The Senate passed a $600 billion bill for for some type of health insurance program. This is addition to other programs. The cost per year in 2007 was about $7421 per resident. However the cost in most socialized health insurance countries is like $2500 per resident. In England the only place where the government owns the hospitals the costs are like $1700 per resident. Thus, a single payer system is very good. A better system might be as follows.

1. Make it illegal for your employers to offer health insurance. The employer is responsible to give you a paycheck, not select your doctor.

2. The government should give every citizen younger than 65, $2000 funded either as a voucher, or as a payment into your medical savings account. This number should be adjusted based on GDP per person or National Debt per person, as a measure of inflation. Thus in today's dollars $600 billion. This number should be similar to systems in Canada and Britain.

3. The industry where illegal workers work i.e. textiles, construction, or farming should be taxed (unless proven they hire only us citizens) and the money put in a fund to provide protection for illegal workers. Those that work in gardening or self-employed, and estimate where they work should be made and a property tax paid to cover health care.

4. Foreign Travelers, might have to pay a tax per day, to be offered some type of health insurance. $2000/365 is about $5.50 a day.

Thus everyone is covered.

Fraud is eliminated.

Life expectancy of the US rises 5 years.

The government/private health insurance is already estimated to spend $300 billion a year on health insurance paperwork.

I want a healthcare system that makes me as tall as willywoo.

I think the real question is how is willywoo not a 9/11 truther?

 

Originally Posted by Lenny

Willywoo, I know you are making these posts in jest, but aren't you just basically agreeing with the problem that people do NOT make rational choices nor do they internalize the costs of healthcare?

So why cling to the idea that market capitalism is necessarily the best model for delivery of health care?

Because he doesn't want to pay for it. Not necessarily saying he should have to, but that is the reason... He's the guy who will be paying for poor people to go to the hospital and he doesn't like it. That's the real truth... This is why Willy only argues with the the opposite of what he really means. Because the truth of what he really wants is what is self-serving for Willywoo...

Or K can take his ass to another country since they have such a wonderful system (in his mind anyway). <sigh>

 

Originally Posted by HK_MP5N

Or K can take his ass to another country since they have such a wonderful system (in his mind anyway

I like it here. Maybe if we tax Limbaugh at 80-90% like was done in the 1950s he would leave and we could get someone that contributes to society rather than the lazy republican party.

 

Originally Posted by Neeek

I think the real question is how is willywoo not a 9/11 truther?

Because I engage in rational thought, for the most part.

I have posted my thoughts on healthcare and healthcare insurance many times.

Lenny, part of living in a free society is having the opportunity to make bad choices. Can you think of any time in history where someone had an idea that everyone thought was bad and it turned out to be genius? It sounds like you want to take away people's right to make decisions for themselves good or bad and that to me is wrong, wrong wrong.

However, if I make bad decisions it is I who should pay for it not everyone else, and I have, believe that. In your system, we should all pay for someone elses bad decisions or we should have a system that prohibits bad decisions. The problem is that often time we make a decision because we think it is good, but it turns out to be bad, so I do not want someone else telling me ahead of time what is good or bad.

For me, the essence of life is making decisions for myself and working to make them turn out right.

Another thing is that what may be good for you may be bad for me and vice versa. Part of the problem with the size of govenment programs today is that they take a prophalactic approach to individualized problems. We seem to think that all problems are societal and do not understand that even if a problem is societal, the solutions are often specific to individuals.

 

Originally Posted by Lenny

Willywoo, I know you are making these posts in jest, but aren't you just basically agreeing with the problem that people do NOT make rational choices nor do they internalize the costs of healthcare?

So why cling to the idea that market capitalism is necessarily the best model for delivery of health care?

First, because capitalism has proven to be the absolute best economic system ever used. We will disagree that the healthcare system is a mess today because of what Roosevelt did in the 40's and 50's through wage and price controls and employer based tax incentives, but the bottomline is that the government intervention back then and continuing is the problem, not the lack of government intervention.

I finid it to be very short sighted of many liberals to think that lets say, way back in the 70's or 80's or before Obama was elected that we were captialists and that is what fucked things up. We have been on a course of out of control government growth and control pretty much since the depression. Because of my take on government intervention I see that most of our economic and social problems are caused by government, not solved by government.

Hopefully, you can see that I am not clinging to capitalism, I am desirous of going back to capitalism in healthcare before the government intevention beginning in the 40's. I address rational choice below.