Healthcare

[freddycashmercury]

How do you feel about the way the healthcare system is structured in your country, and how do you believe it should be set up?

[xenxander]

This is going to (I predict) start raising a lot of voice. Socialized may seem fine, but it comes out of everyone's pocket in the form of taxes (We'd see a huge increase in taxes and as minimum wage and all sorts of wars about worker wages are always a hot topic, the average person can't afford such an increase in tax).

 

Privatized... is a business. No insurance? Here's a band-aid and a foot in the ass and there's the door. Insurance = yes? what 'type' of insurance?

Hospitals are interested in expanding their budgets. Very little concern towards the paitence (at the hospital admin level). It's corporation and 'who's wallet is bigger'.

 

So I vote "other", but I don't really know what 'other' types could come about. Full government funded hospitals? yes that could work but only if you could channel all of that wasted expenditure of tax dollars governments are known for, and towards other fields that actually would matter (like hospitals and schools).

[freddycashmercury]

This is going to (I predict) start raising a lot of voice.

 

I certainly hope it does! I'm keeping quiet on my position for now, as I wish to see what others say and I still have some research to do.

[ninja_lord666]

Social Healthcare is another pointless commie organisation. Why should I pay for someone else to go to the hospital? And you know that lots of people will go just to get some drugs. I don't feel that it's right for me to give money to some druggie. I'll just pay for my own well being. Sure insurance companies may be corrupt, but they're still better than having this country become more socialised than it already is.

[Marxist ßastard]

Why should I pay for someone else to go to the hospital? And you know that lots of people will go just to get some drugs. I don't feel that it's right for me to give money to some druggie. I'll just pay for my own well being.

Exactly! And what's up with all this school nonsense?

 

I mean, you'd have to be an absolute moron to not have figured out by now that a lot of kids only go to school in order to learn how to make drugs. Screw government-funded schools; I'm not going to give all my money away to help some prepubescent drug addict learn how to cook meth. If my children want to learn to read or something, they can just work for it on their own, in the only manner that's right and fair, by mining for coal or selling themselves off to a pedophile or something. The only thing public schools can really teach children is how to be social parasites.

[doomjockey]

Social Healthcare is another pointless commie organisation. Why should I pay for someone else to go to the hospital? And you know that lots of people will go just to get some drugs. I don't feel that it's right for me to give money to some druggie. I'll just pay for my own well being. Sure insurance companies may be corrupt, but they're still better than having this country become more socialised than it already is.

 

 

I think that attitude is the sickest, most diseased outlook and a prime example of of the destructive nature of selfishness.

 

Having said that, I can't help but agree. Sure, I believe it's morally twisted, but that doesn't affect the factual evidence from which these conclusions are drawn. The abuse of medication has become all too widespread (see the unfortunate Heath Ledger, may he rest evermore) and I'd hate to see my cash go towards funding a habit. Also, I drink. I drink a lot. Would you want to pay for me to have something as pricey as a liver transplant- even though I know my drinking could result in bodily harm?

 

Private healthcare, of course, excludes much of the poor, but we already do that in most other areas concerning capitalist America, where dollar decides self-worth. So screw em, unfortunately. I'd rather make a pragmatic choice than an ethical yet, ill-considered one.

[Malchik]

To the above poster - your idea is pure genius. With luck the poor will all catch some horrendous epidemic which will wipe them all out (including of course the majority of health care workers who are on very low incomes). So as the hospitals will then be unable to operate (no pun intended) all the selfish idiots who think diseases can't spread to them will be wiped out too. That will give me a really good belly laugh.

 

As one who has been obliged to use a hospital I am pleased we have both private and public hospitals that both are of reasonable standard in the UK.

