Healthcare!

Private healthcare? No. Firstly, I feel like that violates human rights to healthcare.
The public health care system is better.

 

I have to say that the American system is very crappy and unfair.

As an example: I need to have blood drawn monthly while I take an acne medication. The first month, I had a CBC count along with a lipid and metabolic panel done. The laboratory billed my insurance over $200. That is the same amount I would have had to pay if I were uninsured. Well, after taking care of "network discounts" and other negotiated rates, my insurance only paid about $35 for the blood tests. I didn't pay a dime because it was covered, but if I had been uninsured the lab would probably not have accepted $35 for what they deemed were $200 worth of charges.

I see the benefit of a national or public health insurance because it helps everyone essentially get "group rates" on health services.

If you call public health insurance "socialized medicine," you better be ready to call farm insurance/agricultural subsidies, public education, and Medicare "socialized farming," "socialized education," and "socialized elderly health insurance."

 

Public, please. Even with health insurance I still feel like I pay a fortune for any kinds of testing and many kinds of treatment. I've had enough of people claiming that there are too many who will "play the system" or be "carried" by everyone else. I'm far more concerned with the amount of people unable to afford the care they need.

 

This. The United states did sign off on the Universal Declaration of human rights, but only just recently have we started with the affordable health care act to get closer to what we are promised by that document.

 

I've never heard it officially described as a human right over here. Not saying it isn't, though I guess it is sort of implied by rights to life and the pursuit of happiness. But honestly nothing in American legislation says we have a right to health care.

As for whether or not it's better, I agree we should have health care available to everyone. It's just a matter of making it happen. Right now the private system leads to much misery, but the ACA (Obamacare) system is total crap as well. I wish we had a system which works as smoothly as it needs to.

 

It's in the Declaration of Human Rights, which I think the US recently signed.

 

This. I finally got on a state program insurance and basically, for the first time ever- I can finally afford routine exams. If I didn't have insurance, I basically couldn't afford to get sick at all.

 

Public health care. I think it should be a right and not something that you should have to pay for. I know my family and a lot of other poor families have had to not get treatment when they were sick/hurt even when they needed it because they couldn't afford it, and I don't think that's right.

 

$900 ambulance bill for a 0.9 mile non-emergency trip at late night.

cool stuff tho tbh if i had full health coverage i would have stayed in the psychiatric ward that ambulence took me too for a lot longer but well $900 ambulance bill

 

Make it free for everyone. I don't know what's scarier. Having a major operation, or getting the bill afterwards! :S

 

Public sector for sure.

 

Why don't we just let the free market take care of it? ALL OF IT!

 

One of the biggest issues with free markets and healthcare is information asymmetry. It is very hard to shop around for prices for health procedures. When you are having a procedure done, it's not like you can shop around for the best hospital and the one that would charge you what is considered "fair market value."

 

I'd love to agree with you, but some people need varying levels of varying services. The free market is awesome for nonessential things, but I doubt it would provide fair pricing for everything.

^^Whoever mentioned the Declaration of Human Rights, I did not know about that. Cool.

 

If anybody thinks that socialized medicine is a bad thing or that America's current healthcare system is fine, watch Michael Moore's Sicko and tell me if you still feel the same way.

 

I'm torn on this. If it were public, it would have to be paid through taxes. In socialist countries the taxes tend to be rather high. I don't think the majority of people in this country would be able to pay those taxes. Many people seem to think that if something is "free" that it is 100% free. I don't want to see people outraged over that misunderstanding. It might work if we had a progressive tax system, but those of a higher income would get mad about that. There are a lot of people in this country that seem to be against socialism, so any step or notion into that direction would be met with some form of anger.

 

As someone who cannot afford healthcare I vote for public. It was a fight to get me to go when I hurt my hand at work even though I knew workers comp would cover it.

 

Is the american health care that bad?

 

some of this would be covered by insurance/charities if you seek them out but yeah it's ridiculous in the first place


if i get really really sick i basically have to pay $150 to get a quick doctor's note to get excused from work, but i don't often have $150 sitting around so it's "call in and hope they don't get pissed/get fired" or "go to work sick"