Universal health care push being revived.

As someone who has seen, first-hand, just how messed up our current health coverage system is (see sig), I applaud any move in the right direction, towards a system where money would not be the decisive factor in whether people could receive life-saving medical treatment.

Good. Let's hope that universal health care gets approved.

how much will it cost me. i swear i cant handle anymore taxes!!!

how much will it cost me. i swear i cant handle anymore taxes!!!

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Hey, at least you don't have NJ property taxes. Nothing beats 10k a year taxes on a 300k home..........

Free healthcare is worth every penny you pay for it.

I'm all for free health care, as long as the quality of the health care doesn't go down with the price, and the taxes don't do a total skyrocket.

neverforsaken said:

how much will it cost me. i swear i cant handle anymore taxes!!!

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Claims that the system would cost less have merit, said John Sheils, vice president of the Lewin Group, a Virginia consulting firm that conducted a study last year of how a single-payer system would work in California. The study found that the state would save $343.6 billion in health care costs over 10 years.

Okay, as someone who lives in a 'universal' health care system, let me explain a few things to you.

UNLESS you keep the private system and merely use the public system as a safety net for those who can't afford the high costs of insurance, this is what you will have: universal waiting lists. Everyone will be entitled to wait in line for treatment for a few months, just as we have up here in Canada. Our Supreme Court finally admitted that Canada's health care system is not only broken, it's a compound fracture.

Stay away from the Canadian system. It's bad for your health. Up here people are dying because they're sixteen months deep on a waiting list. Doctors take nine or ten weeks vacation a year because they aren't allowed to make more than a certain amount of money, and we have a doctor shortage thanks to some profoundly stupid ideas from a previous government. 25% of people in Ontario don't have a family doctor, and dozens of small communities don't have a doctor, period.

Do NOT allow your representatives to look at Canada for tips on how to run public health care. If you do, you will sorely regret it as you're waiting in line for treatment that might be too late.

TwinCrier said:

Free healthcare is worth every penny you pay for it.

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Our 'free' health care in Ontario takes up about 45% of the provincial budget now. Just FYI.

neverforsaken said:

how much will it cost me. i swear i cant handle anymore taxes!!!

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I can't imagine that the tax hike would be any higher than the absurd amount already taken out of my paycheck for my health insurance.

Well, imagine it.

Borealis said:

Our 'free' health care in Ontario takes up about 45% of the provincial budget now. Just FYI.

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At that percentage, I would think people wouldn't be waiting in line for care.

I don't know if anything's changed in the system since I last talked to a Doctor who left Canada for the USA because he said he was tired of not getting paid if he saw too many patients.

California Democrat politicians are looking at going to a single-payer plan.
I wonder which states the doctors are going to be looking at moving to if the state they're in goes socialized healthcare.

Well, if the voters of a state want that kind of a system, then they should have it and hopefully it can be better-managed at the state level than the federal level. Last time I checked: Canada's population was less than one-ninth the population of the USA, so if they're having problems managing it, hard to imagine the oversight problems and costs of managing it for the entire USA.

It's funny that when George Bush signed up to the increased preventive care and prescription drug benefit for senior citizens, both the liberal and conservative media outlets criticized it with different reasoning. Basically it seemed the liberal media decided it was done to help big business, and the conservative media were upset that it was a useless system and a waste of money. I'll bet if Bush and the small r republicans passed a healthcare system to provide for everyone below a certain income, the liberal media would decide it was to alleviate big business from the burden.

I remember hearing about Hillary healthcare plan she was working on while her and Bill were president. Seems it involved some hefty fines for doctors who treated patients for certain things without getting government authorization first.

As someone who lives in a country that has had the NHS for nearly 60 years, can I say it's a fantastic idea. Yes, we have problems (waiting lists, overcrowded wards, dirty hospitals, I could go on forever), but at least I know that if I need an operation, I can get it without wondering how much it will cost.

To quote George Frederick Handel:

"Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hal-leeee-ujah!"

how much will it cost me. i swear i cant handle anymore taxes!!!

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But you won't have to pay for private health insurance anymore (or pay out of pocket for medical expenses).

A true anecdote from an American hospital: I was at the hospital getting some testing done when I overheard a nurse saying to a mother, a father, and a young child, "The operation will cost fifteen thousand dollars, and we can't seem to find any insurance."

Appeal to emotion, appeal to pity, anecdotal evidence, hearsay, yes. But definitely sad.

Aren't insurance costs cheaper if more people are on the insurance? I think it would be a very bad thing if government "insurance" replaced private insurance. But, what if the government picked up the tab, for those who can't afford insurance, to join a private health insurance plan? Obviously, there would be some exceptions and exclusions. But I would think we would see private insurance companies clamoring to "earn" the business of these millions of potential clients receiving guaranteed dollars from the government.

I don't know why this is not a bigger issue. Other than the fact no one wants to admit the system is broken and we hope it will go away, I have heard about more about lost kids that about our messed up health system.

I suspect we will have some form of a single payer system in the future. General Motors is now supporting a single payer system, because they do not want to fund health insusrance anymore for it's employees and retired former employees. After all what is good for GM is good for the United States. But by the time that happens our system will collapse and many people will suffer and die.

Defiant said:

Aren't insurance costs cheaper if more people are on the insurance? I think it would be a very bad thing if government "insurance" replaced private insurance. But, what if the government picked up the tab, for those who can't afford insurance, to join a private health insurance plan? Obviously, there would be some exceptions and exclusions. But I would think we would see private insurance companies clamoring to "earn" the business of these millions of potential clients receiving guaranteed dollars from the government.

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I feel for all of you worrying about taxes. I pay taxes too, but I also have to worry that I will get into a car wreck because I have no health insurance. My child likes to run through the sprinkler, but I worry he will fall and break a leg and we have no coverage. I know if I get a cold that can't be gotten rid of through OTC drugs, I will just have to suffer with pneumonia because I can't afford to go to a doctor, nor could I afford the prescriptions. Right now my hair is falling out and I am blown up like a Macy's balloon with a thyroid condition because I can't get any help without filing bankruptcy. My husband doesn't take his medication for his bipolar disorder the way he should because since he is injured and on medicare, drugs are not included and we have to pay out of pocket 100%.

You worry about taxes. I live in fear every day that something will happen and I will lose everything, all because of the cost of health care.

Call me funny, but my balding and blimpy self would happily sit in a stinky waiting room for hours if it meant I could get healthy for once.