National health insurance.

[RubberFrog]

Re: National health insurance.

...The need to have a gazillion children due to infant mortality is way past in the western hemisphere....

I think the western hemisphere is way past the point where permiscuous tramps need to continue murdering their children when we have a dearth of pregnancy prevention options available.

 

[18rabbit]

Re: National health insurance.

Who gets turned away at the ER? Nobody.

People turned away at the ER are people deemed not yet ER’d enough, i.e. people with basal cell carcinoma, a slow growing skin cancer that is fairly uneventful…until it metastasizes. These people are not admitted to the ER. BCC is easy to treat (remove) but after 20-years or so and it metastasizes and cancers are growing in a bunch of vital organs the person will be admitted to the ER for pain management while they die.

The notion that people that truly have a need for medical attention will get it because hospitals are not allowed to turn away someone with a medical need is a fallacy.

During the 3 years between group insurance and Medicare (62 to 65) I paid roughly half of my assets (about a quarter million bux) for major medical problems that others who had no assets got free. To me, that was just bad luck.

It kind of goes beyond just bad luck. Recently in Japan I purchased over $300 of prescription medications…for $17. Keep in mind that everyone, the (US) drug companies, the importer/distributor, and the pharmacy all made their fair profits from the sell of these medications.

My position against a need to regulate drug companies is changing. Anyone that wants to argue the diff in prices ($300 vs $17) is because of the need to fund research can talk to the hand.

 

[Haut Medoc]

Re: National health insurance.

:devil: advocate.....

Sorry I pizzed so many people off, I should have clearly spelled out "Devil's Advocate".....
FTR, I do think that the most irresponsible people have the most kids.....
Irresponsible parents will most likely have irresponsible children through their own example.....
I agree, Frog.....
With so many viable options there should be no need.....JK

 

[treedancer]

Re: National health insurance.

Quote roscoe

Now, back to the original question.
Show me any government program that is run more effectively or efficiently than its private sector counterpart.

You ask I provide, here is one good example of modernization don’t you think Roscoe?

Technology has transformed the VA
Veterans' hospitals used to be a byword for second-rate care or worse. Now, thanks to technology, they're national leaders in efficiency and quality.

By David Stires, FORTUNE writer
May 11, 2006: 2:44 PM EDT

The veterans' health system is the one that stands out because for much of its history it was considered a treacherous backwater offering below-par care in substandard facilities. A low point came in 1992 when the decomposed bodies of three missing patients were found near a military hospital in Salem, Va., a discovery that triggered a federal probe that uncovered lax oversight at several facilities. The VA's poor reputation even seeped into pop culture. In the 1989 film "Born on the Fourth of July," Tom Cruise, who plays a wounded Vietnam vet languishing in a wretched facility in the Bronx, shouts, "This place is a fxxxxx' slum!"


http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/05/15/8376846/


Looking at this from another angle, Researchers estimate that a reduction in mortality of 5% to
15% could be achieved if the uninsured were to gain continuous health coverage. The Institute of Medicine
estimates that at least 18,000 Americans die prematurely each year because they lack health coverage.

Lets not assume that all of these people are on Medicaid and unemployed, they are for the most part taxpayers like you and I. So to me that mean’s that 18000 American taxpayers die annually that could have been saved, to pay more taxes like the rest of us.

As well as exacting an indirect toll on society in terms of more disability, lower productivity, and increased burden on the health care system. I think the figure is closer to 50 million uninsured, counting all uninsured. That is close to one in six people.

This isn’t a left, right thing, it is something that should be taken care of as Americans, we can do better than what we have now. Put political ideologies aside for a bit, lets hear some positive suggestions.