[Liberal Bob]

HillaryCare

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6760676182513210949

[speekinout]

I never did get the reason why we should all get the finest health care free. After all, I can't have the finest housing (just what I can afford) or the most expensive food (just what I can afford).
Why should I expect better medical care than I can afford? (Except for life-saving emergency care; I think all of us want to give that to those who need it)

[Gritty]

...either budgeting the inevitable costs that can't be avoided or shifting the cost burden from one gored ox to another

He left out the real tiebreaker and ultimate fix to the medical cost burden... euthanasia.

But that will come later, after socialized medicine is completely entrenched, we all are trapped in the web, and costs must be kept down or the system goes completely bankrupt!

[William Terrell]

This is what I notice. It seems to be true from my experience.

The cost of the insurance is high because health care, especially hospital care, charges are high.

Doctor visits are usually not so bad, unless lab tests are ordered. It is the lab tests that are high.

Doctor visits are usually not so bad, unless he must do a procedure or make a decision that can land him in court. It is the cost of the malpractice insurance that is high.

Hospital, labs and other businesses that process medical data and tissue in some way, and even the medical insurance industry itself, are the reason health care is so expensive.

The question seems to be, just what are a hospital's cost of labor and materials that justify charging $4.00 for something you can buy at the PDQ for two and a half cents?

Or, if the raw materials used by these businesses are costly, exactly what costs the manufacturer or jobber so much? How much could it cost to make a 5-0 suture?

[originalbuckeye]

I have lived in Britain with the NHS. People who think that socialized medicine is a good idea should have to live under it for a year. I made a very low wage (due to my qualifications not transferring there) and was taxed at 50%. People who can afford private insurance carry it. There are loads of private doctors that actually take appointments. You can see them when you need to, no waiting all day for whichever doctor happens to be in your local clinic any given day. When people tell me they'd love to see nationalized health care I always ask them 'how would you feel about the Gov't setting your income?'. They never want that! But they always think it is perfectally acceptable to want the Gov't to set medical incomes.

The NHS killer??? No one can sue the Gov't. Do you honestly think the people ( and the lawyers!!) in this country would stand for no lawsuits against the medical industry??

One more thing. Most people don't realize that THEY are the ones whose taxes will skyrocket for socialized medicine. They look it as if someone else is paying. Very naive.

[JoeFromSidney]

The point is a valid one. Once some catastrophic illness (cancer, etc.) becomes a certainty because we're living longer, then there is no way to spread out the cost over all the people involved. If none of us can afford medical care individually, then we can't all afford it collectively either.

Start saving up when yoiu're young is the only answer. We really need Health Savings Accounts.

[frposty]

Good article. I'm not worried. As health care costs gobble more of our income, we will make adjustments. There's plenty of room for cost saving adjustments. The motivation's not there yet.

[randita]

2) Only a few will modify their personal habits; the rest expect medicine to remedy the pain from their self- indulgences.

There are a few, like Tony Snow, who through no fault of their own develop a serious disease. But so many serious illnesses AND accidents that are self inflicted or at least exacerbated by harmful lifestyle choices. And we all have to share the cost of treating those.

It takes a lot of discipline to commit time to exercising regularly and eating a healthy diet without foods full of fat and sugar. That doesn't guarantee you longevity free of health problems, but it certainly increases the odds.

Sometimes I wonder why I bother, except for my own self image because I just end up paying for someone else's health problems due to their being a couch potato and eating like a pig.

[B-Chan]

And so we might as well accept the reality that health care has become a de facto right, a public good to be enjoyed by all and should be financed just like every other public entitlement.

And thank you for backing up what I've been saying on FR for ages now: we already have universal free medical care in the United States. That decision was made long ago, and there is no further point in debating the merits of "socialized medicine". The people of the United States have decided that everyone in America is entitled to health care regardless of ability to pay, and that is that. The only question that remains is how exactly we as a nation are going to provide that care. Right now the health care provider of last resort in the local hospital ER. But is that the best way, the most cost-effective, fair way, to provide universal free health care? Or can we organize a system that works better?

[gbs]

Social Security and The Department of Education out spend the Department of Defense. Guess where free health care will be on that list and which of those will get hacked to death. Do you need help guessing, hmmmm? Follow this clue to any European country or our neighbor to the north.

[Dave Olson]

Healthcare delivered through private enterprise would fix the problem.

Consider LASIK eye surgery. That is a medical prodecure that is handled somewhat through the market place. Since it's been done that way, it's become routine, the quality has improved, and the prices have fallen.

If that can be done for eye surgery, there's no reason it can't be done for knee surgery or heart surgery or any other medical prodecure -- other than people, who have a disdain for the marketplace, standing in the way of it.