I am not going to write a long post on this topic. But I will say this about Nationalized Health Care, I believe it will run into the same problems Medicare has. Abuse, fraud and a lower standard of service associated with a one pay system. Plus socialized medicine will never be able to sustain itself. Goodness the government couldn’t even run the post office, they had to outsource it.
Politicians and news media types always quote a figure…45 million Americans without health care. How do they know? Of that number, do they bother to ask the question…How many of you were offered health benefits by your employers, but were too selfish to sign-up for health benefits because you did not want to pay a portion of the premium. I know some people do not have health care benefits with their employer, but some do and refuse it.
I personally know people who work for companies that offer health care plans, but they refuse them claiming they can’t afford it. The problem with that rationale is…I see these same people running to Starbucks every day for their latte. Or they come into work with new clothes every week.
I want to know the answer to that question. How many refuse their employers health plan? So when you quote the statistic on how many Americans do not have health benefits, beware, numbers can lie.
Currently the majority of the people in this country pay taxes to help support those who refuse to work. So let’s pick a number– say 65% of the working class support 35% of those who cannot or will not work. If we continue down this road of nationalizing health care and even industry, pretty soon, we will have 40% working and 60% not working, and then 35% working and 65% not working. Pretty soon I won’t even be able to support myself with the income I make…then what?
Nationalization is not the answer to our health care problems…it is only the beginning of our health care problems.
Most of the people I know that have emigrated here from a socialized country say the main reason they came to the United States was to get away from socialism. Ask them…they will tell you…they got sick of the government taking 55-60% of their income. Watch out people, nationalizing health care is an accident waiting to happen.
I come from a very poor background. My parents had four children and started a small cafe when they were first married. Health care benefits…are you kidding? So I do know what it is like not to have health benefits. But my parents will tell you, that they worked damn hard for everything they got…and that is exactly what they passed on to their children. A sense of responsibility–not a sense of entitlement.
I normally pass on political posts but I did want to stop to ask the question, “What is the answer?” What we have isn’t working so what will? Their are lot’s of people all over the country with GOOD healthcare who are filing bankruptcy because they can’t afford the copay or are hitting their lifetime limit for their disease. And these are people who worked hard and did everything right??? I am just curious about your thoughts on what will work?
I personally believe that we all should purchase our health insurance policies directly from the insurance companies. When my husband was thinking of quitting his job I researched the cost of health insurance for him and I found the premium very reasonable, considerably cheaper than what it would cost us to insure him on my employer’s policy.
I have also heard from several other people they have discovered the same thing. A previous co-worker started his own consulting business and had to go out and find insurance for him and his family (wife and three children). He also found that the cost to insure him and his family was half as expensive as his portion of the premium with our employer. Which is amazing considering that our employer paid his share of the premium so he was just paying the premiums for his family.
I think we all need to rethink health care benefits. For some reason a lot of Americans think the government is supposed to bail us out and support us at the detriment of everything else.
Recently a friend said to me…”health care benefits should be a right”. I disagree, I think health care benefits is a privilege. One we should all work for.
Just my humble opinion.
Nationalizing health care will lower the standard of care for everyone. Oh wait, not everyone. People who are wealthy will always have access to what they want. But when people who work hard to earn their income start paying for people who don’t – our healthcare issues will only get worse. Maybe we should fix the welfare system first and get more people working so they can afford their own healthcare. That’s what the U.S. has always been about, hard work, reward for that work – and personal responsibility. When on earth did it become the governments job to make sure my kids get their ear infections treated? It’s not. The more people have their hands out and the government is the one giving them what they need, the more power the government has. And they, not you, will decide what ailments you can have treated and which you cannot.
Check out Canada and the U.K. and find out how long it takes to get simple tests we take for granted. Or hobble around on a broken bone for a week and a half because they can’t get you in for surgery any sooner. My father had an aggressive form of colon cancer so I opted to have a colonoscopy at age 45. I couldn’t get that in Canada, it wouldn’t be approved. Can’t have one there until you’re 50. It’s ridiculous. The idea that the U.S. can somehow do national healthcare better than these other countries is a dangerous and arrogant theory. And – completely wrong.
Thank you BetteJo, I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Nationalized healthcare is just one more step towards socialism for this country. Just one more example of Obama’s spreading of the wealth.
My husband pays a good portion of his health insurance premiums. And we have an FSA account. We want to keep the insurance that we have. I think that if we have to go onto a one payer plan (which is eventually what is going to happen) we will see the benefits that we have now go away.
We aren’t rich, far from it. But we choose to make our health insurance benefits one of our first priorities. I hate, resent, whatever other word you want to put in there, being told what we have to have for insurance by what is becoming a bigger and bigger Nanny Country. What is next, what you can eat, drink, say? I feel like our lives are being taken over little by litte, because someone else always knows better what we need or want.