because it is not working! Look at all the people who can not afford medical care or insurance.

Because it favours the rich over the poor. To support a system like that, you have to force yourself to believe that for one, basic healthcare isn't a human right, and two, all poor people are poor because they're lazy.

Poorer people die? Just a thought. Ohh..I get it..poor people are supposed to die so that richer people feel better about being rich. Ahh, that must be why it works. The person that can afford the gun shoots the person who can't and incidentally also can't get surgery to plug the hole(s). Yeah... I get it now but I'm pretty sure there's irony there someplace.

if you think it's "working" just ask an extremely over-worked/underpaid nurse.... :(

It is not working. Too many without........

I agree that socialized medicine (like what Hillary and her kind are touting) is NOT the answer (its a terrible system that doesn't even work well in countries like Sweden and Canada). If employers were given tax relief but were forced to supply medical insurance to all of their employees, (in which the employees would certainly have to pay their part), that would work much better, in my opinion.

US needs a new system because the current one doesn't work! You either have to be very rich, work someplace that offers excellent insurance at a decent cost, or be poor enough to get on Medicaid. Those that can't afford insurance or don't qualify for Medicaid are getting left out in the cold-literally.

The Health Care System in the United States worked fairly well for many years until "corporate greed" became the rule in our society rather than the exception. I am confident that the HSA system recently implemented by some insurers will evolve into a workable solution which will ensure health care for everyone in America.

Why continue to design automobiles when a horse and carriage did just fine? With the current health care system, those who cannot afford insurance remain uninsured. Last year, a boy died because his mother could not afford a dentist. Every day, seniors risk their health and occasioanlly die because they can't afford medications sometimes so expensive that a single pill costs $100. But that's the minority. Most of us work and are afforded assistance in paying for healthcare through our employers. That works fine. Until you get cancer. Or need experimental treatment. Or develop an expensive illness. Or burn through your beneifts because you needed emergency surgery. Why should a young woman with leukemia die because her insurance company denied her a liver transplant, saying it wasn't necessary? Why should someone have to choose which finger to reattach to his hand because surgery on both is too expensive? Why should people lose their homes due to medical bills and pay outrageous sums for medications when there are better options available? Why should it be standard policy for the companies designated to ensure our health to automatically deny a claim? We are the only industrialized country that doesn't consider health care to be a basic need. There's something wrong with that.

We don't need a new system we just need to remove government involvement from the existing system and let the market take care of itself. Remember, government isn't the solution to our problems - government is the problem.

hmm, I really wouldn't say that this system works. It certainly isnt working for the poor.

It hasn't been working. The US has the highest infant mortality rate in the industrial world.. It's shameful in a country that touts itself as the bastion of opportunity.

Sorry I'm late to reply, but yeah! I was referring to the Health Savings Account system.

Folks seem to focus on the minority that have no access to health care - rather than the 80-85%, either through Medic-aid, clinics, county facilities or their health insurance company that have some form of health care. Yes, the system needs tweaking occasionally. But we are NOT looking at the complete picture. Doctors are not regulated regarding how much they charge. Neither are research companies regulated to restrict research projects or monies to which they devote their efforts. We have more drugs and more treatments and more surgeries in existence today than we had even thirty yrs ago. Now we go to MDs for everything from hangnails to hemorrhoids. We expect insurance to pay for and/or "cure" everything. We are also fatter and sicker than we've ever been. We live longer in our illnesses and poor health. We require medical assistance for everyday activities like feeding ourselves. Our families don't care for their older members anymore; they look to insurance plans instead called "long-term care". All this stuff that exists today costs money. Nobody wants to pay and nobody wants to reduce their fees and nobody wants to forego any medical services. Still about 80-85% of us are relatively OK with our current system. I'd go for a little reality check and a little tweaking.

Answer deleted, added as comment in original post.

i do not think that it is really working at all if american citizens - even if it were just one - are left without health insurance. and i have been on medicaid and i certainly think that it could be vastly improved - for example there are many procedures that it will not cover that the person on medicaid will never be able to afford

Answer deleted and added as comment under original post.

