Let's Talk About Health Care and I Don't Mean the ACA

MunoRN, RN · Sep 21, 2013

I like Ron Paul's view on healthcare. I loved that guy!
1) Abolish the evil monopolies in the healthcare system. We don't need one government-controlled monopoly either.

You advocate abolishing medicare?

That will make it worse and put the country more in debt, and we will definitely have less power or voice.

Please provide some evidence to support that. Every other developed country in the world has some form of single payer, universal healthcare, or highly regulated private insurer system, and the effect on their debt is significantly less than in the US. Of the two systems that exist in the US (Government payer and private insurer), the overhead cost of utilizing private insurers is significantly higher (7 to 15 times higher).

The people that oversee medicare (congress) are elected officials, which admittedly aren't of much use, but how many insurance company executives did you get to vote on?

2) Make healthcare more affordable. Competition will put pressure on providers to lower costs.

Our current system is a minimally regulated competitive system, yet we have some of the highest costs in the world. It's competition within a well regulated environment that brings down costs.

3) Organize charitable organizations funded by communities, churches, and other donations:saint: (St. Jude does it all the time!), so that doctors and other practitioners can serve their fellow citizens. I know there are some of you doctors and nurses out there who feel a responsibility to help others. Society should help each other my choice, not force.

To keep our current level of healthcare, it costs every American about $10,000/year. Are you suggesting that given the choice not to, people will still pay $10,000/year? It would seem much more likely that our financial support will drop dramatically, and our healthcare system will disintegrate into a few Walgreens and those blood pressure machines you find in supermarkets.

4) Deduct health care costs from taxes. Really!

You already can.

allnurses Guide · Sep 25, 2013

This is an opinion:

Canadians don't understand Ted Cruz's health-care battle
... David Beatty, a 70-year-old Toronto native who ran food processing giant Weston Foods and a holding company called the Gardiner Group during a career that has included service on more than 30 corporate boards and a recent appointment to the Order of Canada, one of the nation's highest honors. By temperament and demeanor, Beatty is the kind of tough-minded, suffer-no-fools wealth creator who conservatives typically cheer.
Yet over breakfast in Toronto not long ago, Beatty told me how baffled he and Canadian business colleagues are when they listen to the U.S. health-care debate. He cherishes Canada's single-payer system for its quality and cost-effectiveness (Canada boasts much lower costs per person than the United States).
And don't get him started on the system's administrative simplicity-you just show your card at the point of service, and that's it. Though he's a well-to-do man who can pay for whatever care he wants, Beatty told me he's relied on the system just as ordinary Canadians do, including for a recent knee replacement operation. The one time he went outside the system was to pay extra for a physical therapist closer to his home than the one to which he'd been assigned.
It's just "common sense" in Beatty's view that government takes the lead in assuring basic health security for its citizens. He's amazed at the contortions of the debate in the United States, and wonders why big U.S. companies "want to be in the business of providing health care anyway"...
... Roger Martin, another Toronto native and avowed capitalist, spent years as a senior partner at the consulting firm Monitor before becoming dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, where he recently completed a 15-year stint. He advises U.S. corporate icons like Proctor & Gamble and Steelcase. He lived in the United States for years and has experienced both systems first hand. Martin told me that Canada's lower spending, better outcomes and universal coverage make it superior by definition. Plus, it's "incredibly hassle-free." In the United States every time he took his kids in for an earache his wife spent hours fighting with the health plan or filling out reams of paperwork. In Canada, he says, "the entire administrative cost is pulling your card out of your pocket, giving it to them and putting it back."...
Matt Miller: Canadians don't understand Ted Cruz's health-care battle - The Washington Post

OCNRN63, RN · Sep 28, 2013

Ok, I'm not bashing the systems of other countries, however one cannot deny they also have their problems. What I'm saying is why settle, why not come up with something better than what we have now, and better than what other countries have? Are you so set on a particular system that you, in essence, attack my comment simply because I suggest America can do better?

It's better to at least TRY to improve something, rather than being immobilized by fear of what might happen. If we followed that mentality, we would never have made the advances in health, science, etc. that we now take for granted.

As far as saying America can do it better, the fact is, not always. It's almost childish to suggest that our way is the only right way. We could do well to learn from what other countries do, and not just regarding health care.

LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN · Sep 28, 2013

It's better to at least TRY to improve something, rather than being immobilized by fear of what might happen. If we followed that mentality, we would never have made the advances in health, science, etc. that we now take for granted.
As far as saying America can do it better, the fact is, not always. It's almost childish to suggest that our way is the only right way. We could do well to learn from what other countries do, and not just regarding health care.

THIS :yes: