weeks after the initial cast, x-ray. Good, removed cast, sent me home.
You know how much all of the cost me out of my own pocket?? ZERO, big 0. It was Free (well not really since we pay taxes for it, but you get my point)
So, my Canadian Story proves to all you Americans that Universal Health Care is awesome.... even when you break your hand when it's your fault LOL
I live in Los Angeles and our hospitals are closing left and right. Moms broke her hip and had surgery at Centinela Hospital, which used to be the home of the Lakers and Kings. Next year this time, it will be closed, like so many others.
This is not like hotels, motels and residential units where they close, and another opens. I am sure in this case, Tenet Health Systems is cutting their costs and making shareholders happy, but what are the average folks to do?
Gee,where are all the conservitive responds to this??? Is it maybe that that the only response they have to''OH,ANY LIBERAL PLAN IS SOCIALISM'' is growing very thin???
First off, I think taking economic advice from Paul Krugman is like asking a coke addict what to do about addictions.
Krugman is a very very very BAD economist. He predicted a recession for the US 8 times with an 0/8 record.
Plus he is a filthy communist who abhors free choice. He would rather us all be run by Orwellian masters.
Second, this poll that states 110 mortalities due to healthcare...is it the healthcare or the health of the people? We are after all the fattest nation on the planet. The healthcare industry may not be the main problem...I think this is unhealthy people trying to blame others for their reckless life habits.
Ok how bout this.... let Americans go to the doctor and get antibiotics for LYME DISEASE as long as the American needs them. Why stop someone's treatment before they are well?
The Infectious Disease Society of America was bought out, taken over and has committed an abominable sin. The Infectious Disease Society of America says Americans are CURED with 60 days of meds. When we continue to have symptoms, even life threatening ones, we are cured remember>? No more medicines. It is reminscent of Tuskegee, considering Lyme is a spirochete like syphillis and it is inhumane to make people suffer for years.
I went undiagnosed or MISdiagnosed over thirty years and it's because doctors like the Infectious Disease Society ones, lied, told me they had no clue what was wrong with me and almost made me die five times. I got tested five years ago and the testing explained everything the doctors couldn;'t for thirty years.......
They don't test for Lyme much in Canada either...... even with Universal care, there are people who decide what you get
But then again, that’s the answer for ALL socialists: let the CHILDREN pay for it.
LOL. That's rich from a party that spends like a drunken sailor while cutting taxes, resulting in a debt that their children and their children's children will be responsible for.
The primordial philosophy that all things are better left to a market system (protected by a friendly administration) is why greed governs access to health care. The United States will be dragged kicking and screaming into the 20th century (not the 21st) when the corporate world eliminates health insurance as a benefit for all but top management. The slothful middle class will finally awaken and demand "something" be done.
I wonder how much we would save by having a one payer system I mean with what I as an individual pay in and what my employer ponies up. That would mean that the burden of supplying insurance to me by the employer would be less then just maybe they would hire more people because health care is a real drain on the bottom line.
On the down side if we had more healthy minimium wage workers that would put a drain on whatever if left of social security ( the working poor still pay into SS and medicare but don't live all that long to collect)
I am for a one payer system ( not Hilary's- it's not a one payer system and it's mandatory to boot)
By adopting a universal single payer Medicare type program, administrative costs drop tremendously and profit is removed. Controlling charges from the medical community would further reduce premiums. Profits are even more obscene than you can imagine in the pharmaceutical industry and they spend more on advertising to consumers than R&D. When I worked in retail pharmacy ten years ago, a ten day course of a common generic anti-biotic was over $30. The cost of the thirty capsules to the pharmacy was less than 50 cents.
The oft repeated old saw that the federal bureaucracy (or state bureaucracy) is a monolithic wall against service perfectly describes the bureaucracy in the insurance industry. IF you can get past the automated telephone tree and two hour hold, you find that the person you are talking to is at the wrong desk. Health insurers pay bonuses for claim denial.
The Medicare system isn't perfect - but it beats the hell out of what we have now. Last time I looked the US ranked below Malta and Costa Rica in access to health care. France was number one.
The thing I noticed was that all the Repubs who oppose health care for all, all have health care paid for by the taxpayers,,,"let them eat cake",,,,shouldn't they all give what we pay for
and pay for thier own, just like they want us to do,,,"do as I say. not as I do" after all they are all millionaires,
So many problems with health care in the U.S. Where to even begin?
1) Our system in America is more a reactive one then a preventive one. This alludes to a comment earlier about us all being fatties. We tend to treat the sickness and not try to prevent it in the first place. I have many relatives in Europe and there is a significant amount of preventive care - they have many health spas you can go to.
2) We have a microwave-, drive through-mentality in this country. "What do you mean I have to wait for my procedure?" I highly doubt a life-threatening situation would require a waiting period. If you don't believe me look at the number of comments from Canadians above.
3) The insurance industry sucks. The CEO of my wife's company, a large health care IT company, absolutely hates them. They are all overhead - they increase costs through the voluminous amounts of paperwork they generate. I had a car accident and it took almost 2 years to straigten out the billing. My wife's company is self-insured and has setup an onsite clinic and pharmacy on their campus our family can use. Free doctor's visits and cheap drugs.
4) Many of the fatalities in hospitals can be solved by health care IT through a reduction in human error - i.e., drug interactions, etc. The boyfriend of my Aunt in France recently died from complications from knee surgery that could have easily been prevented - BUT that can just as easily happen HERE. My father-in-law was almost killed in a Mayo clinic because the nurse did not realize he was a diabetic - even though it was clearly marked on his chart.
5) Big pharma wants the health care system to remain reactionary. Better living through pharma is their mantra. Everything can be treated by drugs from high blood pressure to sleeplessness to ED. Many times simple life style changes can treat these health care issues, but everyone wants the easy fix in this country so they pimp their drugs on TV. Why do we even allow this?
In the end a single-payer system, I think, will not be any worse than what we have right now - it may even be better. The problem is convincing everyone and getting big-insurance and big-pharma out of our Congress and Whitehouse and making sure we can afford it and not push more debt on our children and grand-children.
We need to transition the program and allow people to maintain their insurance if they want to. I would propose by starting with those who need it most, poor and children, first and then slowly expanding the program to everyone in the U.S. By starting slowly you work out the kinks and you learn from your mistakes. But that is expecting a lot of our politicians.
American critics of "socialized" healthcare often warn against "government run" medicine. This is a boogyman and a lie.
In Canada, when I go to my doctor or a local medical clinic, they are PRIVATE ENTERPRISES.
My health care is FREE - from any government interferance. NO ONE tells me which clinic, hospital or doctor I can go to, or for what reason. And NO ONE tells my doctor how to treat me.
Corporate greed supported by bloody minded right wing ideology are what stand in the way of Americans getting an effective single payer health system.
If you can't say the "S" word then call it - MEDICAL FREEDOM!
Why are the Dems so afraid to go there?
A comment from Canada:
Hey, Americans, stop me if you've heard this one already - take our health-care system, PLEASE!
(The cross-border-shopping in cheap RX-drugs is embarrassing!)
So, a Congressman, a Big Pharma CFO & a Health Insurance executive walk into a bar ...
MARC-
This line really jumped out at me. "The hilariously tragic part is that so many Americans have somehow convinced themselves that the slum is awesome because of the view of the mansions." Well said.
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