Your premises: 1) The US has a healthcare system 2) The US healthcare system has been in place (and unchanged) for 220 years 3) There is a call for a new one. 4) You disagree with this call. My Responses: 1) The US has a healthcare system. 2) The US healthcare system is a number of systems. These systems change over time. The people living in the 1950s into the 1970s had insurance. This insurance was adequate to cover medical expenses with small or no deductibles. In the 1980s, HMOs cropped up in order (so they said) to offer managed healthcare. What this managed to do is provide a low cost, low quality substitute for insurance. Currently, most insurance in the US is inadequate for the consumer. 3) This is true. Employees of the US government have what most people would deem universal healthcare, save they only give it to themselves. Most people are just asking for the same quality of care at the same cost: nothing. 4) You disagree.

It has not worked If I want health care it will cost my husband 400$ a month out of his check we can not aford to loss that money with 3 kids and a house payment and all the bill it would realy strap us so I go without how is that working I can't get any other heathcare fom the state make to much money to get help and to little money to get it ourselfs. we need something new.

US is a woeful system ===================== I'm from Europe originally and I lived a number of years in the US. I don't call your system "health care". It's a woeful system! What I find alarming is that you pay for a service that you most often cannot make use of. Private health care providers are out to denying claims rather than approving them, to increase their own profit margins. Health care should never be private. There are numerous cases in the US and other countries where medications are designed to addict people and keep them coming back for more... why not, what company wants to heal people if making money off the sick is their business? Social health-care is the way to go and has benefited the people of Germany, France, the UK and many other EU countries for a long time. Once you experience the system you never want to go back! Harlekkin

O.K...Where is it written that the Government has to provide health care. What the hell heppened tp personnal responsibility. Maybe if people in this country took better care of themselves we wouldn't have this problem. I mean look around you, nothing but overweight people chowing down on McDonalds. It also doesn't help that everything is a "disease" either. OCD. ADD, AHAD, PTSD. ABC, CBS NBC..What, you think Ive never been depressed. Maybe I should have drugged myself. Life isn't fair. S**t happens. Let me tell you my story. 6 years ago I was married, a couple of great kids, a good business, I owned a couple of rental houses. Had a good life. One night while out celebrating the sale of a property my life changed forever. We were waiting for our table in the lounge, when a scuffle broke out by the doorway to the resturant. Everybody just watched as this went on. I got up from my seat and approached the aggressor. I wasn't threatening' but rather asked the man if he would leave, he grabbed me so I pushed him away. I did not see the third person outside with the baseball bat. I was struke 3 times in the face with the bat, broke just about every bone. I had got the bat away from the man when the other man, who I pushhed away, pulled out a 9mm and shot me straight in my foehead from a distance of about 3 feet. I woke up 2 months later. I could not walk, eat, everytime I moved I would throw up. I remained in the hospital for 6 mos. After that came my rehabilitation. A year and a half. I lost EVERYTHING, and I had insurance. I had to start completly over...with nothing... That is life!!!! I releyed on myself and my abilities to overcome this. NOT THE GOVERNMENT!!!. Now I have better insurance. I pay over 800.00 a month for it...When life is hard. It is YOU who needs to take care of YOU,,not me(in the form of tax dollars)!!!!! This is something our country has lost...."Ask not what your country can do for you.....". If I can do it, anyone can... GET IT!!

lol...lol oh please ..worked for who??? oh you mean the ones who have large amounts of money to pay for the money hungry prices that the doctors and hospitals charge ...yeah it might have worked for them but for the 95% of ordinary people its been a f*cking joke

America has not had a health care system for 220 years.

universal health care is the answer. americans have just been trained to believe that anything universal and run by the government is communist and therefore evil. look at england and france - some of the best healthcare in the world.

It has worked well for the elite upper crust,nobody else. How many people are turned away because they don't have health insurance, only to die at home. There are millions of people uninsured who'd have to hock their houses to get proper care.

there's a big difference between something working, and something working well. the system has always worked for me.. but i grew up in an upperclass family who were always insures and as an workign adult i'm able to sustain the same life style... but i know many of my peers who are not in the same situation. The get into a car accident and it'll cost them $20,000 -- my car accident last year, would have cost me (just under) $20,000.... i paid $100. It's a big difference.

