| Health Care Debate and defend your thoughts on the current health care system. Compare and contrast the current health care system of the US to other countries. | 
01-16-2008, 09:45 AM
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#31 (permalink)
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Level up: 58%, 154 Points needed | | Yup. Now that's what I call progress. Soon they'll be sacrificing less then perfect people to the insurance gods. Oh wait, I think they're doing that now. | 
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01-16-2008, 09:51 AM
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#32 (permalink)
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Originally Posted by waitingtables  Yup. Now that's what I call progress. Soon they'll be sacrificing less then perfect people to the insurance gods. Oh wait, I think they're doing that now. | That's true. If your are poor you are fucked. If you are poor AND ugly, you are really fucked. Those are the people the hospital staff will dump on the street because they don't rate a hospital bed and nobody cares if they live or die. | 
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01-16-2008, 12:51 PM
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#33 (permalink)
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Originally Posted by sgtdmski
Like it or not, healthcare is not free. You pay for the services of the doctors, nurses, lab techs, physical therapists and x-ray technicians. Let me tell you we do not come cheap. The lowest salary of any of those is probably around $20 per hour. That does not even begin to include the cost of the room, the equipment and the medications necessary. Yes the big insurance companies that are trying to protect their profit. These same companies that if we did not have how many people would be unable to cover the cost of their medical bills.
It is not a perfect world. In a perfect world everyone would make enough to cover their care.
| Why don't we
-do away with all those selfish, uncaring health insurance companies
-re-direct all those billions in insurance premiums to convert their office buildings into hospitals, clinics, path labs etc
-dismantle all those infuriating automated insurance company phone systems that make you wade through 137 options and then put you on hold for 45 minutes before some gormless 18 year old on minimum wage thinks up some lame excuse to deny you coverage
-re-train their unproductive, obfuscatory paper pushers to be health care professionals who can actually help people get better (instead of wearing out fax machines)
-reduce the overhead of GM, Ford, United Airlines and every other large company in America by hundreds of billions of dollars within 12 months
-make every senior executive of every health insurance company work a mandatory 500 hours community service in a hospital
-provide better health care to more people for less money
-and keep the change??
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Last edited by garysher; 01-16-2008 at 12:54 PM.
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01-16-2008, 12:57 PM
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#34 (permalink)
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Originally Posted by garysher Why don't we
-do away with all those selfish, uncaring health insurance companies
-re-direct all those billions in insurance premiums to convert their office buildings into hospitals, clinics, path labs etc
-dismantle all those infuriating automated insurance company phone systems that make you wade through 137 options and then put you on hold for 45 minutes before some gormless 18 year old on minimum wage thinks up some lame excuse to deny you coverage
-re-train their unproductive, obfuscatory paper pushers to be health care professionals who can actually help people get better (instead of wearing out fax machines)
-reduce the overhead of GM, Ford, United Airlines and every other large company in America by hundreds of billions of dollars within 12 months
-make every senior executive of every health insurance company work a mandatory 500 hours community service in a hospital
-provide better health care to more people for less money
-and keep the change??
| All for a decrease in quality of care and a slight bump in income taxes...for those that pay taxes in the first place that is.
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01-16-2008, 01:06 PM
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#35 (permalink)
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Originally Posted by fxashun All for a decrease in quality of care and a slight bump in income taxes...for those that pay taxes in the first place that is. | How do you know that???
How much money do Americans pay for health care today?
Be sure to include all the hidden costs, and the huge overheads carried by American corporations.
And the profits made by insurance companies.
The answer is about 17% of GDP
Based on decades of experience in every other industrialised nation it would end up costing less - between 5 and 11% of GDP.
Not hard to believe when Americans have to finance a huge, inefficient health insurance industry alongside of health care providers.
Americans are getting ripped off for health care and most of them don't even realise it.
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01-16-2008, 01:12 PM
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#36 (permalink)
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Originally Posted by garysher How do you know that???
How much money do Americans pay for health care today?
Be sure to include all the hidden costs, and the huge overheads carried by American corporations.
And the profits made by insurance companies.
The answer is about 17% of GDP
Based on decades of experience in every other industrialised nation it would end up costing less - between 5 and 11% of GDP.
Not hard to believe when Americans have to finance a huge, inefficient health insurance industry alongside of health care providers.
Americans are getting ripped off for health care and most of them don't even realise it.
| And how do you know your way is better?
Maybe a combination of private health care and regulation is better.
But we are already close enough to a welfare society as it is, I don't think we need MORE welfare type programs. Any plan that I would support would have some personal responsibility. Not just free for everyone.
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01-16-2008, 02:09 PM
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#37 (permalink)
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Originally Posted by fxashun And how do you know your way is better?
Because it works better in all those other countries
Think about it - you take the same amount of money but you don't have to divert nay of it to support a monstrous insurance industry overhead. The money can be spent on health care.
Maybe a combination of private health care and regulation is better.
That's what we have today.
The result is denial of service, 50% of bankruptcies and iconic US enterprises carrying an impossible burden
But we are already close enough to a welfare society as it is, I don't think we need MORE welfare type programs. Any plan that I would support would have some personal responsibility. Not just free for everyone. | No doubt the country that put men on the moon can come up with a superior system if it really wants to
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01-16-2008, 02:13 PM
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#38 (permalink)
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Originally Posted by garysher No doubt the country that put men on the moon can come up with a superior system if it really wants to | No, we have 1 combination. Just because this one doesn't work, doesn't mean that another one is gonna fail as well. As you said, the nation that put men on the moon should be able to take care of it's people....that take care of themselves.
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01-16-2008, 02:38 PM
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#39 (permalink)
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Originally Posted by fxashun No, we have 1 combination. Just because this one doesn't work, doesn't mean that another one is gonna fail as well. As you said, the nation that put men on the moon should be able to take care of it's people....that take care of themselves. | So why not focus on taking care of the people - not taking care of the insurance companies?
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01-16-2008, 02:51 PM
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#40 (permalink)
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Originally Posted by garysher So why not focus on taking care of the people - not taking care of the insurance companies? | I want to focus on those that actually pay for the care. Make everyone pay for a share of the pie, but everyone getting the same care when only a certain few actually pay for everyone doesn't float my boat.
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