i'm going to cut through the bullshit of nationwide health care with one paragraph

[rone]

In many ways, foreign health-care models are not really "foreign" to America, because our crazy-quilt health-care system uses elements of all of them. For Native Americans or veterans, we're Britain: The government provides health care, funding it through general taxes, and patients get no bills. For people who get insurance through their jobs, we're Germany: Premiums are split between workers and employers, and private insurance plans pay private doctors and hospitals. For people over 65, we're Canada: Everyone pays premiums for an insurance plan run by the government, and the public plan pays private doctors and hospitals according to a set fee schedule. And for the tens of millions without insurance coverage, we're Burundi or Burma: In the world's poor nations, sick people pay out of pocket for medical care; those who can't pay stay sick or die.

If there are problems within the Obama Administration's healthcare plan, let's identify them and argue about them.  But let's knock off the goddamn FUD.  The Red Scare's been over for decades, OK?

Comments

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I would certainly not characterize it as 'ramrodding' anymore (http://comics.com/mike_luckovich/2009-09-01/). And while it takes decades to effect social change, some things simply need to be done first; how they're done can be debated, of course, but watching the GOP clown parade of active resistance and passive-to-incipient alternatives is not inspiring democracy in action (to say nothing of the petulant infighting in the Democratic Praty).

[h-postmortemus.livejournal.com]

I think the infighting shows that it's not a simple issue.

For those who have no insurance because they can't afford it, especially those who have low income and don't pay much in taxes, public healthcare is a great deal. For someone like me who gets his health coverage through work and pays quite a lot of taxes, it's worth exactly jack shit.

I think Health Insurance Reform is a damn good idea. Health insurance companies shouldn't be able to turn down coverage for literally life-saving treatments. If that irks them, they shouldn't have ever gotten in the damned business.

OTOH, a health insurance company can't make a profit without charging something more than cost. And since America is based on capitalism at all layers, you can't ever control healthcare costs without doing something extraordinary, such as outlawing profitability of all medical-related expenditures. Again, radical social change, can't be done all at once.

Ultimately, what's needed is advances in medical science that equate to Moore's Law. So that eventually, what is considered expensive treatment by current standards (i.e. open heart surgery, organ transplant, cancer therapy) is routine, cheap, OTC crap. The best path for that is nanotech.

Whatever healthcare reform that comes out of this will be a deformed half-breed and cause more harm than good. Obama needs to drop the idea and focus on other areas that need attention, such as America's sliding-into-the-sewer education system.