Why is 'socialized medicine' a dirty word in the US?

Can you link to a study that confirms that? Most employers did offer insurance until just the last couple of decades, but I don't think that's true any longer.

Aren't you confusing productivity with profitability? What is it that they produce in this country currently?

And find work elsewhere? With the high price of fuel more and more workers will be tied to local occupations. Unless we are meant to immigrate to China.

 

Socialized medicine has been propagandized by US media.Many Americans are simply clueless as to how good medical care is in Western Europe,Australia etc.And they do not have have drug companies and insurance companies running the show.Only in America ,right.

 

This may interest those of you that think the market will float all boats, it shows what they feel their responsibility is to retired workers..those that actually put more of a burdern on the health care system:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/37541.php
http://www.bcbs.com/blueresources/mcrg/chapter2/ch2_slide_5.html

One has to wonder why employers feel that they no longer need to provide health coverage for their retired workers. Is it because they are relying on Medicaid and Medicare to provide for them. Then one has to ask why is it ok for them to rely on a socialized medical program to care for individuals they should be responsible for, but it's not ok to at least look towards socialized medicine as a solution for those that are uninsured whatever their age or employment status.

And one must also consider when looking at these charts the percentage for part time workers. How many employers today hire full time employees. The cut off in hours contracted always seems to coincide with the cut off in benefits.

 

Yes.Do people realize how absurd it is to "depend" on an employer for heathcare. If someone is out of work for a while then what?Free enterprise,my ass. Regardless of your views of Michael Moore,the movie "Sicko" is right on the money.

 

Another interesting article on the trend of small employers offering health insurance:

http://www.bcbs.com/blueresources/mcrg/chapter2/ch2_slide_5.html

 

Very interesting breakdown of the uninsured in the US:

http://aspe.hhs.gov/health/reports/05/uninsured-cps/index.htm

 

Why is it when health care is considered we want to know the costs, but no one askes or puts the brakes on the cost of the war in Iraq?

 

Totally false.

 

I have no confidence in Goverment let them stay away from medicine.

Let them demonstrate some competence by getting schools right and controling spending.

These politicos need more jobs to distribute to thier followers and more ways to get thier arms around America's wealth.

 

Ironically enough, I was in a VA just recently. My father was diagnosed with renal failure and doesn't have health insurance. The VA, while does have its share of problems like private health care does, treated him very well, and he's currently on dialysis though the VA. Socialized medicine saved his life. If he wasn't a veteran it would have bankrupted him. He has nothing but good things to say about it.

I've noticed many people who are opposed to universal health care site the VA as an example of the negative aspects associated with it. Of course, most of them don't know the first thing about the VA. In reality, the scandals that plagued the organization have largely gone by the wayside, and it is now providing top-notch care. Here's an excerpt from a very good article on that very subject:

Who do you think receives higher-quality health care. Medicare patients who are free to pick their own doctors and specialists? Or aging veterans stuck in those presumably filthy VA hospitals with their antiquated equipment, uncaring administrators, and incompetent staff? An answer came in 2003, when the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine published a study that compared veterans health facilities on 11 measures of quality with fee-for-service Medicare. On all 11 measures, the quality of care in veterans facilities proved to be "significantly better."
Here's another curious fact. The Annals of Internal Medicine recently published a study that compared veterans health facilities with commercial managed-care systems in their treatment of diabetes patients. In seven out of seven measures of quality, the VA provided better care.


Also, to those who point to the VA to show the evils of socialized medicine, why is it I never hear any of them proposing we privatize the VA? Surely that would be the logical conclusion if what they say is true: that private health care will always be superior to health care administered by the public sector. Don't they want the best for our veterans? Yet you rarely hear anyone ever suggest that. Largely because public figures know that it would politically dangerous to suggest such a thing because it would mean the veterans would have to incur some of the costs.

 

I find it interesting that we Americans have been convinced that $500 per month for health insurance is somehow better than a $500 per year increase in our taxes. It is also interesting that we have been convinced that waiting a few weeks for treatment is somehow better than not getting treated at all.

 

For the record, I have lived in Central Canada my entire life. For nearly 24 years, I have never met a single person that has gone to the USA for surgery because they couldn't wait.

 

I have always felt it was a myth that Canadians come to the US to get their health care, it does not make sense to logical thinking people. For the record, I know a lot of Canadians and I have never met a single one who was dissatisfied with their health care system to the point where they would want to trade it for ours.

 

If we all trust these goverment agencies so much to give them the power over our healthcare then why do we not trust them to give them the power to keep oil drilling clean in Alaska's NWR ?

 

I work at a hospital, as does my mother, and I know from experience that many Canadians come here for major surgeries.

 

I know a number of US citizens that have gone to Belgium for hip surgery, for a number of reasons, firstly only one hospital in the US had doctors capable of performing the type surgery, and based on price comparison. Does that make Belgiums healthcare system better than the US?

And what of all the cancer patients in the US that went to Mexico for treatment, does that demonstrate that the medicine practiced there is superior?

 

What we are asking our government to do is establish a plan similar to that which the congress and administration now receive and make it available to all citizens.

What Bush and his cronies want to do with ANWR is open it up to be raped and pillaged by multinational corporations, who will probably ask for immunity from liability before they even consider drilling for a substance that will be under their sole discretionary management.

We gave them control over our health care when we allowed them to destroy regular health plans and institute HMOs as the savior of healthcare. But you can't sue them.

http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0627-05.htm

 

The United States has a great health system if you can afford it. Many Americans can't. Countries with socialized medicine have lower infant mortality rates and longer life expectancies than in the United States. Those are two objective standards for measuring a health system.

 

If Canadian health care were as bad as we Americans say it is, Canadians would be dying hand of fist of treatable conditions and all the hospitals along the border would be swarming with sick Canadians, this is obviously not the case. So what if a few wealthy people come to the US for a bit faster service and if they can afford it, more power to them. For those who can not afford it, waiting a few weeks for treatment is better than no treatment at all. Universal Health care is not about rich people getting breast implants.

 

Oh yeah?

How much do these people earn as income?