In the Near Future We Will Have Universal Healthcare

[stepnw1f]

Sweet Revenge!!!!! :evilgrin:

[jaxx]

1. Bring it on!

How many people do you know who don't go to the doctor because they can't afford the office calls? This has got to stop.

[Telly Savalas]

2. Fuck revenge.

If the United States were actually governed with rational policy, I'd be too happy for all the people that benefit to waste the usage of any synapses to carry thoughts about the ass-clowns running things now.

[Canuckistanian]

3. It's been done before!

[newswolf56]

14. Great flag picture! n/t

[Canuckistanian]

17. Thanks.

I like it. Although it's a totally random pick, as it came from Google images.
:hi:

[newswolf56]

20. Every time I see something like that, it reminds me of how close I came...

to immigrating to Canada in the late '60s and early '70s -- this because Canadian journalism is so much less censored than its U.S. counterpart. I have strong family ties to Canadian history, though my actual (known) relatives there are now all dead, but at the time, especially with my U.S. military obligation already honorably fulfilled, it would have been easy. Then Ottawa passed that damn law against hiring Americans...

Even so -- and I visited Canada many times (until the vicious harassment I endured getting back into my own country finally made me stop) -- it always seemed your air was deliciously easier to breathe, even just one step beyond the border.

(I don't think your country accepts retired immigrants -- and though I still write professionally, I am officially retired -- but maybe I'll check just to be sure.)

[sweetheart]

4. welfare state

The future of the US be like britain... as the nation
collapses in to selfishness, people will want their slice,
and universal healthcare be that... on the declining
ground of poverty.

[oscar111]

6. future, like Norway.. number one best rated place in the world nt.

[Bjornsdotter]

10. If you've ever been there

...you can understand why it's rated #1.

Cheers!

[sweetheart]

19. off to norway with you

awwww commmmawwwn, like norway at 5m people is an alternative, no...

Rather we are dead in houuston from connecticut/maine cowboys who play in texas...
nut norway? no.

[MercutioATC]

9. It makes economic sense.

We're not talking about nationalized health care, just universal health coverage (like what Howard Dean was suggesting in 2004).

The way things work now, people without health coverage do two things that GREATLY increase the cost of their health care. First, they don't get preventative care. Second, they go to emergency rooms where they can't be turned away. Eliminate these two things and the cost of providing health care would drop.

[sweetheart]

18. Free everythiing

Why should the poor pay for anything....
that is a job for the slave bourgeouis :-)

No, enlsavement is in the mind, and nothing will
ever be simple.

[MercutioATC]

21. If you'd have listened to Howard Dean, you'd understand that they'd pay...

...as they were able.

That aside, it DOES make economic sense to have everybody covered so they have access to preventative care and office visits. It'd save a LOT of money (money that we're spending now in the form of unreimbursed medical costs).

[sweetheart]

23. even more than that

The supermarket/food marketing industry needs a public shakedown that foods
that cause cancer and diabetes are exposed. If the public ate better, just
a little, it would cut the total medical bill quite intensely.

I agree it does make economic sense to offer universal healthcare. That said,
if we look at health in the lifelong prevention frame of mind, then its all
about food and exercise.

[oscar111]

5. reason for the prediction? nt

[EC]

7. That is what I've been working for

since Bush I, that is why I supported Clinton, and the disappointment of Hillery's plan being shot down, (even though it wasn't wide enough, it was a start)and have hated the Republicans even deeper than I had before....

[HysteryDiagnosis]

8. Ya mean once Hallibacon owns the universe??? I don't get it... nt.

[seabeyond]

11. i think we will have to. i think greed took hold so strong and is so deep,

that people will being dying and without and a system collapsed. i dont think govt will have a choice. i guess this is one way to get there. starve the old of their prescription causing catastrophe

[KC21304]

12. I have always said there isn't much wrong in this country

that can't be fixed with universal healthcare and public campaign financing.

Of course that was before the religious nuts took over the country.

[Deja Q]

13. aka 'no healthcare'

Nobody will be able to afford it. And if a doc quacks you over, you won't be able to collect more than a pittance while they continue to quack other people all they like.

Modern-day snake oil salesmen. Welcome back to the 1800s.

[Ilsa]

15. I think we'll have to have universal HC to compete internationally.

I wonder how many cities in the US have lost international bids to foreign cities because the business would have had to provide HC insurance?

[applegrove]

16. Read the Krugman article for the fugue that is the current plan.

First, Do More Harm
By PAUL KRUGMAN

"It's widely expected that President Bush will talk a lot about health care in his State of the Union address. He probably won't boast about his prescription drug plan, whose debut has been a Katrina-like saga of confusion and incompetence. But he probably will tout proposals for so-called "consumer driven" health care.

So it's important to realize that the administration's idea of health care reform is to take what's wrong with our system and make it worse. Consider the harrowing series of articles The New York Times printed last week about the rising tide of diabetes.

Diabetes is a horrifying disease. It's also an important factor in soaring medical costs. The likely future impact of the disease on those costs terrifies health economists. And the problem of dealing with diabetes is a clear illustration of the real issues in health care.

.... SNIP"



http://select.nytimes.com/2006/01/16/opinion/16krugman.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fOp%2dEd%2fColumnists%2fPaul%20Krugman&pagewanted=print

if you do not get Times Select the article was posted elsewhere here today... here below is that Link

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=172597

[stepnw1f]

28. Thank You!

This reaffirms my optimism.

[Yollam]

22. That usually only happens in advanced democracies.

Sorry, but we're neither.

[0007]

25. Maybe when we grow up?

[area51]

26. Agreed.

We're too barbaric a nation to ever get universal healthcare.

[NewJeffCT]

24. It is hugely pro-business

a lot of corporations spend billions subsidizing worker health care costs... imagine the money for R&D, investment and more that would be freed up? But, if corps drop health care coverage, they risk a less healthy, and less productive, workforce.

I will write more later, as I have to leave for work soon.

[stepnw1f]

27. I Read an Article a While Back

that stated just what you are telling me/us. It makes sense, therefore I am optimistic that this issue will be a winner for the Left, ONCE AGAIN.

What exactly has the Right Wing done to the benefit of our country as a whole? Nada....

[NewJeffCT]

29. to follow-up a bit on my earlier post

The heads of GM and UTC (United Technologies, the parent company of Otis Elevator, Carrier air conditioners, Pratt & Whitney and Sikorsky, among others) both lobbied the Canadian government for them to strengthen their national health care program. Both companies have major operations in Canada. Do Canadians work in sweatshops for pennies an hour? No, their wages are close to ours, if not higher. However, both companies save a lot of money in Canada because they do not have to subsidize employee health care!

Imagine if GM made an announcement that they were closing a plant in Canada or China and opening a new factory in Detroit? They'd be national heroes!!