Question about Government Run Health Care?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ben Vos on December 15, 2009 at 6:46am

Hi, Eric. You might want to take a look at TR Reid's fantastic summary, Sick around the world.

Truth is, the United States is the only major industrialized economy that doesn't provide universal healthcare coverage, and we spend 16% of our GDP on healthcare. By comparison, the next highest industrialized country spends 11%. We can certainly do better - cover more Americans, promote healthy behavior, and eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse.

Right now, we're in a worldwide economic recession, so I think everyone is struggling with rising costs. But Japan, Holland, Switzerland, France, and many other nations are providing universal healthcare.

Do you have any source for your claim that the British system is "failing badly"? My sister is an American citizen, lives in England, and has access to the NHS (national healthcare service) and hasn't had any complaints about failures.

Permalink Reply by Ben Vos on December 15, 2009 at 6:51am

One other thought on this - Medicare is a "government run" single payer system and it's working so well that seniors don't want us to take it away. And the VA Healthcare system is second-to-none. Government-run healthcare tends to spend more money on delivering care, and less money on overhead, administrative expenses, and profits.

did you know that Medicare only spends 2-3% of its budget on administrative costs? By comparison, most private insurance companies spend 25-30%.

Permalink Reply by Eric Pearson on December 16, 2009 at 7:05pm

I think the below statement is the best response to your statement:

Our President recently said, "that the costs of Medicare and Medicaid are on an “unsustainable” trajectory and if there is no action taken to bring them down, “the federal government will go bankrupt.”

Permalink Reply by Ben Vos on December 22, 2009 at 1:38pm

The "unsustainble trajectory" has to do with declining revenues due to a terrible job-killing, income-killing recession brought on by Bushco and the GOP. The prosperity of the wealthy never "trickled down" to the middle class. Bush policies have hurt the middle class, created a bubble that burst, and now we're all paying the price. At least Gov. Bredesen had the good sense to create a rainy day fund for a time like this - we're not getting hit as hard as other states like Florida and Arizona.

Permalink Reply by Mike Lawson on December 23, 2009 at 3:19am

Ben, don't confuse Eric with facts. He's on a mission to prove his conclusions and try to find voters for his Quixotic campaign against Jim Cooper while pretending he is now a Democrat.

In fact, he said here " I must admit I've hardly ever voted in my life"

He believes our great country is about to crumble. "Nevertheless, I foresee the eventual downfall of this Nation unless something is done in the very near future."

He then goes on to say "The only hope is another political party built on the values and principals this great Nation was founded on."

So as you'll see, by his own admission he is not only NOT a Democrat, but he's advocating another party, and he calls it the "Democratic Reform Party." But he is declaring himself a Democrat to run against Jim Cooper?

And he lies on his website about the date his "Democratic Reform Party" started. Why? I can only surmise that he is using a scoundrel's clinging to patriotism, because he claims on his New Third Party Website that it was formed on "Constitution Day." But in that posting to the tampabay.com site, his former hometown, he states "This realization happened about the same time one of my daughters told me I was going to be a grandfather again, so I reluctantly decided to begin forming the Democratic Reform Party. The date was on or about August 28, 2009, and since then I've learned I can use all the advise and help in forming this political party into what our founding fathers would be proud of." That date is the day he registered the domain name, folks.

He's praying you'll join his third party. Those are his words, "In short, I pray you will join in building this new political party."

You see, he's not being honest with us here. Most of his life he's had zero interest in exercising the right to vote that so many people died for him to causally ignore, but now he's a modern-day patriot on a mission to restore the country to its origins,

Eric Pearson is not a Democrat. If he wants to be honest with you and tell you that and then seek your support, bully for him. But to come in here, a former non-voter most of his life and registered Republican when he finally did get around to voting, to tell you he is a Democrat and is going to run against a Democrat in the primary, is dishonest at worst, and disingenuous at best.

Permalink Reply by Susan Acito on December 15, 2009 at 10:34am

Going deeper into debt can be attributed to many things. The banking scam is one, war is another, among many things. Uncontrolled defense spending seems to be the norm here in the US, with no accountability and no contest. Isn't it ridiculous that we can spend $1 million PER soldier for a year in Afghanistan, and every spent on the healthcare and well-being of the citizens of OUR OWN country has to be deficit neutral? What good is that? Isn't it ridiculous that the multi-milliion dollar salaries of Insurance company CEOs has a higher priority than the well-being of the people who pay the premiums and the taxes to make everything run!!???

Eric, where in the world is privately run health care working? Answer that one.

Right now, I sit here with 2 pre-existing conditions. I have a genetic tremor, called Essential tremor, which my insurance company will NEVER cover, even if it gets to the point that I can't dress myself or eat. My cousin has already reached that point. They will also never cover me for kidney stones, because I had a "possible" kidney stone, never confirmed, and never passed. I just got turned down for an MRI that I need although 2 years of chiropractic and massages have not relieved neck pain and hand and arm numbness. They want me to go through 8 more weeks of treatment by somebody else (more out of pocket) before I can even get the MRI. X-rays don't show pinched nerves.
They refused to give my husband a policy because he smoked, was ten pounds overweight, and his cholesterol was "high" normal. Psst, insurance death panel, that's still normal. He wasn't sick, no pre-existing, just a couple years shy of 60. AGE discrimination.

How come debt only matters when it's for the GOOD of the people, or when it's a Democratic administration?

