Government-subsidised health care

[chimpkin]

Universal health care would be cheaper and cover more than our current patchwork.
Or we could do it like the Swiss:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_Switzerland
The Swiss get better results for less per capita, still with private insurers.

But as I understand Obamacare (correct me if wrong) the mandated health insurance isn't going to be capped, as far as what we pay, and they are still allowed to charge based on risk.

That's going to cause problems.

 

[Anti-Flag]

maybe in the US, there was a wide scale poll done before the last election motivated by a new political party running here originating in NZ. It was a Libertarian Party. The question was asked would you prefer to pay less tax or receive increased services. The result was that a majority of people would rather have more money put into hospitals and schools

It also depends on demographics. The young heavily believe in having their tuition fees payed for them. When they get older and reality bites that it's a huge chunk of money wasted for a great number of people, they change their minds about where *their* taxes should be spent.
My rule is, if it's optional, you pay for it. If we consider a uni education so important that it should be payed for, make it mandatory to study until someone is at least 21.
Healthcare should be similar. Oh, you sat down on a bottle too hard and it jammed up your anus? I'm afraid you're just not covered for that Mr Barrymore.

Yeah, I would not mind coughing up another 15-20% of my income if it meant I never had to worry again about dying from lack of asthma meds, or going insane from lack of happy pills.
I do wish they'd put single-payer to a referendum...although considering how easily a lot of people here are misled by slick ad copy...maybe it would not matter anyway.

Yeh if we get a system that works I don't mind paying more. But then how much more can your average person pay when they struggle to pay the bills as it is?
The first thing any system needs is a tax-free minimum that is actually enough to live on (and that includes consideration for house prices, which are beyond a joke) - Then we need to cut the loop holes, and make people take responsibility for some choices they make.

 

[WillNever]

I am a registered nurse who works full time on a combined medical-surgical and cardiac telemetry floor at my local hospital. When I have free time during my shift, I sometimes go through the charts in order to see what type of insurance my patients have and who their insurers are, purely out of curiosity. My experience is that my patients who are beneficiaries of medicaid, state-financed insurance, tend to be cut from a different cloth altogether than those who have private insurance. Their attitudes tend to be the most ignorant and most anti-education that I've dealt with.

These are the people who won't change their lifestyles even if you've reinforced diabetic teaching to them three times a day for their whole stay, and then show up a week later with diabetic ketoacidosis again. Or heart failure exacerbation. Or any other preventable readmission to the hospital. No matter how much money you pour down the drain into these people's care, they are ungrateful, chronically unsatisfied, and resentful of the educated professionals who care for them. They are the ones who "don't like the taste of water" and will drink only pepsi or gingerale throughout their stay, will ignore the salads and fruit cups on their meal tray and eat only the roll and the pasta, won't bathe until afternoon, etc, basically what you'd come to expect from a low class upbringing.

Government subsidized healthcare has not been helping these people. Only changing their own attitudes can do that.