Universal health "Insurance" or Universal Health CARE?

[DemKR]

Explain your choice.

[DemKR]

1. Non-profit health care

is the option I support. Universal health "insurance" still puts everything at the hands of the big drug companies.

[liberaldemocrat7]

25. Single payer ( government ) universal health care.

Join the phone campaign to get HR 676 enacted. See my signature and make some phone calls.

[Catbird]

2. Insurance is not the right model for health care.

No one is proposing education insurance, for example. (At least, I hope no one is.)

[ButterflyBlood]

4. Er, that's kind of an apples/oranges comparison

Pretty much everyone goes through the same education system, at least up until high school, and at the same time. There's no clear point when any hypothetical insurance would pay. Health care is different. Some people are healthy and don't need it that much, others need it a lot.

While I rather would have some universal health care model, I'd prefer that it not be exactly the same as Canada's to get around the long waits they often have. Perhaps keep some parallel private insurance system as well for those who decide to buy it.

[groovedaddy]

3. With Insurance, profit is always placed ahead of

patients health.

[peace frog]

5. Unless the profit motive is completely removed

health care will never be other than a commodity to be purchased like any other consumer product. And all too often the people who need the product most can least afford to buy it.

[rateyes]

6. Universal insurance doesn't address the problem of

those who are under-insured.

Universal Health Care, for sure!!!

[PDJane]

7. Canada's long waits

a) aren't all that much longer than waits in the U.S.
b) could be eliminated by political will and funding.

The problem with a hybrid system is the cost; Australia, for example, pays more for their hybrid system than France does with its universal health care.

Universal, government funded health care does NOT have to equal wait times.

[Vinca]

16. Who would get a hip replacement first?

A Canadian or an uninsured American? Case closed. I don't think the American will mind waiting a few weeks or even longer if relief from pain is somewhere on the horizon.

[PDJane]

17. Honestly,

Insured Americans often have to wait the six months or so that it takes to get a hip replacement here. The profit in the system doesn't make it better for the patient.

[Vinca]

20. I, personally, have waited 6 months for a mammogram . . .

and that was when I had insurance! It's a talking point that doesn't ring true.

[w8liftinglady]

8. I was kind of wondering this,too...being explained as a mandatory insurance,like car insurance

who does that benefit?The government will assist people with payment,but it will still be adminstered by private insurance companies??This is the spin I'm seeing in the news..do I have it totally wrong?

[Individualist]

10. You're not wrong. Universal health insurance will benefit the insurance companies

That's what DLC wants.

[YOY]

11. By the crowing of the Hilary folks here it's the best thing since sliced bread

Of course, I think she could tell them that she loves cancer and they'd still endorse her...

[YOY]

9. Care: Because the health care of my family, friends, neighbors, and fellow citizens

is not about profit. It's about living long and healthy lives in a country that should have the highest standards for its citizens.

[stimbox]

12. Care

Nonprofit, single payer health care.

[porphyrian]

13. Care, take the insurance crime syndicate out of the equation entirely. - n/t

[JDPriestly]

14. I lived in Europe for years.

We had universal health care. You could have additional insurance for things like a private room in a hospital, but we didn't. You paid for your health care through taxes including income taxes. The insurance companies did not take a cut on basic health care. Face it, in this country, the CEOs take a big cut of your monthly insurance premium.

[warren pease]

15. Some happy stats...

In 2000 alone, which is the last year I've seen reliable numbers for, the entire health care "industry" -- which is all the middle men/women who skim money as it flows by, but not the providers themselves unless they're one of the for-profit hospital chains -- grossed $1.3 TRILLION. Of that, they squandered between 25 and 40 percent on paper pushing, shareholder return, executive salaries and bonuses, advertising and PR campaigns, and investigators whose sole purpose is to provide a plausible excuse to deny your claim.

Note that we're talking about a sum between $325 billion and $520 billion -- all on crap that does nothing to provide health care whatsoever. That seems like plenty of money to provide all Americans with universal, single-payer medical care for a year or so.

Here's a post from my DU journal on single payer.

http://tinyurl.com/yowhd7

Note that only Kucinich advocates single-payer. The rest want some kind of continued involvement of for-profit hospital chains and insurance companies. Which means that their plans will carry within them the seeds of their own destruction. If you're going to build a new health care system around the most destructive element in the current mess, why would anyone expect different results? Isn't that one of the definitions of insanity -- doing the same thing over and over and expecting different outcomes?

In this case, though, it's more like watching them accept millions in bribes from the for-profit medical industry and expecting them to act on behalf of the "little people." Might as well expect a shark to go vegan.


wp

[Quixote1818]

18. Good poll! K & R

[Richard Steele]

19. It's obvious at this point that insurance doesn't always equal CARE.

And quite often it's a BARRIER to appropriate and timely care.

[LWolf]

21. Care. Explanation:

I support democratic principles. For people.

I believe that equal access to high quality health care is a right, not a privilege.

I don't view people's health as an opportunity to profit.

That's what health insurance companies do; they profit off of our very lives, off of operating as the gatekeepers of health care, admitting those with the most money to the highest levels, and rejecting those with the least.

[spindoctor]

22. Come on! This is semantics.

Whether you call it care or insurance, it all boils down to establishing a cookie jar from which we can pay care providers for their services and facilities just like we do with schools, fire brigades and police squads.

Just like the other services, this should not be done for profit. It is an option to let insurance companies handle this. This works in other countries. It would still be beneficial to the insurers, because it would decrease the cost of their other products (just like manufacturing overruns decrease the average cost per item).

I don't care if you call it Social Sick and Disabled Tax or National Health and Medication Benefits, the only thing that matters is that the cookie jar is protected from grabby little fingers.

[Delphinus]

23. Care - HR 686

(iirc) is Universal Health Care.

[a kennedy]

24. Please see my sig line....

thank you. :patriot: :)