What are your thoughts on universal healthcare? Something needs to change here in america, we are ranked number 37 in countries when it comes to healthcare, THATS SAD.

I do not think that universal healthcare is the answer. I think that the system needs to be better regulated (I can't believe that I have just put that but there is really no one else that can influence the industry like the government can) to help reduce costs. I understand that they need to help pay for the development costs of the drugs, but the costs are out of this world. The reason I say no to universal healthcare is because I do not know of one single country that has been able to do this correctly. Everyone seems to think the Canadian system is good. It is not. I have friends that live in Canada and HATE it. They have to come to the USA to get medical care other than general stuff like when you get sick.

I have mixed emotions about it. On the one hand, I keep thinking of several of my friends who had to risk going without insurance for quite a while until they could get their businesses to the point where they could afford to pay the sky-high premiums and still have enough money left over to live on. So I think that universal healthcare might be a great encouragment to folks who are trying to start a business, plus it could make existing small businesses more competitive with larger businesses since it would narrow the benefits gap. I'm also not convinced that our current way of doing things is the best. I have insurance through my workplace, but I'm limited on which doctors I can use, it takes a while to get an appointment unless something dire is happening to me, and it doesn't pay for preventative things, which seems awfully counter-productive to me. But, on the other hand....who's going to pay for this? The money has to come from somewhere.

I think we have to look at the whole thing with new eyes. Yes it is "too expensive" yet we know there is a nursing shortage because they are not paid enough (I use that example because it avoids all the business about the cost of drugs over which there is such contintion). Let's look back 100 years ago--at that time doctors could remove bullets, set broken bones and clean wounds and not a lot more. Jump ahead 50 years and what a doctor could accomplish had expanded greatly and yet without insurance most people could afford to go to doctors with their treatable problems and not feel that it would require everything they had saved for their whole lives in order to be healed. What is the difference between then and now? An unbelievable increase in what CAN be done regarding what ails us. But we either don't WANT to pay more or can't. So medicine can do a thousand fold what they COULD do in 1950 but we don't make a thousand times as much money. Third party payment by insurance companies provided by most employers has innured us to the real costs so we have become spoiled into thinking we DESERVE the services of doctors. That is absurd of us. Many think docs are over paid but it simply isn't true. If fact I cannot understand why anyone would want to be a doctor, considering the crap they are put through in school and then haveing the public perceive them as spoiled richies.

No one deserves good health. No one deserves a doctor's service. That being said there IS a solution. Why not have levels of care and levels of insurance. A basic policy would cover the cuts and broken bones and the standard childhood diseases. We could call it the 1950 Policy. Next step up could include more drastic things that require medical machines and a certain amount of chemo or the like. Then the wealthy could get all the bells and whistles. They would, in a sense, pay for the bells and whistles, the technology of which would "trickle down" for people like me.

Why should it be encumbant on ANYone or any institution to spend millions to keep me alive since I didn't earn a million buck in my entire working life. Why not allow people like me to have the basics covered without having to pay premiums that I could never afford.

I did not express this very well because I didn't sit down and write it out before hand cross checking everything, but hopefully it will be worth a discussion without aspersions being cast. I hope so.

Some of the things I think must be considered with any change in our health care system are as follows:

1. Access to the right medical professionals must be easy and efficient.
2. We must delineate levels of care based on prognosis.
3. We must reward medical professionals based on their excellence of care.
4. Boundaries on what denotes negligence must have a choking effect on the sue happy public.
5. We must reward the individual for taking care of their body (as much as they have control over, i.e. genetic based predisposition)
6. Along with #5, the individual must take responsibility for a percentage of their own care monetarily.
7. We must limit cost on things like durable medical equipment and pharmaceuticals.

I just want to focus on a couple of aspects of the problem - there are other points I'm not addressing so don't assume I am overlooking them.

National Health Care will swamp the system if we don't have significant changes in lifestyle by our citizens. Many people will NOT take care of themselves. Many people are poor because they have substance abuse problems. But many people of any economic group are sick because they have allowed themselves to become obese resulting in diabetes, "back" problems and other chronic conditions.

Some people only care about the poor and would destroy the host to make sure they are cared for. Get over that. Most of the poor are already covered by Medicare or Medicaid or emergency services. I work with the poor and health care is hardly ever an issue. In fact, I don't recall it EVER being a problem except in cases where the parent hadn't filed for medicare and the kids had to wait to go to the doctor. But that is a fault of the parent, not the system. The poor don't pay for their health care. This isn't about the poor and it isn't about poor kids because low income kids are covered, easily. It is about the middle class whose employers don't provide health care or who have pre-existing conditions and have job hopped.

