Nationalized Health Care in 2 weeks? Rise up people!

[Wes Tausend]

...

Stop socialized healthcare??? Hogwash.

Here is a good example of what is actually generating the backlash over government health care. The popular site may be somewhat overloaded by truth-seekers.

Private healthcare insurance currently has about a 20% overhead administration cost where Medicare only has about 3%. As a rule, US government run programs are far more efficient than private counterparts, like it or not. For one thing, they don't have wallstreet stockholder leaches to pay ...and another, no huge executive salary/bonus burdens. Most government workers don't get paid as much as the private sector. Of course there is a lot of corporate crying, wringing of hands and the usual false scare propoganda, as large insurance corporations contemplate reduced profiteering.

From the patients point of view, it is better to have a government bureaucrat between you and your doctor than a corporate bureaucrat in the way. The government guy works for you ...the corporate guy works for stockholders and himself. We are the government, we control it, but we can't vote corporate crooks out. Just common sense. Geez.

Imagine what it would cost if police protection was all private ...or fire protection ...or military. Way more than we could ever dream. But then private US health care now cost way more than we ever dreamed too. And if any of you think your current health plan is spending their time thinking up ways to cover you better and cheaper next year, think again.

Time for US government to govern. America sure as hell wasn't built on capitalism. And it sure as hell wasn't built on socialism. It was built with a healthy balance of the two ...and the well-funded capitalists are getting a little heavy and causing her to list.

Time to rise up alright, start over. Meet the challenge with a level head. There is nothing wrong with overgrown arrogant corporations ...they just need a good shellacking once in a while. It'll be good for America in the long run.

Wes

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[Wayne Maybury]

Bob
I cannot comment on colon cancer cure rates or the medications involved but every country including Canada and the US have drug approval procedures that must be followed. If the drug is developed in the US, I assume that it would be approved there before it goes through the approval process up here. Unfortunately, Canadian Medicare may not always pay for a drug that has received Health Canada approval because of the cost. I assume that there are HMO's and private health insurance policies that do the same in the US. They will say that they do not pay for drug X but they do pay for drug Y simply because drug X costs 10 times as much as drug Y, and both supposedly do the same thing.

Wes
I saw a study some time back where 14 cents out of every medical dollar spent in the US went for administration cost whereas that number in Canada was 1 cent per dollar spent. I am not saying that government employees are more efficient but I have to assume that much of this has to do with lower paid workers in ordinary offices compared to highly paid executives in ivory towers.

One down fall of our system is that many doctors and highly skilled technicians leave Canada after gaining a certain level of experience and go to the US where they can earn much more money. The real kicker is that our education system is also government controlled so they get their education for a fraction of the cost compared to the US. They graduate then they leave and never pay any taxes here.

The best system is probably somewhere in between the totally public and totally for-profit private systems. There is mounting pressure in Canada to allow a parallel private system but the government is resisting any significant change.

Wayne

[Bobcat]

Wayne ... thanks for the first hand info . There is always a lot of "I heard" stuff out there . You are correct on the drug costs with the private insurance companies here as I have experienced that myself . One of my daughters is a P.A for two Infectious disease doctors and one of them went ballistic last summer when an insurance company refused to approve the drug he said was essential because of cost .
As far as the administrative costs , one thing to keep in mind is that Govt. doesn`t need to make a profit while the private sector does ... and I don`t doubt that salaries etc do figure into it . However , Medicare and Medicade are both essentially bankrupt and going further in the hole every year . It`s my feeling that if their true and complete cost of operation were known , the public would probably have blood squirting from their eyes in anger .
As you said , probably the best system is a combination of a parallel and possibly Medicare/Medicade ... but like Canada , the govt will resist that 100 %. What my concern is that we will destroy everything to "help" 30% of the people who don`t have insurance for whatever reason .

[Feffman]

Imagine the people delivering the mail running your health care!

Feff

[Wes Tausend]

Originally Posted by Feffman

Imagine the people delivering the mail running your health care!

Feff

Imagine FedEx or UPS delivering an envelope, from one end of the country to the other, walking up to your door, handing it to you and wishing you ,"Good morning".

Now imagine them doing it for $0.44.
Doubt that will be happening soon in the private sector. Not that they don't have friendly employees, mind you.

My cost to send mail is less than $5.00 a month. Be thankful for what we have. A nice mix of private and government run entities.
Healthcare insurance is already costing me (and probably you) over $1000.00 a month ...and rising faster than postage.
Think it over.

Wes

...

[RAZOR]

Stop socialized healthcare??? Hogwash.

Here[/url] is a good example of what is actually generating the backlash over government health care. The popular site may be somewhat overloaded by truth-seekers.

Private healthcare insurance currently has about a 20% overhead administration cost where Medicare only has about 3%. As a rule, US government run programs are far more efficient than private counterparts, like it or not. For one thing, they don't have wallstreet stockholder leaches to pay ...and another, no huge executive salary/bonus burdens. Most government workers don't get paid as much as the private sector. Of course there is a lot of corporate crying, wringing of hands and the usual false scare propoganda, as large insurance corporations contemplate reduced profiteering.

From the patients point of view, it is better to have a government bureaucrat between you and your doctor than a corporate bureaucrat in the way. The government guy works for you ...the corporate guy works for stockholders and himself. We are the government, we control it, but we can't vote corporate crooks out. Just common sense. Geez.

Imagine what it would cost if police protection was all private ...or fire protection ...or military. Way more than we could ever dream. But then private US health care now cost way more than we ever dreamed too. And if any of you think your current health plan is spending their time thinking up ways to cover you better and cheaper next year, think again.

Time for US government to govern. America sure as hell wasn't built on capitalism. And it sure as hell wasn't built on socialism. It was built with a healthy balance of the two ...and the well-funded capitalists are getting a little heavy and causing her to list.

Time to rise up alright, start over. Meet the challenge with a level head. There is nothing wrong with overgrown arrogant corporations ...they just need a good shellacking once in a while. It'll be good for America in the long run.

Wes

Wes what you call efficient some would call Tyranny, Medicare dictates to the doctor what it will pay, no discussion and and since a doctor must charge everyone the same they must overcharge others to make up the loss on Medicare. And Medicare is still broke, a government system will just ration the health care we receive, in England if over the age of 65 you do not get dialysis.

Now for the outlandish statement that this country was built partly on socialism, please tell us the details, who, when, where. If any rising up is to be done it is to stop the destruction of socialism on this country, it sure didn't work any where else, USSR, Cuba, its a destroyer of freedom and the people. "government at its best is a necessary evil" Thomas Paine, "The government that governs the best, governs the lest" Thomas Jefferson