It does not work. Let me use myself as an example. I worked, and had insurance. I ended up with a medical problem, and had to have physical therapy and tests. My insurance then, after all that, told me that I had exceeded my plan amount for the year and refused to pay. THAT put me in medical debt of over $5,000. I then lost my job, due to cutbacks. Now, for over a year, I have had NO insurance. I again had a medical condition, and the debt has soared to around $9,000. Any prescriptions I need, I have to figure out how to pay for. I know of 5 other people in my immediate circle that are in similar conditions. Those that are retired, without a good retirement fund, depend on medicare. They often have to choose to eat or get their medications. I NEED medical care at this very moment. I don't get it, because I can't afford to. So I suffer. I NEED work on my teeth, but again, can't afford to. I am locked in a vicious circle. I cannot get a great job because of medical issues. I cannot treat the medical issues because I have no job for insurance or to pay. So I am screwed. You feel that the current system works. The reason it does NOT work, is because those that need it the most, don't get any help. Those that don't need help, have options coming out their ears.

you paint an overly Rosy picture of our health care system. a few points to ponder. 1. the health care system of today in no way resembles that of 220 years ago. no ins.,no controls on doctors, no drugs, no anesthesia, no r&d and no FDA to name a few off the top of my head. any comparison between that system and ours today is foolish and destructive to your argument. 2. the poor go to emergency rooms for primary health care. 3. trial lawyers rule the system through malpractice. 4. some HMO spend more time trying to find ways not to pay claims than they do maintaining the health of their members as was their original mandate. 5. health care premiums even for the worst of the HMOs are prohibitive creating a two teared system of haves and have nots. 6. to listen to my comments to this point you would reasonable assume that i favor one of the socialist programs of Europe. I DON'T. while our system is flawed it still outshines the alternatives. 7. FIX IT!!! why must every issue in this country come down to a no gain pissing contest between the left & right?

Define "worked" I haven't had health insurance for three years and won't get any until next year.

I'm not sure what you mean by worked. When pharm companies control the Dr's and the insurance companies won't pay out, and not everyone has medical coverage (which should be a right, not a privilege) then there are some very major flaws with the health care system.

Who ever said that the US had a working health care system?

It is politically correct to change it. Another method of redistribution of wealth. They are modeling this after other failed socialized health care programs. Their death rates are staggering.

Good question. Too bad I don't know how to answer it.

Health care in the United States Excerpt From Wikipedia: ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_the_United_States ) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Health care in the United States is provided by many separate legal entities. The U.S. spends more on health care, both as a proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) and on a per-capita basis, than any other nation in the world. Current estimates put U.S. health care spending at approximately 15% of GDP, the world's highest. The health share of GDP is expected to continue its historical upward trend, reaching 19.6 percent of GDP by 2016. The U.S. is one of the world's few industrialized nations that does not guarantee access to health care. In the United States, around 84% of citizens have some form of health insurance; either through their employer (60%), purchased individually (9%), or provided by government programs (27%; there is some overlap in these figures). Certain publicly-funded health care programs help to provide for the elderly, disabled, children, veterans, and the poor, and federal law mandates public access to emergency services regardless of ability to pay. U.S. government programs accounted for over 45% of health care expenditures, making the U.S. government the largest insurer in the nation. Per capita spending on health care by the U.S. government placed it among the top ten highest spenders among United Nations member countries in 2004. When public and private spending are added together, the U.S. spends more per capita than any other nation.[6] Americans without health insurance coverage at some time during 2006 totaled about 16% of the population, or 47 million people. Health insurance costs are rising faster than wages or inflation, and medical bills are overwhelmingly the most common reason for personal bankruptcy in the United States. The debate about U.S. health care concerns questions of access, efficiency, and quality purchased by the high sums spent. The World Health Organization (WHO) in 2000 ranked the U.S. health care system first in both responsiveness and expenditure, but 37th in overall performance and 72nd by overall level of health (among 191 member nations included in the study). The WHO study has been criticized by conservative commentators because "fairness in financial contribution" was used as an assessment factor, marking down countries with high per-capita private or fee-paying health treatment. The CIA World Factbook ranked the United States 41st in the world for lowest infant mortality rate and 45th for highest total life expectancy. A recent study found that between 1997 and 2003, preventable deaths declined more slowly in the United States than in 18 other industrialized nations. On the other hand, the National Health Interview Survey, released annually by the Centers for Disease Control's National Center for Health Statistics reported that approximately 66% of survey respondents said they were in "excellent" or "very good" health in 2006.

I think there a lot of people in this country, who can't afford to decent if any medical & dental care, who would disagree with you that the current system works. I think it only works for insurance companys and the pharmicutical manufacturers.

