Originally Posted by Furious_Female

I live in NY (US) and my mom has Hudson Valley Health plus or something like that. I support her 100% financially, so she has no income and qualifies for free health, dental, and prescriptions. (She has osteo-arthritis) Fortunately, the coverage is as good as private insurance, so she can choose almost any doctor she wants, because they accept it like other private insurance, unlike medicaid/medicare.

However, I think a Universal system would lessen the quality of health care in the US. Doctors save lives, they SHOULD be paid a considerable amount for their work. It's the drug companies that make health care costs as outrageous as they are.

Unfortunately when it comes to health care, you *usually* get what you pay for. NY state is fantastic as far as providing and making health care available to everyone, especially kids.

I'm certain if there was a universal system, there would be less and less doctors and the care itself would rapidly decline.

I make too much money to qualify for Hudson Valley health plus (or whatever its called) but I would be more than willing to pay for it, because my mom receives excellent care and loads of costly prescriptions. Maybe instead of making it universal, they should make a "reduced rate" type of federal plan or something.