The Associated Press: Europe's free, state-run health care has drawbacks

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moving this to relaxing lounge

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Posterior Fornix!

ValueMD Moderator

My oh my......where to begin.......

Let's start at the top and work our way down. Free? Sorry....no....not free...no way, no how. Can't be. In fact health care is and will be extremely expensive. I don't believe there will ever be any way around that. In terms of time and resources it simply requires a great deal and by definition must. How much that costs in terms of money can be managed, but that is only one aspect of something that requires a great deal of resources in human terms.

Overhaul the American health care system? There is no American health care system. There are in fact many systems in operation. What he seeks to do is create one. I would say that the role of insurance is more at the heart of the debate than the role of government. The role of government is secondary. In fact the current role of government seems to be to put the role of insurance first.

Good. There simply should be no exclusion. Nobody should be left out. One's status in such terms has nothing to do with their health. The only way that such a thing should be managed is by enforcement of immigration laws. Health care personnel should not be responsible for enforcing immigration law. In terms of doctors and nurses doing so would be a violation of their ethical obligations.

Um....bull. Great hospitals? Sure, OK. They are modern nations, of course they have great hospitals. Great strides? No way. They are losing their battle with obesity, the rate is actually growing. Heart disease? Same thing.

Political? Yes. Some cases? Well, that's an unsubstatiated qualitative statement....but I would apply the term MANY where the author states "some".

Sorry, no. He intends to introduce an insurance based and insurance run system. Big business will be in charge, a big business that in a notorious economic parasite.

Clearly this is an overt and severe flaw. We cannot stand for this in the US.

Critics? I would say this is simply reality. The reality is that in most cases the same specialists that patients can't get in to see because they are too busy will see patients privately during their private clinic hours for cash. Basically, if you want at the head of the line you pay. It is thinly veiled legalized bribery. This seems to be a continuing theme in socialism.

And yet people here in the US ask "How are we going to pay for universal health care?" WE CAN ALREADY AFFORD IT. In fact we can afford it and still pay doctors and nurses well, their incomes need not be threatened, yet they are very much threatened. Remove the economic parasite of insurance from the formula and that is easily seen. Instead, the politicians can't see a health system without it. That is a serious problem. They are about to not only reinforce the entrenchment of the insurance industry in the US but actually put them in charge. Health care we can afford, it is health care insurance we can't afford, because that industry is nothing but an economic parasite.

The article goes on, but I will stop there to emphasize that point. The hard cold reality is that enough money has been available in the US to provide health care for all, but most of it is wasted. Most. Not some, most. More than that, my estimation is that there is enough money spent to provide the "best" care possible and properly pay those actually providing that care.

The strategy has been to spend a great deal of money attempting to spend less on actual health care and the intention of current planning is to exaggerate that scheme.

As long as there as even one person that cannot get the care they need, whether it be treatment or preventive, any penny spent on reducing costs is not legitimate. As long as any person is denied any care or is limited in their access to that care any penny spent on the army of people whose job it is to deny claims is not only wasteful but in my view criminal in the core sense.

Health care is not and cannot be free, it is expensive. But the wonderful reality is that we are so lucky in this country to be able to afford that, we really can. What we have to decide is if we wish to spend that money on bureaucracy and parasitic insurance or on actual health care. Seems like an easy decision to me. The problem is that we have politicians who cannot see this, who refuse to see it. They would prefer to give our money away to parasitic businesses like insurance companies.

The problem isn't having the government involved, the problem is that the politicians are running the government and they are not suited for the role. Worse, they are not intended to be in that role in this country. Even worse than that, they are intending to put a parasitic industry in charge of health care. This nation is intended to be in the hands of the People. Health care should be in the hands of the People. Overly idealistic? I think not, but one need not agree with me. The reality is undeniable. Politicians and big business will get fatter by denying you the care you need.

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Insurance is good, not always..