Permalink Reply by Mike Lawson on December 22, 2009 at 1:52pm

Amen, Susan. Amen, and Amen.

Permalink Reply by ismaine the French U.S Democrat on December 15, 2009 at 12:21pm

Hello All,

I am ismaine , I am French and live in Nashville. Well Right, in France, we have debt about health care but if I compare with USA and the 16 % of the GPD on healtcare, the health car in FRance is far better than US system. (only 10 % or 11 % of the GPD)
why ? because every body is protected and can be healed with no worries about being denyied or lose everything (house, car, saving etc)

Please take a look to this link
http://www.ismaine-ayouaz.fr/highwaytohealth/HIGHWAYTOHEALTH.pdf

Permalink Reply by Eric Pearson on December 16, 2009 at 7:38pm

Hello Ismaine:

I took a quick look at the link you provided and was very impressed. I will immediately go back and read everything after posting the below:

Since my first posting, I did some research on the French health care system, and it is extremely good.

The French social security system is much more comprehensive than anything in the U.S.

In France, you have to have health insurance - but if you can't afford it, the government pays for it. As such, France has been running deficits since 1985, and currently stands at 14.77 billion dollars in deficits. Their taxes are 3% higher then here in the U.S., but the World Health Organization ranks France as having the best health care in the world.

From my understanding, the patients in France can generally get treatment from a specialist directly.

However, the way it is financed contributes to the economic gridlock of the country, because social charges are so high that employers can't afford to hire additional personnel. Furthermore, the employer has to pay these charges whether or not s/he has had any income at all. This problem is being addressed in a variety of ways, as the government tries to find more flexible means of financing social care. In terms of medical and mental health care, people tend to abuse the system -- going to the doctor for a sniffle, overmedicating, and not taking responsibility for their daily life.

In closing, I truly wish our United States Government had the common sense to adopt the French Health Care system.

Permalink Reply by Eric Pearson on December 16, 2009 at 11:48am

Thank you all so much, for I greatly appreciate every one of you in answering my question about National Health Care.

Like many of my fellow Americans that are Democrats, we all know we need Health care reform. However, we are not sure about what our President Obama and the administration are doing about it.

Altogether, I have still have some problems before I can support National Health Care. To name a few:

It is unconstitutional, for it outright takes away individual liberty and freedom as guaranteed by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.

From recent polls, 63% to 67% of all Americans do not want Nationalized Health Care.

It doesn’t conform to any other working models of Health Care used by other Nations.

It will begin with an immediate increase in taxes, but it will not begin to provide services for over 3 years from now.

Our President Obama and his administration said if not passed, “More and more employers will drop coverage for employees.” However it should be said, employers will not hire new employees, and more and more employers will drop employees.

Our President Obama and his administration said if not passed, “Medicare and Medicaid will blow a hole through our budget.” This means, Obama and our government can’t even properly administer Medicare and Medicaid, not to mention the entire federal budget. Therein, I can't expect them to be able to run National Health Care.

Permalink Reply by Mike Lawson on December 22, 2009 at 2:00pm

The flaw in all of this is the persistent use of terms like "Government Run Health Care" or "Government Takeover of Health Care" or "Nationalized Health Care" and other scare-tactic buzzwords used to stir up tea-baggers. I don't know who those people polled, but they sure didn't speak to me. You leave out the real reasons for Medicare having problems, which seems to be an intentional obfuscation to skew a point in certain direction. That Constitution you refer it, it begins with "We the People" and I am one of "we" as are my family members. The other intentional misinformation you're continuing to spread here is the "benefits won't start for three years" bunk being preached by the right wing zealots on Fox, Limbaugh, Hannity and other propaganda outlets. Its not true. There are many immediate, important and even critical benefits that begin day-one, immediately for millions and millions of Americans.

"You're got a right to you own opinions, "as Senator Al Franken so eloquently repeated, you're not entitled to your own "facts."

"FRANKEN: The senator from South Dakota said did I realize that I was talking about the spending doesn’t start for 1,800 days on health care, the benefits don’t start. Here’s one. $5 billion in immediate Federal support, starts immediately for a new program to provide affordable coverage for uninsured Americans with pre-existing conditions. I have a whole list of things that start.

Prohibit insurers from imposing lifetime limits on benefits, starting day one. Starting day one. … We are entitled to our own opinions. We’re not entitled to our own facts. The fact is benefits kick in on day one, and the large majority of benefits kick in on day one, And we shouldn’t be standing up here with charts that say the exact opposite.

Small business tax credits will kick in immediately. The senator from South Dakota just said that nothing — no payments, nothing that costs any money will kick in right away. That’s not true. We are not entitled to our own facts. And I stand here day after day after day and hear my colleagues, my good friends from the other side say things that are not based on fact.

Let’s have an honest debate, for goodness sakes. Let’s not put up charts that contend one thing and that are just not true."

Permalink Reply by Eric Pearson on December 16, 2009 at 3:47pm

One of daughters wanted me to say and ask the following:

It has only been a little bit over a year, but who in their right mind would of thought we would now have pro-Marxist, pro-Fascist, and pro-Communist czars and advisers in the White House?

Now, who in their right mind would want National Health Care with them taking part in running it?

Besides that, I would like to add the fact not one of them in the White House has ever had a real non-government related job in their entire life. Like it or not, I think this should be a requirement for anyone involved with my Health Care.

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