National Health Care

As soon as government takes it over no one will be able to afford it. The prices will go sky high. There's no reason why a doctor's visit should cost a couple hundred dollars, except that the doctor knows insuance will cover most of it. If people were paying the bulk of the bill out of their own pockets, the prices would go down because the average person couldn't afford to pay. Doctor's would have to lower prices to stay in business. Government can't do much of anything right, I really don't want them messing around with healthcare.

Call it a "national health care system", call it "socialised medicine", call it whatever you like, the answer is no, it should not be instituted. When healthcare is "free" or subsidized by the government there will be shortages, just as when price controls are instituted for any other good. The only way to control this is through rationing, which happens in every country with socialized medicine. Where there is no socialized medicine people can get the treatment they want, when they want it, as long as they can afford the market price. In socialized countries there are waiting lists, there are government ministers deciding whether or not one can get care, there are artificial (forced) shortages of things people in the States take for granted like medical imagining equipment. It is unfortunate that we do not live in a world with infinite abundance and that some people cannot afford the often expensive wonder of modern medicine. But the alternative is to force us all to be equally poor. Better to fix free-market healthcare--and it needs fixing!--than to impose the greatest injustice in American history on people, to tax them into latent poverty and force on them the low standard of care common in Canada and Europe.

I THINK THAT THIS IS SOMETHING THAT OUR COUNTRY SHOULD CONSIDER.

The healthcare system as we know it is inadequate as rising medical cost and rising insurance cost prevent people who have insurance from getting proper care. Add to that everyday thousands have to let policies lapse because they can't afford it.

Speaking strictly in the United States, nationalized health care is a horrible idea. There is no way why we should fund the health care of Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, any NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB athletes, or any other ungodly rich human being. If you are completely incapable of paying for your own healthcare, then I can see subsidizing a portion of that cost, but nationally that is rediculous.

I used to live in the States and I contributed to my health insurance. There was an 80%/20% split. I liked that system. I am now living in the UK, they have the NHS or socialized medicine. This is a very poor system. It is NOT free. Contributions come out of everyone's pay check. I have had free health care because I am married to a UK citizen. I will give you my own experience as an example of how poorly things are run here. I broke my foot in 2002. I went to the NHS doctor. They told me I had tendonitis. Well I know a break when I feel one. I have complained and complained, all they gave me were pills. Last year, I went to my GP for a bunion problem. They sent me to the surgeon to see what they could do. The surgeon noticed th big lump that had grown on my foot over the break. X-rays were taken, then I was put on a waiting list for an MRI. Three months passed. I had the MRI and he wanted another x-ray, put on another waiting list. Three months later, x-rays done, he decides I shall have surgery. I was put on another waiting list. The surgery waiting list is 5 months for this surgeon. His assistant told me the break had healed and they would just scrap off the lump. I told him that it had never healed. He didn't believe me. I finally went in for surgery two weeks before Christmas last year. Not only did the break not heal, I needed a bone graft and a screw was inserted in my foot. This would not have been necessary if I was treated properly to begin with. The waiting lists over here for hip replacements, if you are lucky is 6 months to a year and a half. The hospitals are dirty, dust litter laying around. Nurses don't wash their hands before going on to the next bed. NHS means wards. Something I had not been in since the age of 5. Stick with what you have, it works. Free medical care usually gets abused by illegal immigrants. People are left in the hallways waiting to be seen by a doctor. Too many people, not enough hospitals, not enough doctors. Is this the kind of system you really want? It does not work.