This is what I thought they should have done instead of Obamacare from day one. You already have a system in place so just add everyone to it and do something like Tax food across America with a federal tax to fund it. Then Americans who want to can add their own insurance to pick up where Medicare leaves off.
I don't disagree, and that sounds kind of like how other countries have done it, but do you think it'll fly if it requires a new tax? There seem to be a lot of people who hate taxes and would fight getting cheaper healthcare even if they were saving more money in the end by having government run healthcare than they would be paying in increased taxes.
I pay $16.30 pr/hr for medical insurance (medical/dental/eyeglass) and an average year for me is about 1,900 hrs. We pay extra to cover guys who are out of work so no one in my union goes uninsured as long as they are available to work.
Sounds like a neighborly thing to do.
The drug companies and medical facilities charge astronomical amounts of money for their services and goods, and until our government stops this overcharging of the American citizen this will never end.
I agree. How do we get the government to start working for us again? It seems the corruption runs deep in both major parties. Gotta bring the people together and stop fighting amongst ourselves somehow. This deep hatred both sides have of the opposite party is screwing us all.
What I liked prior to was "not being told you will buy x"
Yeah I think the biggest flaw with the ACA is that it forced unwilling customers upon the insurance companies, which embedded the insurance companies deeper into the system. On the upside however, it did allow something like 20 million people to get healthcare when they were being refused insurance before because of "pre-existing conditions" (there's your REAL death panel, right there) and some other nonsense, so it isn't all bad though.
Medicare. What a joke they cant run it efficiently now so lets add a few million more.
I dont have a solution
I do KNOW having uncle sam involved ain't the answer however.
I think part of the problem, on top of what Ron mentions below, is that Medicare isn't allowed to negotiate drug prices. If they could, it would help bring costs down. I'm not sure what other problems Medicare has, but do you think that they're worse than the problems that we have with insurance companies?
The health care industry is 100% involved in collusion and without government involvement they will never stop.
Should the government not be involved with the airline industry? (FAA) If not people will die.
Should the government not be involved in the banking industry? (FDIC) If not people will have their money stolen.
People are evil and without rules they will hurt anyone they want with no regard for others.
I concur.
It's definitely a position held by many that government control of anything is bad. I will agree that it can be very inefficient, but I will never agree that privatization is the answer. Especially when we are talking health care, which I consider a right vs a privilege. And Jamie's points are spot on.
It's a hard problem to solve, but through real work and, yes, compromise and empathy we can figure it out.
In other words, you're saying the down side of a government run healthcare system is better than the down side of the private system we have now. It seems the rest of the developed world agrees because they all have some form of government run healthcare and we don't, and a whole bunch of them are ranked as being better systems than ours.
OK joke was incorrect reference for medicare.
Yes they need to regulate it better.
Cost are out of control.
Something has to be done.
No easy fixes.
Some will be disappointed and some will suffer no matrer what is done.
NEVER will they come up with a 100% perfect for all 100% of the time program.
That's true. There will always be something to complain about. We shouldn't let that stop us from trying to make things better, though, right?
