Do you think the American health care system should be reformed AT ALL?
By katran
@katran (585)
United States
March 11, 2009 1:16am CST
I know a lot of you will have the instant reaction of "NO, ABSOLUTELY NOT," but just hear me out for a moment first.
When I ask if it should be reformed, I do not mean to imply that we should head towards a socialist system like Britain. Many of the wealthy countries of the world have health care systems that are primarily capitalistic and still cost much less than ours and extend coverage to everyone.
For example, Japan is known by all of us to be a very capitalist country. Their health care system involves private hospitals and private doctors. They have public insurance plans that everyone is forced to buy, and no one may be denied. The government pays the premiums for the poor. There is also the option of private insurance if you want it, but most people choose not to because it costs more. In addition to the insurance, the costs are low to begin with. Insurance companies meet with hospitals and fix the prices. Also, insurance companies are not allowed to profit. And you know what? Japan has some of the best health stats in the entire world, including a longer life expectancy and lower infant mortality rate than the US. AND, they spend less than HALF as much of their GDP on health care than what the US spends.
I assure you I am not advocate for socialized medicine. I think it is a terrible idea, and I know socialism is a dirty word in the eyes of Americans anyway, so it would never happen even if I did agree with it. But I do have a few questions to get you thinking about it, because, frankly, if you deny that there are problems with our health care system, you have your eyes very stubbornly closed.
1. Do you think the system should be changed AT ALL? If so, how?
2. Do you think mandatory health insurance would save us some of the problems that our health care system has?
3. Do you think it is acceptable that we are one of, if not THE ONLY, rich nation in the world that has people going bankrupt from health care costs?
4. Do you think health care is a universal right? (We as a nation think education is a universal right, so why not health care?)
1 response
@hidden1money1secret (191)
• United States
11 Mar 09
I think the insurance is the root of the problem. Health care practitioners can charge exorbitant amounts because people with insurance pay with no complaints. Reform needs to occur through a more free market approach. I like the idea of capping the costs in some way, and preventing insurance companies from taking advantage of consumers. This is a very complex problem. Doctors have to pay huge malpractice insurance premiums as well, this drives up the costs. We need to have a serious discussion about this instead of suggesting that the government (taxpayers) simply pay the bills for everyone.
@katran (585)
• United States
11 Mar 09
I agree that insurance is the biggest problem. Most of the other rich countries of the world (Japan, Switzerland, Germany, Taiwan) have reformed the insurance without bringing hospitals under government control, and that has made the costs go way down and extended care to everyone. You are right, though. It IS a very complex problem, especially here where we have had the same system forever and Americans are so resistant to change.