Another element I would like to see is more public funding for hospitals.

If the majority of people are happy with the job that the democratic president, democratic house, and democratic senate have done in 2 years; then why was such a landslide at the elections in November? Think about it. Majority of the people would like free health insurance and probably wished cotton candy also grew on trees. Economics for dumbasses: spending more money than you make does not save any money; especially when you are in debt. If you want to be a citizen of a purely socialistic sountry go to mother russia where everything is shared and nobody owns anything. Medicare and medicaid are horribly run and are a direct cause for healthcare costs increasing. medicare and medicaid routinely deny hospitals payment for medical treatment that by law should have been covered. I was part of a team for a hospital that sued medicare for this reason. this is a routine practice. the VA hospitals have been described to me by freinds who have been injured in iraq as the worst place on earth. medacaid has covered breast augumentation and plastic surgeries for people that i have known. one girl i know personally has had tatoos removed (that were not gang symbols or anything like that so dont use it as an excuse) and another girl i knew had a nose job done by medicaid too. But then they deny coverage for a person who is really sick!! the politicians and doctors who also run programs like medicare and medicaid have been caught stealing money from the systems. organized crime has made millions off the medicaid and medicare system too. they were recently caught, b/c they were stupid enough to falsify medical records having a Opthamologist order asomething like heart medication for a guy with a heart condition. too much government control is self destructive. just look how well chicago is run. absolute power leads to absolute corruption. how come no one is also looking at the fact that the same drug companies that raise our medications prices; turn around and sell the same medications to europe and canada for cheaper prices than they sell it to their own countries population (our government is well aware of it and doesnt care). what about illegal aliens (or anyone for that matter) in this country going to emergency rooms for colds and being treated. hopital then eats the bill and healthcare costs go up. emergency rooms are for emergencies!! What about pointless lawsuits? if a doctor screws up he should be sued, but if the lawsuit is unfounded and is determined to be complete s than the plaintiff should have to cover the hospitals legal fees. that would in turn also lower healthcare costs. hospitals do not want to spend money on going to court and would rather pay off many lawsuits that are unfounded and do not have any legal ground for a lawsuit to be filed. if the medical care is so good in universal healthcare countries why do the politicians and rich citizens of canada come to the united states to get treated? it is not like you can just make an appointment to see a doctor. on average you should be able to see a doctor probably in about 6 months if is not life threatening. there have been plenty of instances in canada and europe were patients have died waitting to see a doctor. plus once it does become socialized the competition for creating jobs and doing research will also slow down as well. competition = advancement
on a different note i do want to see everybody get healthcare. i am one of the so called 40 million uninsured. like a vast majority of that number i am young and choose not to spend my money on health insurance b?c i dont need it at this time. the insurance companies contributed millions and millions of dollars to the democratic party members before the healthcare bill was signed b?c it would require by law that everyone has to get health insurance. who would benefit from that? could it be the insurance companies? is it unconstitutional? obama fails to realize that he is not exempt from abiding by the constitution. he is not a dictator. in this country there is freedom of press, that means he can not tell the press that they face federal criminal charges and up to a ten thoousand dollar fine for taking pictures of the oil spill (CN even bashed him for that one look it up on youtube). he can not require us to by healthinsurance. i will do what i want. if he doesnt like it he can pay 100% of the cost. this is supposed to be a free country!!! i am not going to be told how to spend the money that i work for. i cant wait until 2012 for the vast majority of the country to send him another message!!!!

But as for single-payer health care, I do not see a feasible way to make it happen without incurring some significant and long-term draw backs. Federal controlled health care would get rid of free-market competition among pharmaceutical companies and decrease quality, invention, and production. It would bog up the system like it has in Canada (see “new system needed”) and while a new system IS needed the new healthcare bill will push physicians off the map and limit the depth and extent of coverage.

I think of all the ideas listed on this page Jimmy has hit the nail on the head. There are affordable ways to provide healthcare to citizens, they just require mature and responsible candidates who are active in the quality of their healthcare. HSA’s and HDHP’s provide adequate healthcare at affordable rates but what people want is FREE healthcare!!!

Everything good in life comes at a price. You can have quality or quantity, not both. and many more cheezy cliches. If you want free or reduced cost health care it will suffer in quality that is just how life works.

In addition to our promising students being deferred from medicine, we face other travesties. America has been “stealing” FMG’s for years now. We net the most talented foreign graduates, they care for our citizens. If we lower reimbursements we will no longer incent them to come here to practice. So our citizens will lose them as an option too.

Granted the current system is pricey. How can’t it be though? The all knowing Dr. Sundwall said it himself “our capacity and technology have outstripped our ability to pay for them.” If we wish to maintain our technology and capacity, we must continue to pay for them. I fear we are headed down a terrible road. I’m just happy to know that being an attorney will allow me to afford top of the line medical treatment wherever I am. I will be able to afford to go to the small number of self-pay only health systems which will surely take rise. I doubt anyone who continues their journey through medicine will though. To all you docs out there I suggest turning your Medicare patients around at the door and saying “Call another doctor, or your congressman.”

Incentives? People’s whole perspective here is fundamentally flawed. The incentive for preventative care lies not with insurance companies, or government, or healthcare providers. The incentive for preventative care is a long healthy life! The incentive is for the individual, and rests with the individual. No one else, nor no “entity” or institution should ever have to provide an incentive, or pay, to encourage a private citizen to be healthy. This is an issue of personal responsibility, not of cost-efficacy or ratios. We live in a free country. People are free to choose to live healthy, or trash their health. They’re free to be vegetarians, or to smoke 3 packs a day for 40 years and cough up a lung and die young.

The main point is, we are free to choose our own health outcomes (barring genetics or accidents of course), and must never be forced by government to spend our hard-earned money on a commodity that they, not us, dictates to us.

Cost? This is simple supply & demand people, and you don’t need a MS in Health Policy to understand it. There is more demand for healthcare than supply right now. We need more doctors, pharmacists, nurses, techs, more drugs, more supplies, more devices. Ask yourself, honestly, what restricts the supply of these things? …government does. Government is the problem, not the solution. Most health professional schools are public. Classes are limited. Funding is limited. Debt upon graduation is astronomical. Government (FDA) regulates drug & device approval and the current system is broken – too long, too expensive, good drugs are held up, and bad drugs still get on the market. Supply is low, research incentive is low, new development is low, margins are narrow, costs are high, to everyone at every step of healthcare.

What is fair? Fair is when you as an individual make your own decisions, and pay for your own mistakes, rather than casting your responsibilities onto your neighbors.

Who deserves an exception? Veterans, the retarded, the truly disabled and indigent, American Indians, refugees, and the oldest-old. These are a vast minority of citizens, and should not dictate the direction of care for the majority. Who instead are now sucking down the majority of reasources? Lazy ghetto slobs and WT who would rather enjoy welfare than work a real job like the rest of us. Reform that first.