- Stop paying medical bills.
- Bad debt increases for hospitals and insurance companies.
- Big health insurance companies fail.
- Government steps in, bails them out.
- Bam, socialized healthcare.
Repeat as necessary until government simply owns medical industry.
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That’s better than most ideas I have heard. It seems to be similar to what we have now, just replacing the insurance companies with the government (for the most part). Having tried dealing with both, thats not too bad of a trade. But in general private companies tend to work best. Maybe an overhaul of the insurance laws would work better (see my 3rd post i think it is).
I do disagree with the 46mill number that that is kinda irrelevant to the debate. I will also say that people are being denied health care in the same way I am being denied a Lamborghini. After seeing some ER bills, that’s a nice comparison. The problem is we have competition in health care, because of insurance being so big no one sees any prices. Its like capitalism with out a market and socialism without a central planner.
I just generally believe in small government, and I mean small. some one once told me that no government is perfect and they are right; no government, is perfect. <<<I really hope that makes sense I know some things just dont work well written.
Normally I’m with you Ben that the smaller federal government the better BUT if we’re going to be socialist, let’s be socialist to the people who need it most. I’d love to see a tiny, tiny federal government with the states and local cities and towns being the most powerful government entities but right now that’s a tough, tough scenario to institute.
A bit off topic but here in Massachusetts we’ll be voting on 3 ballot questions pushed forward by citizens. They are 1) making dog racing illegal, 2) decriminalizing marijuana and 3) (you’ll love this one), eliminating the state income tax.
Personally, I’m in favor of all three, with the pot and income tax questions making government much, much smaller by basically forcing them to be smaller. The dog racing thing is not super important but the other two are. We will not miss the tax revenue and it will force the government to be more efficient and we’ll save enough money by not chasing after and jailing pot users to make up the difference anyway. So, I’m for less government too but in the case of health care, I trust an entity that is not out to make profit more than the insurance companies.
I went off topic there but yes, my plan is to mostly replace insurance companies with government. I like how you pinpointed that thread because even I did not see it. It’s a nice summary. I’m a bit of an economics geek so I’m a big advocate of the free market, to an extent. In some areas, the free market is just not appropriate and personally, health insurance is such an area. If I could buy a health care plan sold by a non-profit organization, I would do so. As is today, I have no desire for health insurance. It’s a big, big distinction and unfortunately our current system is absolutely dominated by insurance companies.
You spoke very well Ben, but yes the written word is a bit tough to manipulate sometimes, especially when it comes to topics we’re passionate about but are so big that we cannot possibly be 100% absolutely correct always. There are problems with both systems, that much we agree on, but which one has less problems is simply something we cannot know without trying both. I’d love it if states were the absolute authority on this as then we’d be able to have both systems and see which works better.
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This has got to be the most intelligent, coherent, well thought and civilized post I think I have read yet. Anywhere.
I worked for two multi-national companies for years and had great benefits. But, due to a string of unfortunate events, I now depend on government assistance. If it wasn’t for Medicaid, et al, I could not get the treatment I require and would more than likely be dead now. Yes, the system needs a good deal of improvement but it’s my only option at this point.
I am taking this in to my case worker to share. Keep it up.
Thanks Chris, that’s quite the compliment!
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We Americans do not like to wait for anything! We are spoiled soft and lazy. Just what we need to do create something else we get for free. Doesn’t anyone remember the story of the little red hen. It was meant to be a lesson in life, as most of these tales are. Would we want to wait for a list and our turn to come up because someone is available to take care of removing our tumor? We have many of the best advances in healthcare in this country, due to the free enterprise system. Do you actually think that all of this is available in other countries. USA has one of the most advanced systems in the world. I would hate to see our advances undermined by a lack luster interest in advancement and a waiting list for care. Think about it.
So advanced that 40% of our population gets locked out of the system?
We do not have the free enterprise system in the USA Kim. Where is it? The bailout? Banning trade with countries we do not like? Our inflationary fiat currency? Social Security? Income taxes? All these items are anti-symptomatic of a free enterprise system. We’re as communist as China is capitalist, it’s all the same essential system just with a different flavor of icing on top.
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