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Originally Posted by NetHorse
However, how fair is it that in a socialized medical system treatment is "rationed" by politicians? It's likely we have different definitions of what is fair. Is it fair that the government gets to choose what they think will raise the cost of health care and tax the hell out of you on it? Is it fair that as health care costs skyrocket everyone is forced to pay a small fortune of their income in taxes? What if in 10-15 years the government is taxing alcohol, cigarettes and unhealthy foods to a point where it's unaffordable? What if they completely ban them? Are you going to sit back and rationalize it? America is NOT a socialist country, to me that's more unfair than having to pay for my own health insurance. I enjoy my freedoms without excessive government intervention.
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So in this non-socialist country did you receive a free high school education? Do you drive on the roads? If you need help do you pick up the phone and dial 911? Do you worry daily about invasion from other countries? These are all things that most people could not afford on their own, but we all benefit from. Here is another little nugget. The top 25% of wage earners in this country pay 90% of the taxes. That means the rich pay for most of these programs. The rich paid for your eduction (and that of your kids if you have them and they go to public school). The rich pay for your roads, the police, fire and ambulance that serve you in times of need and the military that keeps you safe. Not to mention many other thing that I'm sure most of us don't even realize. That sounds kind of umm. . . err. . . socialist to me.
I'm not defending the current health care bill. I think it is flawed and will eventually get very bloated, corrupt and expensive, but this country is far from non-socialist and we do plenty of spreading the wealth.
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Really? No questions asked? So when you're having bad headaches you can demand they give you an MRI? Or would they send you home with an aspirin until it got to the point where it was life threatening. There is no free ticket in this world, the government can't offer full health care without rationing to keep costs down. I'm glad to hear you had good experiences, as have I and my family. You might hear horror stories both ways, but that doesn't really tell the entire truth now does it?
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Walk into your regular family doctor with a headache and demand an MRI. First, the doctor will probably try to tell you that you don't need one unless you are showing signs of something very bad. If you insist enough the doctor may relent. Now try talking your insurance company into paying for it. They will tell you to pack sand. They will want to see blood work and other typical treatments that would rule out most everything else before they plunk down the money for an MRI.
Health care in the US is already rationed and controlled by insurance companies. I know several people who live in Canada and when I hear them talk about the system up there it really doesn't sound much different than what we have here. They wait for stuff, so do we. Sometimes the service sucks, same here. Sometimes it works perfectly. Same here.
I happen to feel we are screwed no matter what. We can either do nothing and watch the cost of health care continue to go up and watch it slowly bankrupt the middle class in this country or we can try to reform it. With reform comes expense. There are millions of people without health insurance in this country and if they get treatment someone ends up paying for it. So we can either pay to give them insurance, pay for their treatment after they have gotten it, or we can force ER's and urgent care centers to turn them away. I'm not so sure I would feel very good about myself if I drove by a hospital and saw people dying in the parking lot because they had no money or insurance.
The only true way to fix it is to tear the entire system down and start from scratch and that won't be happening any time soon.