Because there are sick people out there that need health care and they want me to pay for it!

I have 3 children in their 40's. One has no insurance because no company will insure him. I have 11 grandchildren. 9 are over 19. 2 have health Insurance through their University and 2 through their jobs. Of the remaining 5, 3 are gainfully employed, but CAN NOT afford health insurance, even through their work. One has been working for Macy's for 3 years. But retail pays so little, there is no money for insurance. Believe me these kids want health insurance. They don't party or waste their money. It goes to rent and bills. One thing that I hate to see is that 2 of these 3 are paying on charge cards. Companies get these young kids hooked on credit and most of every payment goes to interest. The last 2 are 19 yr old twins that sit around, play video games and pick up pocket change helping people with their computers. So 5 out of 9 grand kids are not insured and no prospect to be insured in the future and one son that is uninsurable. Polls say that 1 out of 6 adults are uninsured. In my family it is 1 out of 2. I live in a middle class community in one of the wealthiest states in the nation. All of these offspring live in this state with the exception of my son who lives in one of the top 10 wealthiest counties in America, Santa Clara California. My neighbors report a similar percentage in their families. 1 out of 6 uninsured? I'm convinced it is much higher than that.

For the past 220 years, we did not have over 20 million illegal immigrants in the United States. Someone has to pay for their healthcare and it looks like you and i are it. They receive free healthcare now at hospital emergency rooms and its bankrupting the Federal Government. A new national healtcare program will now share the cost of illegals healthcare again to you and i and take most of the burden off the Feds. Do you really believe that illegal immigrants will sign up for the new healthcare program and pay their share of its costs???????? They are not paying anything now, so what makes everyone think they will..........ever?

what has worked for the past 220 years? hell, what is presently working period? .

We don't need a new health care system. Under this bill health care will cost the average US citizen more than they pay now and give a reduced level of health care protection. Most US citizens don't want this bill according to the recent polls. This bill has nothing to do with health care and everything to do with control. You WILL get that little health care ID card and you WILL enroll in the system so we can keep track of you or you WILL go to jail. This Bill isn't about health care and the majority have now woken up to that fact.

The one in place is no system at all and a large percentage of Americans have inadequate insurance or none at all. Unfortunately, the system being proposed is no better. Only a crazy patchwork. What is needed is to tear down the existing mess completely and replace it with a uniform, universal, single-payer system not connected to employment. +4

2nd Answer. Read answer no. 1.

1st off let me point out that I too, struggle to maintain semi-adequate health care for myself and family. That being said, however, i think the 'us healthcare system' idea is absurd, unless the goal is to considerably contribute to the destruction of this country as we (used to) know it. This country was built on people earning their own way. You get what you earn. There is no free ride. Sometime over the last 20 years or so, the "free ride" notion has gained in popularity, and people/groups from all over want everything, free. Any business that gave stuff away free constantly would go under. This country continues down a path of self-destruction, and the scary thing is it is voter supported self-destruction. I'm actually convinced that there is a secret plot to destroy this country, that has been, and continues, to move forward. The success of this secret plot is the only success I see the government having, as of late.

Slavery has worked for much much longer than 220 years. But when folks pulled thier heads out...they discovered that non-slavery worked better.

We *don't* need the new health care system that obama is trying to pass. Your tax money will go to pay for it AND the President and Congress are the only ones NOT required to join this new system they propose. My brother is an internl medicine/rheumatologist physician and will retire if this new health care system passes.

The system now in place has not worked for the past 220 years. The United States has an infant mortality rate rivaling many so called "third world nations" It is estimated nearly 45k people die annually due to health insurance. Health care costs are the largest reason people file for bankruptcy in the US. Most of those filers are insured. More people died in 2001 because they were not insured than died in the 9/11 attacks. Before you attack me as un-American you ought to straighten up and think about what that means. We declared a war on terror but this is okay???

You should brush up on your history. The current health care system is very limited and realatively young. it is an unorganized mix of public and private systems. Military health care beyon wartime injury was introduced in the 1950s. Medicare and Medicaid were introduced in 1965. Other systems were introduce later. Their was no health care system 220 years ago. I do not think the proposed system is the answer, but something needs to be done. To many people are falling through the cracks. I know several hard working people that do not get the treatments they need because they cannot get insurance (denied coverage), and they cannot afford pay for the treatments themselves.

socalism