Why Should Health Coverage be free?

How could this be possible or be workout out in the government?

You don't seriously want the government to control your health care decisions do you?

This is the same government that can't get it right to figure out a way to get ourselves back on the right track in Iraq.

This is the same government that ignored the warning signs that led to 9-11.

And, this is the same government that couldn't even get even the most basic help when the residents affected by Hurricane Katrina needed it the most.

Most big government programs are crushed by their own bureaucracy and are a miserable failure.

You want THAT government to control what happens to your health care???

If they can't get the easy stuff done....how do you ever expect them to handle something as complex as the nation's health care system.

It would automatically be the largest, most bureaucratic and most cumbersome federal agency in the U.S., virtually crippled under its own weight from the very get go.

The doctors won't want it because there will be no incentive to go into medical specalties. Right now, many docs know they can specialize and get rich. Without many docs in medical specialties, then the quality of the system will go down.

If you want a nationalized free health care system, you'll get a free system....but it won't be one you'll want. It will be mediocre at best.

If you take the profit motive out of the system, you kill of any incentive to spur quality or innovation.

A far, far better idea is to have a national health care access system where you give poor citizens vouchers to purchase private health insurance on their own. It will be cheaper and much more effective in the long run.

Well, it's NOT free, ok, people pay EXHORBITANT taxes to have cr@ppy health service with long lines and incredible delays, and third rate equipment.

NOTHING you get from the government is "FREE". Whatever you get through the government, actually costs MORE than if you would get it through the private sector, and is ALSO more filled with fraud, because there's little inclination to do quality control.

If you want "free" health care, move to Canada, or the UK, or the Netherlands. Be prepared to pay 50% to 75% income taxes for your "free" health care.

But keep in mind, people there who can afford "real" health care, go to a private doctor or come to the US for medical care.

We as a public can vote it in, ultimately we have a democracy and if the majority of the public want Socialized healthcare then the USA will have it. Here is a dose of reality and probably why we won't:
a. England and Canada does not have a middle class, you have rich and poor- in both places the rich still purchase health plans to see private physicians the poor are waiting in lines for medical care. Why, you ask- because of increased tax's- no big secret if you want socialized medical plans you will need to pay for it by increasing tax's which will wipe out the middle class of america.
b. 300Million populate America, approx. 43million don't have health insurance- will 90% of Americans pay for 10% of those who don't have health insurance?
c. War
D. Earthquakes, Hurricanes, any national disaster will stop any plans of socialized healthcare.

What I find a better question is this, why in a society that wants to lower healthcare premiums are Health Savings Accounts not more popular?.. that is the real question, and here is a short answer, because health insurance companies and health insurance agencies don't want you to buy them. You do not see any advertisements on these type of accounts. But as you say, should health coverage be free, a person who has a health savings account and it is fully funded and is self employed is getting his/ her healthcare for free,, but how many americans have health savings accounts currently approx. 3.5 almost 1%, because health insurance co's are not promoting these plans, as they are the most un-profitable. Do the research on Health Savings Plans, most high income earners have them, because they are normally the smartest with money matters. And they can be the best for Middle income earners.

Free is impossible, nothing in life is free. If someone can't get health insurance for some reason the government steps in and provides coverage to some extent in some cases. This coverage is not free, everyone else is paying for it. This is part of the reason that taxes have to go up periodically in order to keep up with the cost of such benefits that are given to the poor and disabled.

It's not free, nor is there any way possible for it to be free. It has to be paid for somehow -- either through taxes or insurance premiums.

A number of countries have universal health care or socialized medicine. Tax rates are astronoical in those countries.

"Free" as in forcibly take my money, have the government distribute it, and call it free.

â€œI predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.â€
-Thomas Jefferson

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Nothing is free. True, fundamental economic principle, "There is no such thing as a free lunch."

Now, if you are talking about a healthcare system that can be accessed by anyone, that would be paid for by taxes or some other form of revenue. Most everything is paid for by the work of working people, one way or the other. Any kind of system that may work to provide the best quality care could work, but always competes with the quest for personal profit.

I think health coverage should absolutely be free. There are over 46 million Americans without health coverage and these are usually hardworking people who still cant afford the insurance provided by their employers. If everyone were insured it would relieve the strain on emergency rooms, medical conditions would be diagnosed earlier and save lives, seniors would not have to choose between medication and food. I could go on and on.
How could we pay for it? The government wastes billions of tax dollars every year. This is money that is totally unaccounted for. In 2003, 24 billion dollars were lost in what the Treasury Department calls "Unreconciled Transactions". This is money that the US auditors cannot account for (See U.S. Department of the Treasury, 2003 Financial Report of the United States Government, pp. 126, at fms.treas.gov/fr/ 03frusg.html (March 28, 2005). Unreconciled transactions totaled $3.4 billion in 2004.) This is money that someone somewhere has used and the Government does not know who or where. Imagine if your spouse who does the budget had "unreconciled transactions" you would end up in the poor house.
Every year there are billions in "unreconciled transactions". If the US government becomes less wasteful with our money we would have more for social programs like health insurance.

