Do You Want Universal Healthcare?

[DanFNP]

I know this topic has been discussed before on this site..but, I was curious for an updated response. How many of you would be willing to pay more taxes for universal healthcare? I find it egregious that the US has put a cost on maintaining/saving ones life! I traveled to Europe and the thought of them having to bring their checkbook to the hospital aroused literal laughs. It's the same notion that we'd have to whip out our debit card to firefighters before they turned the hoses on our burning homes. It's sad. I think the overall costs of UH would be beneficial...in fact, the raised taxes would still probably be lower than our rising premiums every 2 weeks! Thoughts?

[paganoid]

Okay, so I've wasted enough time b!tching about how awful it is now. Time for a real solution.

1. No additional government insurance. Medicare and Medicaid need to be smaller, not bigger.

2. Increased government regulation of all health plans of any type. The definition of this can be left to social scientists, but the aim is to prevent an insurer from cancelling my policy if I get cancer or my kids are born with autism or something like that.

3. Tiered structures (similar to what we have now):

a. Low cost, low benefits: the poor could maybe be subsidized by a tax thing, or this could be a state-run risk pool like earthquake insurance here in California? (I'm not an accountant)

b. Mid cost, mid benefits: mid-dle class

c. High cost, high benefits: the wealthy are going to get this anyway, even if they have to fly to Monaco or Japan.

4. Require by law that all persons obtain health insurance in one of the 3 cost/benefit tiers for themselves and their dependents, just as we do car insurance. Persons that refuse will be enrolled in Tier Low-Cost on first trip to the ER.

5. Allow insureds the same rights as utility ratepayers: the right to sue (like Erin Brokovich), etc.

6. Allow insureds to slide up and down the scale once per year during open enrollment, which could be the same for everyone ("July") or could be based on the policy anniversary.

What have I forgotten? Let's get this forum back on track?

PS: I will never run for office, and you can quote me on that. :chuckle

[MIPearlGirl]

Yes!!!! Before you all comment more, please watch Michael Moore's

"Sicko", guarantee it will give you something to think about. Shouldn't the best nation in the world have the best health care????

Don't you think all the other countries in the world with some type of Universal Health Care, have figured out how to deal with "abuses"?

Medicaid sure hasn't!

[Rnandsoccermom]

I work at a for-profit, I already know what will happen with minimal government intervention. I don't know if I would stay in the country if what I see happening where I work were to happen to me. I stay there because I believe someone has to care and I battle on every day.

Be careful what you wish for.

[TreeDoc]

Yes!!!! Before you all comment more, please watch Michael Moore's

"Sicko", guarantee it will give you something to think about.

Oh please, are you seriously suggesting anyone bases an informed opinion on something by Michael Moore? You can do better than that.

[SteveNNP, MSN, NP]

Yes!!!! Before you all comment more, please watch Michael Moore's

"Sicko", guarantee it will give you something to think about.

Interesting, but a one-sided, incredibly biased, anecdotal view at best...

[Shell5]

I think health care for everyone is a good idea. I am willing to pay more taxes. I have been ill in the past with no insurance and I know what it is like to suffer and need to be hospitalized but be turned away because of no health insurance due to temporary hardship. Yes, there are those who may take advantage of the system. Yes there are those who are not as fortunate as others, but to those who do not agree with health care for everyone count your blessings that it is not you in those situations. Things go wrong. People make mistakes. Nobody is perfect. We don't always know what has happened in someone's life to cause their lot in life. Just because an individual has good insurance, money, security, etc. today does not mean that will be the case tomorrow. You don't know what could happen in your life. Today, I have insurance and it is amazing how much better I am treated by the health care system. I believe everyone has a right to have their basic health care needs taken care of. I am no better or worse than the next guy.

[TreeDoc]

I believe everyone has a right to have their basic health care needs taken care of.

Based on what? What infers that right? What is the associated responsibility? Where is the accountability?

Where is your family, community, church, whoever? Are you too proud to ask them for help?

