- NEW!
by olan black on February 6th, 2010
Well, first of all, the whole reason is rooted in Profits. given that, there are a number of groups that stand to gain from not having universal health care, and many that stand to lose if it is in place.
Politicians stand to lose lot's of donations from drug companies and insurance companies. and given the current way of running for office, if you don't have mega millions of dollars, you don't get elected, and they want to keep there jobs (they don't want to become and ordinary citizen, and actually have to live under the rules they made)
drug companies stand to lose the most. they currently have a stranglehold on the Medicare, and medicaid systems, so they can pass out drugs, and charge the government what ever they want, thanks to the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act, passed by Bush.
So, the politicians tell people "this is bad for you, you will lose your freedom" and people are so silly they actually think that if you pass a health care bill, you will somehow be less free that before.
right now, you have no freedom. get sick and see if you are free to get the best health care you can. you can't unless you have lot's of money, so it goes back to the privileged few, that tell the masses what is good for them, and what is not. and the gullible people follow right along, with tea party signs, and cries to impeach the president for taking there "freedom". go fiqure
by Twisted Taco on February 9th, 2010
Americans do want a universal healthcare system. The Right Wing/Republican nutjobs who can't think for themselves and have been programmed by their greedy leaders who are bought and paid for with corporate money are the ones screaming that they don't want it, inasmuch as the government doesn't touch their Medicare, of course
And, no, they're not mad, they're stupid. Plain and simple
by More2Be on February 5th, 2010
What was being pushed through the house and through the senate was NOT universal health care. Admittedly it would not have even covered everyone. It was a massive big-government power-grab hustled with payoffs, pork, and tax-protection racketeering for union thugs among other things. As a sensible individual I would NOT trust something so important as life-or-death to political wheeler-dealers, no matter WHAT the cost of any alternative.
by d3rh12000 on February 5th, 2010
Its not that way the republicans like to spread fear and thier fear of loseing money for thier special interest groups drives them.
by Glenn Blaylock on February 7th, 2010
Admittedly, the US healthcare system could use some reforms. I don't think that there are very many people who will deny this. The problem comes in deciding what kind of reforms are best. Those that keep promoting universal healthcare also ignore the documented failings of such systems. They strangle innovation, provide disincentives for people to go into healthcare, create shortages on the supply of healthcare, and ultimately lead to rationing of said care. So, universal coverage is not the panacea it is portrayed to be.
What has been ignored in all of this debate are new ideas that have been proposed to fix the healthcare system. The real problem is that there is too much bureaucracy and not enough competition in the market. Health insurance companies are not allowed to sell policies across state lines. Each state has basically granted monopolies to a few health insurers. So, there is no real competition among these companies and, therefore, only limited incentive to improve their services.
Secondly, the patients are insulated from the true cost of healthcare by the insurance companies. The patient pays a standard deductible for services rendered regardless of the actual cost of the services. So, there is no incentive for the patient to shop around and, therefore, no real competition between healthcare providers. Thus, there is little incentive for them to cut costs.
So, rather than going to a government sponsored healthcare system which only leads to the monopoly shifting the them, why not try putting true competition back into the industry instead. Let insurance companies sell policies across state lines putting them into competition with each other. This way they will have to provide the services at prices people are willing to pay or their competition will, forcing those that don't out of business.
Also make Medical Savings Accounts (MSA) more widely available. With these the individual get a certain amount of tax free money put in to an account specifically for healthcare. This patient then uses this money directly pay for the normal healthcare expenses (doctor's visits, prescriptions, etc.) This cuts the insurance companies with all of their additional paperwork complete out of equation at this level, which cuts the cost for the doctors and doctors already routinely charge significantly less when patient pay in cash because it DOES save them money. At the end of the year, whatever is left over in the account can be rolled over and save for some major expense (e.g. having a baby) or spent on something that is not health related. This would encourage the patients to shop around and look for the best deals on healthcare, thus also encouraging providers to decrease prices because they would, once again, be in competition with each other. Finally, the patient would also get a low premium, high deductible insurance policy to cover catastrophic expenses that exceed the amount of money in the MSA.
