As an American, the biggest ongoing fear that looms in the back of my mind is that I might have a catastrophic illness, or car accident injuries, that will wipe out my family financially. At the moment I have health insurance partially paid for by my employer--but US health insurance is very costly, and many plans won't cover you for extended hospitalization. The separate 'extended care' policies you can purchase have proved disastrous for people--the companies kept raising the premiums until people had to drop them (Consumer Reports advises against them).
2 of my 3 adult children are currently not covered because they are basically healthy young adults--but there's always the risk of a car accident or other such injury (auto insurance only protects you liability-wise).
I envy the English and Canadians their social medicine, just for the peace of mind it must give them.
Do you think the US should convert to socialized medicine? How much is 7 pounds, English, in US dollars?
Even with insurance (which costs several $1,000s/per year/person in the US) , I still have to pay $10-$35 out of pocket per monthly prescription.
Personally speaking, I'd rather pay higher taxes for more minimal health care coverage, like England and Canada, than live with the fear of losing my home and all assets to medical care against my will (because if I have a stroke or become brain-dead, I can't speak for myself--and the 'living will' solution doesn't work very fast).
Then, too, it pains me to see my 94 yo father going through all these 'drug adjustments.' Most elderly patients I've seen in the US are on 5-20 drugs. Dad told me 4 years ago that he "wants to go." Dad's not happy. He said, "Never get old."
I don't think 'US medicine' is the best way to go. Sometimes I wish we could turn back the clock 100 years. I think it's preposterous how many Americans are at risk of total bankruptcy due to potential illness. Your 'basically healthy young adult' children are a case in point. ANYONE could be hit tomorrow by a major illness, even the most physically fit athlete. So the risk is always there.
I'm a Canadian, and while we ***** and complain about our system, the truth is, it protects us in all but the most unique situation. Could it be better? Sure, much better. But would I (or most Canadians) switch it for a US style system? No.
As to the argument that we have shortages, that is indeed true. The reason? The US is right next door, and the lure of your millionaire doctors is too much for some doctors. If the US had a similar system to us, the field would be level. If the US went to some form of government funded system, there would not be some mass exodus of medical personnel, all your current doctors would still exist, and all your medical schools would still keep pumping out doctors for the future. The US and Canada have similar rates of training for medical staff, we just lose more of ours to the lure of the bug buck down south.
Every resident of a major industrialized nation should have access to proper medical care, and the US is one of the very few cases where that is not recognized. You prefer quantity over quality? The problem with socialized healthcare is that you get poor quality treatment. In Canada and England you have to wait up to hours in order to get treatment, and even then some medicines aren't available. I recall England getting rid of a highly effective medicine because it was too much for tax payers to handle.
If your children did get in an accident, would you rather have them wait for a while to get poor quality treatment? Or would you want the best care possible?
The Canadians aren't that ecstatic about their Health Care, by the way. If we go to socialized medicine the Canadians and Europeans will have no place left to go for quality medical care. These countries suffer from serious doctor shortages and have incredibly long waits for treatment. Not a good idea to emulate a system that is failing. The only thing the government can run successfully is the military. If it weren't run by the government I'd take it seriously. Until someone proposes an Idea for socialized medicine that doesn't involve the federal government, I'll be against it.
The federal government lacks the authority. Yes.
We should. Medical care is a fundamental human right in a civilized society.
It'll happen eventually. Our current system is already imploding under it's own weight. <<<Do you think the US should convert to socialized medicine?>>>
Yes I do, and sooner or later they will. I agree and disagree,
I agree that something has to be done with the current health care situation in America, but I can't see our government handling it, they are way to fiscally irresponsible. A national health care program would be so bogged down in rules and regulations and committees that it would be useless to those that need it.
I personally would like to see a limited federal program covering trauma care, pre natal, vaccines, etc and policies sold to the individual for the rest. You could tailor your coverage for what you need. My biggest complaint about health care is that the policy we have at work offers great coverage for pre natal, pediatric, vaccines, glasses, and family related matters, but prescriptions, long term care, cancer, etc costs extra. I'm a 50 year old single male, I have no need for pre natal and pediatric, why should I have to pay for them. Private
As an American who has UK citizenship and lives there part time. I would choose US healthcare over UK any day.
