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To redistribute wealth, via me paying someone elses' healthcare costs, while diluting the quality of my own SELF-PAID medical care, is where it's going.

When the uninsured in your area seek medical care at the local ER, who do you think pays now?

"When the uninsured in your area seek medical care at the local ER, who do you think pays now?"

Thanks for making my point, and, do you want to expand it even further with socialized medicine for ALL, so we can pay for even more non-payers?

Exactly. All this whining about "socialized medicine" is idiotic. We already have socialized medicine: it's called the County ER. Since we as a nation have already decided that government is going to be the healthcare provider of last resort, the only question left is exactly what form we want our ""socialized medicine" to take.

To redistribute wealth, via me paying someone elses' healthcare costs, while diluting the quality of my own SELF-PAID medical care, is where it's going.

When the uninsured in your area seek medical care at the local ER, who do you think pays now?

That's the problem, all right. Until we start sending people away from the ERs and letting them die in the street we need to admit that we have a universal health care plan right now. Sooner or later everyone gets medical care. Those of us with medical insurance get it in a timely and regular fashion. Those without sometimes get too little too late - or worse , from a public cost standpoint, too much too late.

Another factor to consider is how much the current system, which relies on employee-sponsored plans, inhibits risk-taking and creativity. Who knows how many people there are who stick with a job primarily for the health insurance when, in fact, they would prefer to pursue an alternative career?

All that being said, however, the thought of a government administered universal health care program scares me, for all the reasons that others have given.