Comments on SICKO Michael Moore movie.

onelongsong

hippiemom wrote:

You're paying for them NOW, just more inefficiently than you might be under another system!

Cancer patients do not go untreated in this country. Yes, those who are poor are made to jump through hoops to get care, but they do get it, and you pay for it. Those who are privately insured get care more easily, and everyone who is insured by the same company helps to pay for it. It's wasteful to have dozens of public and private organizations providing duplicate services, each with it's own set of rules and paperwork that must be navigated. It requires many thousands of employees, and rest assured that at some level you are paying for all of them. It could and should be handled more efficiently, resulting in reduced costs.

the american cancer society paid my sisters bills. they work off donations and grants.

edit: how many people or organizations donate money to the government?

onelongsong

hippiemom wrote:

Why? Why do you assume that? Again I ask you, why the negativity towards America? Why do you think we are incapable of looking at the 160+ other countries in the world that provide care for all their citizens, looking at what works best and what doesn't work so well, and coming up with a brand new system?

None of the candidates who have thus far proposed a health care plan is saying "Let's expand Medicaid to cover everyone," so I don't know where you get the idea that anyone is planning to do that. I would most definitely not be in favor of that. I believe we are capable of much more.

because the 160+ other countries don't have the freedoms americans have. castro can take 90% of what a person has and thus he has the money to provide healthcare services. other countries have much higher tax structures. no matter how you look at it; the public has to pay. since everyone is not covered now; adding more people means we have to pay more to include them. medicaid is the best system we've come up with to date. if a better idea came along; we'd use it. you can't cap earnings in america. if you tell me i can't sell my product for what i want; i won't produce the product or i'll sell it overseas. i can also ship it overseas and package it there making it an import. and not subject to price regulations. i don't care who promises you universal healthcare; it won't happen in america.

hippiemom

onelongsong wrote:

because the 160+ other countries don't have the freedoms americans have. castro can take 90% of what a person has and thus he has the money to provide healthcare services. other countries have much higher tax structures. no matter how you look at it; the public has to pay. since everyone is not covered now; adding more people means we have to pay more to include them. medicaid is the best system we've come up with to date. if a better idea came along; we'd use it. you can't cap earnings in america. if you tell me i can't sell my product for what i want; i won't produce the product or i'll sell it overseas. i can also ship it overseas and package it there making it an import. and not subject to price regulations. i don't care who promises you universal healthcare; it won't happen in america.

I'm not talking about Cuba, I'm talking about Canada, Australia, Europe, where they DO have the freedoms we have. Yes, their taxes are higher, but they don't pay medical insurance premiums. If my taxes were raised $5,000 per year to cover a universal insurance plan, I'd still be saving money becuase private health insurance costs more than that .... and we could do it without increasing taxes by that much, so my savings would be even bigger.

onelongsong

hippiemom wrote:

I'm not talking about Cuba, I'm talking about Canada, Australia, Europe, where they DO have the freedoms we have. Yes, their taxes are higher, but they don't pay medical insurance premiums. If my taxes were raised $5,000 per year to cover a universal insurance plan, I'd still be saving money becuase private health insurance costs more than that .... and we could do it without increasing taxes by that much, so my savings would be even bigger.

i hope you're right. my meds are $2623.00/month without insurance. they have been since my surgery 25 years ago. prior to 2 years ago they were higher but we dropped one Rx. they've been working on universal healthcare since the 70's from what i remember. all the great minds have come up with so far is medicaid; but i do hope you're right.
on another note; i keep my money offshore because every other country's taxes are much higher than the us. that's what my lawyer says anyway.

hippiemom

onelongsong wrote:

i hope you're right. my meds are $2623.00/month without insurance. they have been since my surgery 25 years ago. prior to 2 years ago they were higher but we dropped one Rx. they've been working on universal healthcare since the 70's from what i remember. all the great minds have come up with so far is medicaid; but i do hope you're right.
on another note; i keep my money offshore because every other country's taxes are much higher than the us. that's what my lawyer says anyway.

The great minds have come up with much better ideas than Medicaid, but there aren't a lot of great minds passing legislation in D.C. ... the politicians have thus far always fucked it up, so Medicaid is what we wound up with for the poor. Medicare is actually very cost-efficient and doesn't have many of the problems that Medicaid has, in part because we in this country don't have the same desire to punish the elderly the way we seem to enjoy punishing the poor. It's certainly not a perfect system, but it is proof that we can do better than Medicaid, because we do it every day. I believe that we can also do better than Medicare. We don't lack the resources, what we've lacked has been the political will. The people need to DEMAND this of their representatives ... the only way the political will for an efficient and equitable system will ever exist is if we demand it and make it clear that our representatives in government will be seeking other employment if they don't provide it. And you're right, Medicaid for all would be a travesty, our reps need to know that is not what we're demanding.