[Landsknecht]

I think this current health care crisis debate has been framed wrong by the media. Why there appears to be a crisis in health care has nothing to do with the system of health care used, but rather it is a symptom of the shrinking middle class and deunionization of America. If the US did not enter every concessionary "free" trade agreement around, we would not even be having the debate since the only jobs that would not have health care as a fringe benefit would be crap jobs (in theory, people in these jobs either deserve them or are not using them as a career/long term job) and jobs provided by small businesses because of pooling agreements. Obviously, there need to be regulations to deal with externalities, but over regulation can be just as bad as not enough regulation; not all regulation is bad, only bad regulation is bad. Another thing that makes the health care issue a symptom is illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants are required to have emergency treatment because of a Supreme Court decision involving Prop 187; this itself is not a bad thing, but it does put a strain on the system since illegal immigrants have jobs which have injury risks. I do not want to start an immigration debate here, but my point is that before anything is done with health care, immigration needs to be fixed.

 

Next issue, "Why is the health care debate such a hot button issue?" This can be answered very simply, demand for personal health is inelastic. It takes economic understanding to why the issue is so hotly debated, so IMO, it needs to be debated as an economic issue rather than a social issue.

 

To answer the poll, I would say "privatized," since small government is my political philosophy. However, I am neutral on government being an insurer of last resort if the program equalizes itself out.

[ResidentWeevil2077]

Social Healthcare is another pointless commie organisation. Why should I pay for someone else to go to the hospital? And you know that lots of people will go just to get some drugs. I don't feel that it's right for me to give money to some druggie. I'll just pay for my own well being. Sure insurance companies may be corrupt, but they're still better than having this country become more socialised than it already is.

Have you gone mad!?! What are saying, that Canada's health care system is communist!?! Don't start me up you self-centred, ignorant pr**k - I resent the fact that you'd much rather have someone pay you for giving them medical attention, and if they don' have the $$$, it's "Sorry! Too bad, so sad!"

 

This is the one thing that WILL make me turn against you, no matter who, or what, or where, I WILL attack you. I resent capitalism, especially when it's applied to the health care system. By what you're saying, you'd much rather let some person, who for example may be in dire need of a organ transplant, die, than to say, "Yes, I will help you"

 

It is absurd to me why one such as yourself, would make such an arrogant, selfish opinion, when everyone does deserve health care, even the poorest of people deserve to be seen by a doctor if they have a cold.

[hoots7]

This is going to (I predict) start raising a lot of voice. Socialized may seem fine, but it comes out of everyone's pocket in the form of taxes (We'd see a huge increase in taxes and as minimum wage and all sorts of wars about worker wages are always a hot topic, the average person can't afford such an increase in tax).

 

Privatized... is a business. No insurance? Here's a band-aid and a foot in the ass and there's the door. Insurance = yes? what 'type' of insurance?

Hospitals are interested in expanding their budgets. Very little concern towards the paitence (at the hospital admin level). It's corporation and 'who's wallet is bigger'.

 

So I vote "other", but I don't really know what 'other' types could come about. Full government funded hospitals? yes that could work but only if you could channel all of that wasted expenditure of tax dollars governments are known for, and towards other fieds that actually would matter (like hospitals and schools).

 

What you wrote so far most closely represents my thoughts on the subject (voted other as well).

 

In the 50-60’s middle class people would go to the doctor, look at the bill, reach in their wallet & pay it.

Then in the 70’s the middle class started getting jobs with medical benefits, they thought this was the greatest thing since sliced bread & while some may have said something about how the cost has gone up most didn’t because they were no longer opening up their own wallets to pay.

 

The popularity of medical benefits grew & because of this doctors now have to have employees just to handle the required forms & paperwork. My wife use to work at a doctor’s office & it was half the staff for non-patent care (insurance & paperwork).

This legitimately drives the doctor’s cost up & then the added cost of malpractice insurance is another whammy.

 

What can be done about it now? There is no easy answer; we can kick ourselves for letting it get like this (by not scrutinizing our bills) but it needs to be fixed & soon.

First when you get your bill, read the thing, does it make since to you? Are they charging you $20.00 for an aspirin?

 

Second as much as I hate regulation for the near future at least we could introduce regulated pricing (I know another government agency) restrict the amount a company can mark up a drug, we all know the U.S. pays more than a lot of other countries for the same medicine (yes, I know this may stifle R&D).

 

Can we afford to cover people here illegally (I’m in no way talking about children) when we can’t even afford to pay for our own?

If you can find a way, I say lets do it, but our country is going bankrupt.

They must be documented & start paying.