Should America adopt universal health care?

[Howdoyoulikechan gesofar]

Hand of God wrote:

So why has a “medical malpractice crisis” arisen now? There were similar “crises” in 1976 and 1986, when, as now, the economy had recently declined. The insurance companies, which derive most of their profits from investments, suffered from bad business decisions. Then, as now, they covered their losses by raising insurance premiums dramatically, then blamed innocent patients who sought compensation for negligence-related injuries—and, of course, their lawyers.
When St. Paul Insurance Co., one of the major medical malpractice insurers, announced earlier this year that it was getting out of the business, it claimed growing malpractice verdicts were the problem. The company conveniently failed to mention that its economic hardship was really caused by poor investments—including the $108 million it lost when Enron collapsed.
Nor has the medical or insurance industry mentioned that, according to the federal Health Care Financing Administration (now the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services), health care costs increased almost 75 percent from 1988 to 1999—far more than the rate of inflation - while medical malpractice premiums increased by less than 6 percent. Of course, verdicts based on actual losses have increased over the past decade. But according to the 2000 edition of the Statistical Abstract of the United States, doctors in 1997 paid 25 percent less of their average annual incomes for malpractice insurance than they did in 1985.
And what about claims that doctors are quitting the profession or moving out of their home states? A Philadelphia Inquirer investigation found no such trend, and the same is true in West Virginia. Now we are hearing that doctors are fleeing Nevada and other states, but this is not the first time doctors—at their insurers' prompting—have cried wolf.
Doctors and insurers say that limiting malpractice awards would hold down insurance costs. But the truth is that insurance premiums are slightly higher in states that cap damages. The American Medical Association itself reports that doctors in California, the state with perhaps the most restrictive limit on damages in the country, pay 20 percent more for malpractice coverage than the national average.
The negligence of bad doctors and the bad business decisions of insurance companies are not the fault of patients who are mistreated. Yet it is patients who will be punished—more than they already have been—if doctors and insurers succeed in convincing the public that limiting justice is the solution to their troubles.

A child of five could understand this. Quick, send someone to fetch a child of five.

[Jeff Plant Toronto CANADA]

Give your American in-bred head a shake. I wouldn't live in the US if you paid me. The US manages to steal our best Canadian doctors by throwing cash at them. So typical of the US...greed drives you and you think the US is the only country that is anything, has anything or knows anything. Universal Healthcare will help to control the greed that Corporate America has applied since the Declaration of Independence was wrought. Do yourselves a favour and adopt Universal Healthcare

Howdoyoulikechangesofar wrote:

If America adopts Universal Health Care, where will all the Canadians go to find good doctors?

[Lost Rights James Bovard]

Jeff Plant Toronto CANADA wrote:

Give your American in-bred head a shake. I wouldn't live in the US if you paid me. The US manages to steal our best Canadian doctors by throwing cash at them. So typical of the US...greed drives you and you think the US is the only country that is anything, has anything or knows anything. Universal Healthcare will help to control the greed that Corporate America has applied since the Declaration of Independence was wrought. Do yourselves a favour and adopt Universal Healthcare
<quoted text>

If they were your BEST doctors they wouldn't be motivated by greed.

Your best doctors come here to work in clinics, our best doctors travel the world to heal sick people.

[trrr]

get out now wrote:

<quoted text>
I'm for consensus....your observation of me not understanding the issue is your point of view. Those 47% Americans that DON'T pay federal income taxes, do tell how you think that is equitable.
I'm for a logical discussion...I agree things need to be fixed but not just something rammed down our throats. My point was I'm tired of being in the 53% of Americans that pay for the other 47% that don't pay taxes and typically those 47% are the ones that complain day in and day out about how tough they have it and how society owes them something when society is ALREADY paying for them.
Now, if you can make that equitable I'm all for it....I'll take a FLAT tax anyday...and I'll accept those that need insurance to PAY SOMETHING, ANYTHING and not a free ride. Again, I'm for discussion and consensus...which I'm not seeing from EITHER party...dems or reps.

I'm glad we are in agreement over one thing - the "leadership" shown by Washington on this vital issue is an absolute disgrace. Both parties are content to let big business and the health care lobby trample what's left of the middle class.

Let's all remember this on this and every Election Day. Please throw all of the do-nothing incumbents out, and elect agents of REAL change!

Good Luck to all of us,'cause we're gonna need it!