This is an attempt at reasoned discussion, please don’t answer until you’ve read everything and then please respond point-by-point. Thanks!
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Paying for other people’s care: Insurance rates are based on how many people in the whole plan get sick…if you take care of yourself and never get sick, 100% of your money will go to funding care for strangers who possibly don’t take care of their health. I have also heard the argument that people should just go the emergency room, but the people who do this are generally not concerned with their credit score and are not going to ever pay for the thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars in care for a serious illness. ER care is the most expensive form of care available and you are currently bearing this cost through taxes.
Rationed care: Again, if you have private insurance you are already in a pool with other people who are insured by an organization with a fixed amount of money to spend on everyone’s care. There are two important differences, however; a private insurer has a profit motive to find ways to deny coverage while the government does not. In fact the elected officials who are behind the system know that they can always be voted out of office, so they have a motive to make sure people are getting what they need. Do you really think all those other industrialized Western countries with full universal coverage routinely deny care to all elderly people, and everyone just accepts it because they’re wacky foreigners who don’t have any feelings??
Death Panels: This seems to refer to one of two things, either a panel to determine whether someone is worthy of living or a consultation with a doctor to discuss a dying family member’s care. In the first case, see above. In the second case, this is what normal people already do regardless of where the doctor’s money is coming from. In the proposed legislation, such a consultation is OPTIONAL. In any case if you are worried about people dying, then why aren’t you worried about the estimated tens of thousands of people who die every single year due to preventable illness and lack of coverage? http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=1RJ&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&ei=Rs2TS8KNBcGUtgft4KzUCg&sa=X&oi=spellfullpage&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=2&ved=0CAYQvwUoAQ&&q=die+every+year+lack+coverage&spell=1
Adding to the budget: The United States currently spends significantly more on health care as a percentage of GDP than almost any of the industrialized nations with universal health care. http://www.rwjf.org/pr/product.jsp?id=45110. The total cost of implementation is projected to be between 0-0 billion, but this will pay for itself many times over in the long run. Keep in mind the projected total cost of the war against a country that never attacked us, had no ties to al qaeda, and no WMD’s, is THREE TRILLION dollars and we will never get this money back. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=M7d&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=projected+total+cost+iraq+war&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=
Changing the "best system in the world": I have yet to be told what this is based on, other than anecdotes about foreigners coming to the U.S. for surgery. However, quality and access are two completely different things. It’s true that the best doctors in the world come here, but that does little for the people who have no health coverage whatsoever. Yes people can go to the ER, but then we’re back to Point #1. The fact is that the U.S. has a lower life expectancy than the Western industrialized nations with full universal coverage, and although this is not 100% due to the health care systems it certainly damages the argument that universal coverage kills people. Keep in mind that universal coverage is not even being remotely contemplated here. I have heard arguments about "back-door universal coverage" by preventing people from ever getting private insurance again once they go onto the public option, but this is quite confusing considering that a public option is not even in the legislation currently being blocked from even coming to a vote. Maybe someone can explain this too.
Thank you for making it this far, I look forward to intelligent responses.
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"bmovies6"
The government has a motive to be fiscally responsible, not to MAKE A MAXIMUM PROFIT.
Link for your Medicare claim?
And when market forces cause all the private insurers have roughly the same rates of denial, where are you going to go?
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"Pelosi’s Water Boy"
I didn’t realize Cuba was a Western industrialized nation….
"GoGo Girls"
I actually agree with you on everything about immigration…too bad this question was about health care.
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"CaptainO"
It’s been awhile since I’ve heard the "public option will be so cheap and such great service that it will put the private companies out of business" argument. Silly goose, don’t you remember that the public option will be awful because the government can’t run anything right?
MAKE UP YOUR MIND
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