Recent exchange:
The liberal - Medicare E [for ALL]. FRENCH/SOCIALIST/COMMUNIST/FASCIST/NON-FATTENING/GREEN/BLUE/TALL/SHORT/LOW IQ, HIGH IQ/'DECIDER'/DARTH-VADER Health care for every human being who is in the United States, even the people who handle our food daily, and may not have correct documentation.
Another conservative - Are you saying that for the price of a ticket to the good old USA anyone in the World can come for whatever’s ailing them? That would sure simplify and economize health care for all other countries – even France.
Liberal replying to the plane ticket question - Yes. That is the way that most industrialized countries do it. We, for those in the upper-incomes, have good to very good health care. There are problems with all systems, but in other "industrialized/western" countries - you do not go bankrupt because of illnesses, and you do not die because insurance companies deny you money - to go to doctors/hospitals/etc. And when people use the "ER" as their primary doctor - boy is that expensive. And we pay for it. AND we are at a compeitive economic disadvantage VS countires who have a "national" plan, because the countries pay for much/most of the medical procedures, not individual companies - which they have in countries that have forms of socialism - as we do here.
Me - Shame 50% of Dr’s have to refuse Medicare patients because our own government is too corrupt or incompetent to pay the bills. Socialism and Collectivism fails every time it’s tried!
Liberal - Shame the United States is ranked in the mid-30s by the WHO in various categories of "health quality;" "for-profit-health" is an oxymoron. [Who was the "smartest person" of the 20th Century? Who wrote the "Pledge of Allegience?] Hint - both were Socialists
Me - The WHO lies, plain and simple. How many of the upper 30 countries have cured a disease lately? How many have developed a new drug? How many have developed a new technology? Not Cuba, Not Canada, Not England. I thank G_D every day I live here, not there.
The world depends on the innovation and success of the US system. The US system pays for 99.9% of the AIDS drugs that go to Africa. 750 Million people disagree with you Len.
England, Canada, and Australia are moving back to ‘fee for service’ Health Care.
Our country is flat out BROKE, Obama is a great street hustler, but we have zero money. We need to be less like Europe, not more. We left Europe for reason!
Liberal - Allen, I have not heard that the WHO lies before. Let's start with your first sentence. [This is not an Abbott and Costello routine.] Who said WHO lies? Do you have documentation? And if it does lie, that's one hell of of a big lie, from the 'top' in health care, to battling Slovenia.
Me - “Who said WHO lies? Do you have documentation?”
XXX, stop dreaming about utopia and start thinking about reality. I can’t get to the WHO website here, but isn’t Costa Rica, Columbia and Dominican Republic ranked above US? How could this be true? How much more likely are you to survive the flu in the US than the DR? Obviously biased ‘rankings’ will not help your argument here.
Take the 30 countries that outrank us. What are their accomplishments?
I’m sorry, but I don’t believe for a second that the US doesn’t offer some of the best health care in the World. Expansion of Medicare and eliminating the insurance industry will only make things worse. Currently 45% of Dr.’s refuse to take new Medicare patients because .gov can’t pay their bills. When I was Mexico, I broke a tooth. I had the opportunity to visit a local dentist. No novacaine, no gloves, just “this is going to sting”. No thanks XXX.
Another conservative (mocking the lib) - It’s sounding to me like we can have health care for everyone for the price of an airline ticket – not a bad deal!
Liberal - This is a perplexing problem. My view is that we would be a better/safer/stronger nation if all medical [and related] were covered as if we were one. But we also have to address: taxes, individual responsibility, fairness, morality, and down the list. I think there are more advantages, than disadvantages, to a single-payer system. No system, by definition, is going to address it perfectly, or even near perfectly. The current system works for a goodly proportion of residents of the United States, but it leaves the vast majority of us in mortal danger [from insurances], and a certain percentage of us - just get no, or poor, or late care.
I am having more and more days that I am losing my cool talking to liberals. Not long ago I could debate, keep my cool, and get a few swipes in. Now that I am realizing that, our liberty is slipping away faster than ever, I am getting angrier and angrier. Combine the mistakes of GWB with direction of the Obamabots, we are left with a giant xxxx-sandwich!