But I'm just a bleeding-heart liberal

Boley I want to give you a THUMBS UP but I'm only level 1: sorry :)

I have a B.A in Business Adminstration and am currently certified as a Nurses Aide, Med. Aide, and as a Restorative Aide. I state these facts not to thumb my nose at any but to point out that I do not merely speak an opinion, but instead speak an opinion that is grounded in experience and an understanding of both capitalism and the HC industry. After all, there is a difference between an opinion and an informed opinion. The following is my scoop on the subject and I'm sticking to it.

Private sector health care is said to be better yet all other industrial countries have state controlled HC and you'll notice their citizens are NOT immigrating to the US. Everyone that I have known to be in the military over seas has told me that the health care in those countries is just as good as ours.

The price of HC in the US is inflated by human greed, thru the mechanism of lobbying. Take this fact as example, US pharmacuetical companies produce most of their products in countries like Canada and sell them there for a lower price, than they sell them here. They go to countries like Canada to produce them, because the cost to manufacture is lower. This is legal even though it is bad for the American worker who loses a job to a Canadian. Yet when people in America jump the Canadian border to buy the same drugs made by the same companies at a lower price than can be obtained here, people from the drug companies lobby and get laws past to make this illegal ( which has already been passed by Bush, and is now law). It is one of the many hypocrasies of American capitalism. That's because their goal is not to make the world a better place, or to practice a valid form of free market capitalism, but to make profits at others expense.

People talk about the long lines in other countries when trying to get in at the doctors office, which is funny considering I went to the doctor last week with an appointment for 3 pm ... got in at 4:30pm, in America.

The government does not lobby to create an environment where they can price gouge for such important things like medicine and medical care, the private sector, however does. The only people to benefit from the medical system in America are the rich. Find me a person that is not rich and supports this form of HC and I'll show you a person that is, as Lenin put it, a useful idiot (meaning he/she supports an ideology that is bad for him/her).

The idea that the private sector can do it cheaper is true, in theory. Yet in reality the price of private sector HC does not fall below the cost of goverment sector HC because the private sector adds in excessive profits, viz.; goverment sector HC costs 5, private sector HC costs 3, but they add in a profit margin of 2, so the total cost of Private sector HC is still 5. When people talk about the amount of taxes other countries pay, they fail to realize that those 65% taxes aren't just for HC its for hc and everything else. Figure out the cost you and your employer, pay for your HC here in America, determine what % of your paycheck this consistutes, then add it in with the total tax you pay to Uncle Sam for all other things like roads, schools etc etc and you'll find that the total cost to you is about the same as Europeans pay in taxes to their governments. Plus when your employer has to cover a part of your HC burden it jacks up his/her overhead and makes it hard to compete with other industrial nations, which don't have this factored into their overhead because its paid for by the state with their tax money, which comes out of their paycheck. Make it part of your tax burden and it reduces the burden to your employer. If you pay for your HC thru taxes you are taking care of your own cost of living, make your employer pay it and its nothing short of government enforced welfare paid for by your employer.

My father (who made good money as a city manager and doesn't have crappy HC coverage) recently went to an American dentist to get a set of partial dentures. He paid over $1,000 (can't remember the exact price) and it took forever to get them fitted. When it was all said and done they didn't fit. He played the back and forth game trying to get them refitted properly. The mission was never accomplished. So he went to MEXICO, paid what amounted to $600 and got a set that fit perfectly the first time and in about a 1/4 of the time it took here in America to get them casted. So much for the fruits of capitalism in an industrial nation eh?

P.S. Some say that if we go to state HC systems the money a doctor makes will be reduced and all the good doctors will split to other countries.... my question is where will they go? China? Mexico? I'd much rather take my risks with a doctor that got into the field to help people as opposed to a doctor that got into the field to make money ... wouldn't you?

They do it in Canada, the UK, France and lots of other countries but in the US the doctor's and hospitals have always lobbied (bribed) congressmen and government officials so the laws for socialized medicine could never ever be given a start.

it should be we are the richest country in the world and we dont have it england has it canada has it in my state though (illinois) kids can get it which is pretty cool

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