What the blank could possibly go wrong?

[RowdyRebel]

[Pawel]

Hello!

In Europe most countries have state-owned health insurances, and, while not perfect, they prevent people from going broke because of healthcare costs. I always wondered, how can Americans live without such a system. I wish you all good health and many happy years, have a nice day

Paweł

[RowdyRebel]

Hello!

In Europe most countries have state-owned health insurances, and, while not perfect, they prevent people from going broke because of healthcare costs. I always wondered, how can Americans live without such a system. I wish you all good health and many happy years, have a nice day

Paweł

When somebody else pays for your medical care, somebody else controls it....where you can go, what you can have done, how long you have to wait, etc.

Personally, I don't WANT anyone else having that sort of control over my healthcare options...which is why I pay for my own individual insurance policy. I chose the policy based upon my own individual wants & needs, not based upon what somebody else thought was best for me or what works for somebody else's bottom line.

The biggest problem with allowing somebody else to choose your health insurance coverage is that your options are limited to what they are willing (or able) to pay for. When the payer is broke, what level of care do you suppose you'll receive? Waiting 6 months to see a doctor....then by the time you DO get in, your health has either gotten better on its own or it has deteriorated to the point where they give you a pill to ease the pain while you die because there's nothing more they can do. This is one of the reasons the US leads the world in cancer survival rates....we can get in to see a doctor for diagnosis and specialists for treatment NOW...no waiting.

Huge gap in world cancer survival

----snip----

The study showed the US had the highest five-year survival rates for breast cancer at 83.9% and prostate cancer at 91.9%.

----snip----

The UK had 69.7% survival for breast cancer, just above 40% for colon and rectal cancer for both men and women and 51.1% for prostate cancer.

There were also large regional variations within the UK, which were linked to differences in access to care and ability of patients to navigate the local health services. Both are directly linked to deprivation.

----snip----

It meant an American man was four times more likely to survive prostate cancer than an Algerian, while a Japanese man was six times more likely to survive colon cancer.

Poland, Slovenia, Brazil and Estonia had survival rates half as good as the best performers.

----snip----

[Pawel]

Well, Rowdy, like I wrote the systems around here are not perfect, far from it, many might say. Of course the reaction time is very important - having to wait months before you can go to the doctor defeats the purpose. You wrote:

...your options are limited to what they are willing (or able) to pay for. When the payer is broke...

And that's the trick - making the system state-owned means it's really tricky to make it go broke.

If you have money, you can buy additional services - but how about the people that don't have enough money? I don't think we can say "let them die, they're lazy or old anyhow".

Thanks for reading, have a nice day

Paweł

[RowdyRebel]

Well, Rowdy, like I wrote the systems around here are not perfect, far from it, many might say. Of course the reaction time is very important - having to wait months before you can go to the doctor defeats the purpose. You wrote:

...your options are limited to what they are willing (or able) to pay for. When the payer is broke...

And that's the trick - making the system state-owned means it's really tricky to make it go broke.

If you have money, you can buy additional services - but how about the people that don't have enough money? I don't think we can say "let them die, they're lazy or old anyhow".

Thanks for reading, have a nice day

Paweł

Our country is $16+ TRILLION in debt...with another TRILLION plus added to the debt each and every year under this president. You can only print so much new money before it becomes worthless. Not only that, but currently the US dollar is used in oil trading. There has been talk about that possibly changing...and if it does, the market will be flooded with our worthless paper and the value of the dollar drops even more. If that happens, we're really screwed.

In other words, we are broke. The government doesn't have the money to pay for people's medical treatment. And yes, there ARE systems in place so that everyone can receive treatment in a timely manner. NOBODY is turned away if they have a life-threatening injury or illness. The hospitals treat them, and you either give them your insurance information to be billed through the insurance company (you'll receive a bill for anything the insurance doesn't pay), or you can pay cash (and there is a "cash discount" that can literally knock 50% off the price in some cases since the hospital doesn't have to fool around with insurance companies), or if you don't have insurance OR the cash, they will send you a bill...and as long as you are paying something...ANYTHING...towards that bill, they make no further effort to collect. In other words, it isn't the end of the world. Money might get tight for a while...and you might have to cut out a few "extras" from your life....but at least you are still alive!

Governments are instituted among men in order to secure certain unalienable rights...among them, LIFE, LIBERTY, and the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. You have the right to life, but the duration or quality of that life is not guaranteed. You have the right to liberty...to make your own choices in that life...choices which will most certainly affect the duration and quality of that life....but those are YOUR choices to make, NOT the government's. You have the right to pursue happiness, but there is no guarantee of actually FINDING happiness, just that it is yours to pursue. Too many seem to think they have the right to BE happy, and that they have the right to use the power of government to FORCE others to sacrifice their own pursuits of happiness in order to fund it. Just like my liberty to wildly swing my fists ends at the tip of your nose, your right to healthcare ends at the tip of my wallet. If having health insurance will make you happy, adjust your budget to buy a policy of your own...but if you'd rather live in the big house with the fat mortgage, drive the new cars with large notes, and watch your 5000 channel cable TV service on your jumbo 72" HD TV, don't come crying to me when something happens and you've got to have "expensive" medical treatments, don't have insurance, and can't afford to pay for them. Life is FULL of choices....and the consequenses of those choices are for those who made them to deal with. Don't push your expenses off on me just because you were too irresponsible to make the right choices. Hell, I saw a picture in the paper a couple years ago...some city was cutting back on some welfare programs. The person in the picture complaining about the lack of government assistance had a TV 3 times the size of mine. I don't feel the least bit sorry for her. Perhaps she should have paid her own bills before buying such a luxury item?

...and as for letting somebody die because they are lazy or old, that is EXACTLY what will happen under Obama's health care law. An unelected panel of "medical professionals" will be formed to determine what treatments are going to be paid for, and who is eligible to receive those treatments. If you are too old....if they determine that your life isn't worth the investment of the medical treatment you are seeking, you will not receive it. That should NEVER be a decision left to the government.