Health Care

[Lleauaric~EW]

"why should we pay for other people's health care".

whats so ironic is that is the very idea behind insurance.

[GrobbeeTrull2.0]

Originally Posted by Chrisb3

BBC reported yesterday that the US are using the UK health care system as an example of why not to have free health care?

We pay 50% less for health care than Americans, we are higher up the WHO league table by about 15 places...
And we don't have "death boards" that decide if you can have treatment or not, yet again Sarah Palin is a retard.
The NHS wouldn't leave Stephen Hawking to die either, in fact the NHS is where he got his treatment.
No system is perfect, and we have our fair share of short term problems but it's quite weird to see all your right wing nuts demonizing the UK

I actually found it quite sickening to see Americans saying "why should we pay for other people's health care".
The UK is a very charitable nation, I don't think anyone here who has been healthy 100% of their life cares if they paid a little extra tax to save other people's lives.

Hey, don't just say all Americans, because I'd kill a man for your healthcare system.

[Agraza]

Originally Posted by GrobbeeTrull2.0

Hey, don't just say all Americans, because I'd kill a man for your healthcare system.

I have a list you can take a shot at.

[Vinen]

Originally Posted by GrobbeeTrull2.0

Hey, don't just say all Americans, because I'd kill a man for your healthcare system.

You know, if it was anyone but you. I'd agree.. but given that you have more or less proven to everyone on this forum you are a waste of human space. It would be nicer if you did the world a favor and shot yourself in the face. I'd be fine paying for others health care if they were useful human beings or didn't have any means of helping themselves.

"why should we pay for other people's health care".

whats so ironic is that is the very idea behind insurance

So damn true-

[Mist]

That is the great irony. Health care is already basically a tax, a tax you pay to some private company that then tries to deny your coverage whenever possible. And these private insurance companies already have "death panels" that can choose when to cut off the money to keep you alive.

[Chrisb3]

I didn't say all Americans, I said Americans.
Like if I said that zombie bears are attacking my house, I don't mean all zombie bears.

The silly thing is that anyone rich enough to have private health care has it no matter were in the world they live. They also have enough money to pay for a poor mother to have a tumor removed without them noticing the loss - they won't bother protesting in the streets either.

So the people carrying anti NHS flags in the USA are the ones being screwed by insurance companies - why would they rather have the "tax" go on admin and shareholders rather than people who desperately need treatment?

Alot of Americans seem to have a batshit insane self sufficiency mentality. Maybe the USA would start to approach first world standards of living for more than 50% of the population if people helped each other out more often.

[Araxen]

Uh oh...

Grassley Voted For So-Called "Death Panel" In 2003

[Zhaun's_Shade]

Originally Posted by Chrisb3

Alot of Americans seem to have a batshit insane self sufficiency mentality. Maybe the USA would start to approach first world standards of living for more than 50% of the population if people helped each other out more often.

They are called Republicans here.

[Ashes Emberblade]

Originally Posted by Mist

Except your perspective is fucking retarded.
PS: You're stupid.

Calling people names on the internet wins arguments.

[CnCGOD]

Originally Posted by Lleauaric~EW

"why should we pay for other people's health care".

whats so ironic is that is the very idea behind insurance.

Actualy its nowhere near the same...


Its like 1/2 the people paying 2x as much for insurance and the other 1/2 paying nothing.

[Heavens_Myst]

Yeah the driving force behind insurance is that you don't know who's going to win and who's going to get screwed before hand.

[Lyenae]

Originally Posted by Heavens_Myst

Yeah the driving force behind insurance is that you don't know who's going to win and who's going to get screwed before hand.

It's a gamble for both parties, the policy holder and the company. The point is, the insurance company takes so many gambles with the odds stacked slightly in their favor, that just like a casino, they end up winning in the long term.

Through lobbying, insurance companies have gained from regulations, subsidies, monopoly like exclusions, and other benefits they milked from government, they have increased those odds heavily in their favor. That's not the "free market"'s fault like many here are claiming. That's governmental incompetence in disallowing free market mechanisms to reign in costs. A free market will reign in profits, that's one of the main mechanisms behind it. If a product is extremely profitable, more companies will jump in to provide that product, and bring costs down through competition. If there's no competition, costs won't change.

Government, as is, will not change their involvement in restricting free market mechanisms. Health care, on top of that, is a huge supply vs demand problem. There's extreme demand for health care, and the supply of it is very low. By creating a governmental health care package, you take demand to a whole new level as many more people will be able to afford it, and you reduce supply as profits sink across the board. That will only make it worse.

[earthfell]

Did you just say a public option will make things worse?

[Zhaun's_Shade]

Originally Posted by earthfell

Did you just say a public option will make things worse?

Did you just bother to take one of his posts seriously?

[Lyenae]

How is the government going to raise the supply of health care to counter increased general demand from a public option? Are they going to build 100's of new hospitals, train doctors to high levels of competency by the 1000's, nurses by the 10,000's?