I want to know what nurses think about socialized medicine.

1. Don't believe anything you hear on talk radio.....

I can think of numerous programs that run well and efficiently....

SS-less than 3 cents per thousand for administrative costs....(VS 2% for your 401 k)
Medicare-3 % overhead vs 25% for "efficient" private markets.....

Markets can't cure health care....

Just heard a horror story from Canada on a talk radio show. ...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22184921 about medicare fraud

From http://www.hhs.gov/stopmedicarefraud/ :

Most health care providers are doing the right thing and providing care with integrity. But sadly, due to the illegal actions of a small but active group of heath care fraud perpetrators, billions of dollars are stolen from taxpayers each year. Medicare fraud schemes have grown bolder and more elaborate, resulting in billions of dollars in false billings and fraud schemes which are robbing Medicare and Medicaid blind and leaving our most vulnerable citizens at risk.

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index..._social_s.html :
Cheaters cost Social Security billions

by Bryan Denson and Brent Walth, The Oregonian Saturday December 06, 2008, 8:36 PM


The Social Security Administration has fallen behind in reviewing the medical conditions of 1.7 million Americans on its disability rolls, potentially paying up to $11 billion in benefits to people who are no longer disabled.
The agency's failure to tackle those pending disability reviews allows tens of thousands of undeserving people to bleed government funds that Americans count on when they become too sick or injured to work, The Oregonian found in an ongoing investigation of Social Security.

Just heard a horror story from Canada on a talk radio show. A woman's father needed a heart bypass at age of 59. He was denied by the medical board because he smoke and drank. The doctors gave him 5 years to live and sentenced him to die. At age 64, he began feeling unwell. Because docs only work 9-5,M-F there (according to this woman), his doctor was unavailable to him. His wife took him to the ER at 9pm on a Friday. At 10am Sat, the wife drove home for a blanket because he was cold. At 4am MONDAY morning, the man DIED in the same wheelchair he'd been sitting in for 55 HOURS having never been seen by a doctor. This woman was crying on air saying the Canadian health system killed her mother also... she was unable to elaborate on that death due to lack of time.
Universal care will result in rationing, longer waits in ERs than we have now and letting people die because their treatment may be deemed too costly. But hey, everyone will be covered... at least if you can find a doctor or be seen in an emergency.
I also read an article by a Canadian doctor who said his opinion on the Canadian Health system was changed when , as a medical student, he took a different route through the hospital by going though the ER... he said it was a war-zone that stank of urine and sweat. Some of the patients had been laying on cots in the halls for 5 DAYS. His goal in life was to make enough money to immigrate to the US so his children wouldn't have to grow up in the Canadian health system.
Even the prime minister of Sweden (I believe), had to wait 8 months until his turn to have a hip replacement.
As a college student, I had the opportunity to go to England for 4 months and study the health system there during a Community heath semester in my nursing program. I remember one elderly gentleman that I visited. He had a badly fractured patella. He was was on the waiting list to get his fracture fixed... surgery was scheduled for weeks out... meanwhile, he sat in his house at risk for all kinds of complications. In the US, he'd been operated on within 24 hrs, barring medical delays.
I can just see the problems that are going to happen. Patients and families expect immediate results and very timely service now... with private rooms, meals on demand and excellent nursing care. Everything is customer service driven. Imagine them being told they will have to wait weeks for their MRI or that they can take their elderly mother home with a broken bone while her wait on the list ticks down? Or maybe they'll be told that their loved one doesn't qualify for life-saving surgery... kind a bitter pill for those of us that have provided for our own needs for years to swallow. America is up for a rude awakening!
Yes, something needs to be done. But name one government program that isn't full of waste and run well? I don't want the government in charge of my healthcare. The insurance companys are starting to wake up and realizing if they don't do something about covering people at a lower cost they are toast. Obama's health plan will put them out of business....

Your argument is flawed for several reasons.

1. Anecdote is not fact. I bet if you asked me, I could find someone who attended the US ER and had to wait hours for a bed and died in the ER. I would bet my life savings that I could. EVERY system has flaws. Noone is denying that mistakes happen in any system, and sometime people fall through the cracks. That doesn't mean you should throw the baby out with the bathwater and ignore the whole idea of universal care.

2. If you want to go with anecdotes, I worked under mixed UHC/private HC for 10 years, and never heard of someone being refused treatment for anything other than medical reasons. Maybe someone wouldn't get a lung transplant if they kept smoking, but that's a universal standard, not financially-based rationing. There is no doubt that the public system has longer waits for elective surgery - so you're not precluded from having your own additional insurance to cover that.

3. NOONE is proposing that the US goes to a fully public system like Canada, or England. Noone! If you like your insurance, keep it and use at your discretion. For example, in Australia - if I attend the ER at a large public hospital, I would not use my private cover, because it's covered under UHC. If I busted my knee and needed an elective repair, I'd use my PHC to skip any line and choose my surgeon.

4. How is it that the argument of most people against UHC say "the government can't run anything, this will ruin the industry!" - have you LOOKED at the private insurers lately? They charge and receive ASTRONOMICAL fees that we all are paying for. Do you really consider that they are efficiently run?

It's illogical to compare apples with oranges.

Is $550 the amount taken out for your health care or all taxes in general? I pay a lot less than that a month for health insurance for my whole family.