What gives you the right to require me to help you? If I need something, is it okay for me to take it from you? We are not talking about charity in this context, either. I'm not asking, just taking what I need/want.

What a wonderful country we live in, everybody has access to the world's best healthcare. Even Yakuza gangsters come here for treatment...

[Shell5]

I bet you have health insurance. Do you go to church? Tell me what church you go to so I can make sure I don't go there. It is people like you that turn those who are in need away based on the fact that you think you are "entitled" to what you have. I know that I am not entitled. I used to think I was. I am grateful for the things I have. I know they are a gift from God. I thank my God in heaven that he is loving and merciful. He does not simply sit in churches. When he was here on earth he fed the hungry and helped the sick and the poor according to scripture. He did not wait for people to come to him all the time. He went out and fed the crowds, seeking those in need. That is what I base what I write on. That is what I want to be like.

To answer your question about being too prideful to ask for help. I did try to ask for help when I was sick. I couldn't get help because I was not pregnant and I did not have children. Later, I did end up getting some help from some people. I thank God that there are those people who are out there who are helpful people. It doesn't sound like you would be one of those. Maybe you learned that in the church you go to.

Since 7 years ago, I have given back to people in my life, my community, my spiritual group and I continue to do so. I am such a grateful woman who knows that what I have is all on borrowed time and that when I leave this world I hope to leave it a better place because I was in it. I hope and pray I leave a good impression on those around me because I reach try to reach out first to those I see in need. I know I am not perfect. I am grateful that that experience made me a better person.

[BradleyRN]

There are already social programs in place for situations such as this. You're painting those who don't view taxpayer funded-universal healthcare as a right as heartless, lollipop-stealing monsters....

Have you not read the countless stories of dead babies, children, and adults because they were denied procedures that would have saved their lives? Where were those "social programs in place" for them? Universal health care is a right in most industrialized countries. Providing health care to people who couldnt otherwise afford it should not even be a debate at all. Anyone who would rather let a poor person die and turn a blind eye in the presence of so many deaths at the hands of this corrupt, profit driven system, than to stand up and say "Everybody should be able to get care" has done way more than steal a lollipop. They are stealing lives and wrecking families! I shouldnt even need to put links to these atrocities.

[TreeDoc]

I bet you have health insurance. Do you go to church? Tell me what church you go to so I can make sure I don't go there. It is people like you that turn those who are in need away based on the fact that you think you are "entitled" to what you have. I know that I am not entitled. I used to think I was. I am grateful for the things I have. I know they are a gift from God. I thank my God in heaven that he is loving and merciful. He does not simply sit in churches. When he was here on earth he fed the hungry and helped the sick and the poor according to scripture. He did not wait for people to come to him all the time. He went out and fed the crowds, seeking those in need. That is what I base what I write on. That is what I want to be like.

To answer your question about being too prideful to ask for help. I did try to ask for help when I was sick. I couldn't get help because I was not pregnant and I did not have children. Later, I did end up getting some help from some people. I thank God that there are those people who are out there who are helpful people. It doesn't sound like you would be one of those. Maybe you learned that in the church you go to.

Since 7 years ago, I have given back to people in my life, my community, my spiritual group and I continue to do so. I am such a grateful woman who knows that what I have is all on borrowed time and that when I leave this world I hope to leave it a better place because I was in it. I hope and pray I leave a good impression on those around me because I reach try to reach out first to those I see in need. I know I am not perfect. I am grateful that that experience made me a better person.

Wow, I believe that constitutes a personal attack...

[Shell5]

Oh. You can dish it out, but you cannot take it, huh? You are entitled to healthcare and the best of everything. I am not entitled to health care and now not entitled to my view point or opinion. I'm not buying it. You are gonna have to try to pitch it to someone else. I just hope nothing that has ever happened to me in the past happens to you.

[jeffrey_rn]

"Envy" for Canada's socialism? Move. Go there and work and give your money to the government and let them redistribute it as they see fit. Please go now.