In the UK you have to pay very high taxes on everthing becuase that is what pays for the healthcare and with high taxes you get sub par healthcare.
I was hospitalized one time in the UK. I was put in a room with 11 other people of different genders different ages (10 year olds to 90 year olds) the people in the room were suffereing from various things one guy was in a coma another died of cancer while i was in there another had the worst cough. This is potential for cross contamination.
I was their for 4 days my sheets were never changed. They were so understaffed that they did come in very often and getting help or something you needed was next to impossible.
My friends Aunt needed a total knee replacement, so much so she had to use a wheelchair to get around. She was placed on the waiting list and given a date 7 moths out for her surgery. At the same time in the States my mom needed the same thing. Aweek later she had her surgery.
My friends aunt ended up choosing to pay for the surgery out of pocket so she arranged for the surgery with the doctor on one of his private days (each doctor is given a day a week to work for cash payments off of the NHS books) and she got the surgery done in 1 month. it cost her 80k out of her own bank account.
The grass is not always greener. Read about the MSRA virus and the UK you will learn it a virus that kills 5000 people each year in the hospitals in the UK. They have a terrible problem with it becuase by their own words "we dont have enough staff to clean the hospitals correctly becuase it is not in the budget"
They are having trouble providing healthcare even with taxes though the roof and they are only providing it for a fraction of the people that the US would have to provide it for
ADDITION: Also consider this. Where do you think most of the medical breakthroughs in both medicine, technology and procedure were created?
In the US. that is becuase we have insurance companies who are willing to pay inflated rates for treatment and meds and equipment.
Under socialized medicine hospitals and medical providers will be forced to keep charges low. This in turn will cause them not to pay big money for expensive high tech equipment becuase they cant charge to make up for the cost.
The people developing the equipment will not make the profit they need to make it worth while to delevope it so they will cut back on research and development thus inventions will taper off.
Why do you think we pay more for medicine than mexico and canada? Becuase we pay the research and development cost. once that is gone the companies will be less likley to spend multiple millions on research so new drug breakthough will slow down.
ADDITION you do realize that in the UK you have to pay for perscricptions about 7 to 12 quid per which is about 14 to 24 dollars US. Also you do realize when we say higher taxes we are not talking about 1% we are talking 14.7 % VAT tax way higher income taxes. In the end you will pay more for socialized healthcare than you do for private.
The reason is that your pay (the people who work) have to foot the bill for the medical care recieved by the people who dont. So just imagine it like this. if you took your neighborhood and lets say there are 25 families in it. out of that only 17 had health insurance through work but the law required the 17 people who had insurance to pick up the tab for the 8 familes who didnt so now you are dividing up 8 familes insurance premiums between the 17 familes. lets say insurance is 7k per year per family . 7000 x 8 is 56,000 divide that by 17 it means your healthcare cost just went up 3294.11 per year to cover those 8 familes without insurance.
Now imagine that on a national scale. 300+ million people and tens of millions who dont have a job or dont have a job with insurance. and you will be picking up the tab for them.
No remember that you are paying more for healthcare than under private insurance and you are get less quality care for the more money you are paying for it.
Addition #2 The person who talked about how outragous it is that so many americans are at risk of losing everything due to healthcare problems. The same happens in the UK where the old people have to sell everything they own to pay for long term care becuase the NHS cant afford to pay for long term care. Just read the links Believe me, the Utopian NHS system here in the UK isn't what it's cracked up to be. You have no choice as to whether you pay into the system or not, it is stopped at source before you get paid. Whether you then get treated or not depends on your lifestyle and where you live - there is no guarantee of treatment. Treatment has been refused to those who smoke or are obese - even though they have paid into the system.
On top of that, if you work, you also have to pay for drugs (currently 拢7.00 per item, ie two items on the same presciption = 拢14.00 etc), dental work, spectacles.
At least under private medical care you pay the money and are guaranteed treatment. |