These reforms would cause healthcare cost to come down, making it more affordable for everyone. They would also encourage better more responsive services from the providers. Those that keep pushing for government control of the industry have to ignore a couple of segments where there is true competition. Elective cosmetic surgery and vision correction procedures are not covered by insurance. So, they are experience true competition. Over the decades this have forced these providers to decrease costs and improve their services. Just look at the history of vision correction surgery. When this was first introduced, the cost was over $2,000 an eye. Since then the technology used has improve greatly and while the price for a reputable surgeon has stayed about the same. (So, after adjusting for inflation, the price has actually gone down.) It is also my understanding that these doctors routinely respond to email messages from patients. I have yet to find a family doctor that will do this.
Finally, there also needs to be reform in the area of malpractice law suits. Our society has become to litigious. This is especially true when it comes to our doctors. People seem to expect them to be perfect and then sue them whenever the least little thing goes wrong. Thus, malpractice insurance premiums constitutes one of the biggest operating expenses healthcare providers face. Cutting back on the malpractice suits and judgments awarded would cut down on these expenses. This reduction in expense coupled with the reintroduction of market forces into the industry would help to further bring down costs.
So, the answer, as I see it, is not to create a government run monopoly in healthcare. It is rather to actually force competition back into the industry. This would bring down the costs making it more affordable for everyone. Of course there would still be people that could not afford healthcare. This would be a relatively small number of people, but they would be there nonetheless. It would then be up to the individual states to figure out how they want to provide for these members of their populations. Under the Constitution, it really isn't within the Federal Government's authority to deal with this. It is the individual states' responsibility. This would create fifty different programs which could then experiment and find the best solution for each of their populations while cutting out the extra levels of bureaucracy (and expense) that are unavoidable when the feds get involved.
So, this is my proposed solution. Unfortunately, the folks in control in Washington don't want to consider these proposals. I believe that this is because they have an ideological hatred for the freedom that goes with free markets. I don't think that they are as interested in providing healthcare as they are in increasing their own power.
by Moongrim on February 6th, 2010
Many of us do.
But those who stand to lose their profit margins like to make it sound as if we who do, also want to strangle kittens as well.
They also claim that "this isn't the kind of healthcare legislation we need", yet for many decades they've also done absolutely NOTHING about it.
It's only when someone has enough bollocks to actually do something do they suddenly start criticising.
by thatsJustme on February 11th, 2010
we have healthcare for all here....we have state hospitals,chips ,medicaid,dental,etc.....you outsiders act like there is no healthcare for people....that is totally FALSE....and believe me, these hospitals and chips,medicaid,dental is excellant and free and way more well off than those having to pay benefits to outrageous insurance co. , outrageous pharmaceutical costs, dr.s ,hospital charges...etc....
we have always had healthcare for poor or disadvantaged at TAX PAYERS COST.....
we need CHANGE of those companies who gouge and get rich off ALL OF US...insurance,meds.dr.s, hospitals......
When is primary election day?
by Answerbag Staff on February 27th, 2010
| 1 person likes this
Instead of abolishing religious freedoms piecemeal, why doesn't Obama follow his communist ideology and just ban it all at once?
by More2Be on February 11th, 2012
| 2 people like this
"Kinder, Küche, Kirche" (Children, Kitchen, Church). Why women don't do these instead of political movements and becoming naturists?
by LoverOfSophia on February 12th, 2012
| 1 person likes this
Greece will accept eternal dept to the european countries or accepts bankruptcy?
by LoverOfSophia on February 12th, 2012
| 1 person likes this
Is it really worth trampling upon The Constitution to prop up the régime of B. Hussein Soetoro Obama?
by More2Be on February 12th, 2012
| 1 person likes this
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