My feeling is that people who are abusing their bodies and destroying their health are going to ruin this for all of us. If people would quit smoking, get out and walk, and eat sensibly, the strain on the system would evaporate. That won't happen. I quilt - a sedentary endeavor - so I have a number of obese friends and all they talk about is how bad they feel and all their medical problems. They can't sleep, their backs are crap, they have heart conditions, they have diabetes, their muscles go into spasms if they bend over to tie their shoes. And they won't walk ten feet, lift more than five pounds and they eat high fat dessert-type foods like there is no tomorrow. All of them claim thyroid problems (I have that condition and that is so much nonsense - and my doctor agrees). If I ate at that rate and didn't move anymore than they do, I'd be built like an elephant. I don't have too many smoking friends, but if I did, their health would be even worse it that is possible.

I think we are missing the forest for the trees. What we need is a nationwide call to get our butts into reasonable shape. You talk about a patriotic duty. It costs nothing for 99% of us to walk half a block or cut out the McDesserts. The savings to health care costs in this country would just about cover Obama's deficit and we'd be happier people.

Sure some people can't walk - they are crippled, they have cancer, they can't breathe. We all know about that. But the fact is, a lot of people just won't. They don't want to. It doesn't feel good to move when you are fat. I say tough. If you are taking from the system, the least you can do is try to minimize the costs. Being responsible about your own health doesn't have a single downside beyond discomfort in the early stages.

I think there are a lot of pitfalls to national health care and I worry about the way it is being presented. I don't think it is a right so I have real bias against people who willy nilly toss that out like it is something that doesn't even bear thinking about. (I have a right to be happy! I have a right to have kids! I have a right to the job of my dreams! I have a right to a home! I have a right to ... blah, blah blah). I think it is unfair to people who have been responsible about it. I think, the way it is being considered, that it will undermine the medical profession and services and we will all suffer for that. At least as I understand it and my understanding is not perfect.

I have no idea how you could insist that people who get publically subsidized health care take care of themselves. People would scream bloody murder. That is one of the dangers of calling it a "right," because once some thing is a "right, there are no obligations placed on the beneficiaries. But instead of treating obese people as victims, we need to be calling them out to get with the program. And we need to offer them help because I know it is hard to change thinking. This isn't about shame and blame. It is just reality.

And another thing - dental care. Why isn't that discussed? Bad teeth lead to bad health. This is a huge gap even in health insurance for people who have it. We spend may thousands a year on dental care and because it is not on the radar, we don't talk about it. I have never heard someone say dental care is a right - blessedly. I assume it is just a matter of time. God knows, it is important. Have you seen the teeth of the poor and substance abusers? Yikes.

Universal health care is one of those things which gets touted as a cure all by some, and as the root of all evil by others. I lived in the UK for quite a few years as a child and have to say, their health care system is pretty darn good. The basics are covered by public health, while private insurance gives you much better care and access to doctors when you want it.

The main problem I see with universal health care in this country is the mentality that life is priceless. If /everything/ is covered by universal health care, we will be a bankrupt country working solely to support our own health care system. What we could use is a simple universal health care system that would cover basics like doctor visits, accidents and whatnot (But not every illness under the sun).

Just saw this article on Yahoo news that pertains to our healthcare problems.

Workers feel the brunt of health insurance woes (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090324/ap_on_re_us/uninsured)

The main problem I see with universal health care in this country is the mentality that life is priceless. If /everything/ is covered by universal health care, we will be a bankrupt country working solely to support our own health care system. What we could use is a simple universal health care system that would cover basics like doctor visits, accidents and whatnot (But not every illness under the sun).

That seems like a sensible direction to investigate.

Apparently, the discussions about national health care has gotten someone's attention.

Insurers offer to stop charging sick people more (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/insurers_sick_people)

That is all well and good for sick people, but premiums will go up across the board because they cannot plan on losing money .....nor should they.

What are your thoughts on universal healthcare? Something needs to change here in america, we are ranked number 37 in countries when it comes to healthcare, THATS SAD.

Ranked by whom?

These "rankings" are typically very agenda-driven.

I recommend that people watch th PBS Fronline episode FRONTLINE: sick around the world | PBS (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/)

I just wish preventative medicine would be more easily available.

I'm paying $4400 per year for nothing... absolutely no doctor's visits, no emergency care, no check ups, nothing preventative, cancer screenings nada - nothing under 5K deductible. It's for catastrophies, accidents or major illnesses. I hate paying it so badly but don't know what else to do. I've looked everywhere and all I can find for a family of four is this useless crap.

Of course, should one of us end up with cancer or in an accident and in intensive care (God forbid) we can stay there for quite awhile (after we meet the deductible)... and our bills will be paid.

But still.. if we had preventative cancer screenings, we might catch it before it ever got to that. I feel like my hands are tied.

So do you have to pretty much do pap smears, mammograms, prostate screenings, colonoscopies out of pocket?

yep -everything

I heard the MEP British parliment speaker interviewed today, and he repeated several times, "If you remember nothing from this interview, remember this: Do not follow Britain's marxist healthcare system."

I heard the MEP British parliment speaker interviewed today, and he repeated several times, "If you remember nothing from this interview, remember this: Do not follow Britain's marxist healthcare system."

Too late. The socialist guy won, remember?