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Any one see sicko or read this article? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7157980.stm

I have worked since I was fifteen. Now my heath is completely ruined and I am disabled because I live in a country where worthiness for treatment is based solely on money. If I were French or English, I'd be well and still productive. If I lived a tiny bit further north, in Canada, I wouldn't have spent ten years trying to get someone to take my illness seriously and remove my tumor colony. (We named it Herberton, as Herbert seemed a good name for a tumor and I had a village of them the approximate size and shape of my brain. I friend suggested we just leave it in and having two brains, I could become a super genius.)

In the current Us system, preventable contagious disease is starting to spread because people can't afford proper health care and medication.

People keep pointing to how expensive and inefficient 'socialized' medicine is. No one has yet explained to me how no health care is better than some health care. No one has successfully explained to me how nearly letting me die, undermining my health, and rendering me permanently disabled is more cost effective than a simple operation 12 years ago when I was still reasonably healthy that would have likely extended my tax paying productivity by four decades.

What really burns me is McCain's plan: he wants to give a 2,500.00 tax credit. 1. That's not enough to pay for private insurance. 2. It does nothing at all for the working poor. All it's doing is giving a tax credit to people who already have insurance which generally doesn't protect them anyway.

Insurance companies are for profit, so it's in their best interest to deny necessary tests and medical procedures. If we get rid of insurance companies entirely and fully funded everyone's health care, it would cost roughly half what it does now under the for profit system. Yes, it would suck for insurance companies and their employees, but the job loss is much lower than what we lose to preventable illness and curable diseases.

Butt teh guvarnmunt! Tehy be steelin' mah hard urned moniez!

I hate libertarians.

Universal health care can only work properly in America if it's a single payer independent system operator. Non for profit, but not run directly by our government which is notorious for inefficient usage of resources and corruption.

New York Independent Systems Operator is a brilliant example of how an independent system operator works. NYSIO runs a power marketplace for New York State's power needs (as pertains to electricity only, I believe, but may cover other types.)

This company is not for profit and it runs the marketplace with bidding systems in place, allowing each power company to compete for providing NY's power. NYSIO also regulates the power flow, monitors the system overall and accounts for weather issues and such.

It does a brilliant job and doesn't cut costs in stupid ways like a for profit group would.

So I think that a similar system that provided universal health care would not be subject to the issues with the government corruption, bureaucratic slowdowns and profit scrounging.

It even makes the Libertarians happy because it's a private company. ^^

And not covering anything unless specifically stated. Come in with a gun shot wound? Sorry, you're only rated for stabbings.

Proof that higher taxes means happier people:

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=4086092&page=1

People in Denmark are the happiest people in the world, and they also have the highest taxes in the world.

Which makes Utilitarianism a really hard ethical system to follow or describe.

The problem with our health care system (US) is that health care is being treated as business. Even if you do have coverage they don't always cover you or raise your rates so they can continue to make more money. My bff is having an issue with his insurance provider or his inhaler. He was actually but on a respirator when he was very young because of how bad his lungs are. Lucky for him he's well enough where he just needs an inhaler. Unfortunately his insurance provider denied him coverage for the inhaler (even with a doctor's note) because he's "too young" to have this type of health problem. Universal health care wouldn't have a choice and he would be healthier.

I understand that universal health care raises taxes, but it is something that we all need and use, much like the police or fire department. All of which are far to expensive for one person or family to cover all the costs. Taxes are an unfortunate but necessary part of life. Sad thing is universal health care only really works (or even passes) in collective societies. The US is an individualist society and because of that we will never or it is highly unlikely that we will have universal health care.

HI've watched a lot of Republicans sound some variation of "Do you really want health care run by the same people who run the Post office?" To them I say hell yes. at the price of a non- peak time 15 min wait and $2.11, I can send a small package to the PNW that will arrive tomorrow or the day after. The wait is maybe half an hour if I go at peak time. The same package takes 2-3 days to California. I can send it the same price to anywhere in north America and it will arrive in 3-5 days. I can send it to Europe for about twice that and have it arrive in a week. I can send it to Australia or South East Asia and expect it there in 1-2 weeks. My mail arrives in my mail box regularly. The USPS delivery woman brings packages right to my door and rings the bell, then waits a reasonable time to answer, then rings a second time before leaving. In all three branch offices I deal with regularly, the people working there are polite and easy to deal with with the exception of one guy new to working up front who is grumpy because he's still learning the system.

Compare this to the more expensive commercial services, who's delivery people don't ring the bell despite a clearly posted sign, wait the count of three than leave. I have a hard time making it from sofa to door in that time and must yell after them and beg them to return. There is no chance at all of me catching them if I'm not right there. I can't leave the living room at all during business hours on days parcels are expected or risk things getting returned to sender. Fed Ex, often doesn't bother delivering to the door either as they don't feel finding my actual street, let alone the street address. Instead, they will pick a random home in the general area, drop off the paxckage there, and hope the citizens there will get around to delivering the package, all for significantly more expense.

Seriously, I vastly prefer cheap, efficient healthcare to expensive and wildly inefficient private insurance. Private insurance takes people's money and refuses to cover them, then drops them when they get sick. It costs something like four times what single payer would. The analogy is apt. yes, the PO has huge lines at Christmas, and you do need to wait then, but the line is long because the PO is safe, fast, cheap, and reliable. I'm okay with waiting in that line two months out of the year, for the convenience generally. I already need to wait three to four months for a dental appointment under the private system. i'm not convinced it would be worse under a public one.