Healthcare Reform Costs

[MerchantsBarter]

Firstly I'd like to say (without political bias) that I believe the entire governmental system needs to have a medical check up first and foremost before they start to change a system that really doesn't need all that much improvement, and certainly not over a trillion dollars worth of wastage we can ill afford right now.

I come from England originally, and thank goodness I have never been sick and needed to use the UK public health system. I know many who have, and it isn't that great. We actually have better care here in the US, and in fact many Europeans COME HERE for healthcare and PAY FOR IT, because it is better.

Secondly, I think it is both Constitutionally AND Democratically wrong for us - WE the People - to allow a few "fellows" (that btw have their own, private medical coverage that is far superior than the one we currently have and will be equally superior to what they may or may not pass) to vote on what is adequate for the masses. It would be the same if the owners of the lottery chose the numbers themselves...!

There are many, many more pressing issues - and less expensive ones at that - which need to be addressed. What is the Government actually doing to help get us out of debt and decrease the size, scope, and power of themselves?

Until Big Government gets out of our lives and lets US fix our problems and run our lives, things will just continue to get worse. Healthcare, education, and most other useful things that have since been taken away from us by Big Gov, ALL CAME FROM THE ENTERPRENEURIAL SECTOR... Captialists created it all to help the workers... unions, government, and grassroots organizations are dead set on redistributing the wealth around to those that don't deserve it, haven't earned it, and won't get it for long, if they do get it.

Big Business has a funny way of moving away from excessive taxes, unfriendly policy, and overinvolved government. It's not just big business, the little, high street guys are getting wise to the game too...

Thanks for listening, rant over... g'night!

[codeyeti]

This is so wrong on so many levels. First off, health care reform will actually save the US money. We spend 17% of our GDP on health care - that is larger than anywhere else in the world. The closest is Canada at 10%. That means that we have the least efficient health care system in the world, and not even by a little bit. If we could get our health care system to be the second worst in the world rather than the worst, we would be saving 7% of our GDP, or $1 trillion! Do you have any idea what the US could do with another $1 trillion per year? That's more than the entire GDP of most countries in Europe!

Another misconception is that with the current US health care system we're not paying to cover the uninsured. The fact is, when you go to the hopsital and get a bill you're not only paying for yourself but you're also paying to cover the people who could not pay themselves. Hospitals have to cover their expenses and if 2 out of 3 people get an operation and can't pay for it, then the cost of the operation for the third person is going to be 3 times as high. It's simple economics. We're already paying to cover uninsured people in the US indirectly - health care reform is just making it a lot more efficient by directly covering uninsured people. Again, this will save the US money, not be more expensive.

I understand not wanting big government and wanting a free market, but like everything in life you can't just apply this blindly to all situations. Unfortunately the world isn't that simple. Health care is exactly such a situation. In free markets the price of a good or service is a function of demand. The problem with having a completely free and capitalistic market on health care is that it begs the question how much money is your life worth to you? How about the life of your child? or your wife? When we're dealing with life and death the answer is: how much money do you have? Blindly applying free market philosophies to health care will destroy a lot people financially and it's not good for our country.

I can't stand this idea that the US is the greatest thing to ever hit the face of the earth and everything we do is perfect. Sorry, but the US can learn a lot from other countries. I remember hearing "Do we really want to be like sweden?" on fox news a few weeks back discussing the public option. The implied answer was an immediate "Hell no! Sweden wants to be like us! We're the most awesome country to ever be created!" But if you compare Sweden to the US Sweden wins in almost every respect. They have better education, better health care, longer life expectancy, less crime, higher quality of life, even their per capita GDP is higher - yes, the average Swede is actually richer than the average American.

I'm really starting to get off-topic so I might just make another thread. Regardless, shooting down health care reform based on some naive notion that the US is perfect and the free market is perfect for everything is so naive it drives me crazy. In real life you can't take some broad general concept and then apply it to everything you see without thinking through all the consequences. There are exceptions to every rule and health care is one of them. It will save the US a huge amount of money in the end and we need that more now than ever.

[codeyeti]

Is nobody going to argue with me? I really want to debate this

[MerchantsBarter]

Codeyeti,

Thanks for joining the discussion...

Perhaps you misunderstood my post. I wasn't saying we don't need healthcare, nor do I disagree that we need to cut costs - we seriously need something other than what we have, and DEFINATELY something other than what they are proposing. The tiny fraction of folks that are uninsured is not the issue. My point is that many things under government control now, like healthcare and education came out of the Industrial Revolution FROM BUSINESS OWNERS. We are the backbone of the world, and we should not be unfairly penalised by Big Government's incompetence to feed, clothe, and care for the welfare-dependant types.

I hope more folks join in this discussion.