Re: OT government healthcare and it is more expensive & not as comprehensive

Why did Moore not say in 'Sicko' there are two types of "free" healthcare in Cuba, one for the rich and tourist and another for the masses? Moore's whole premise is flawed, there is no such thing as "free" healthcare. Where does Moore get the idea seniors get "Free" healthcare? Why does he not point our that Medicare will go bankrupt if billions of more dollars are not infused into the system when all the boomers hit 65? Someone has to pay the piper. Where will to money come from if the government takes over the healthcare? What will happen to the availability? Wherever private enterprise competes with government, private enterprise always does it better and at less cost. The fact is the much maligned HMOs provide more services at lower cost than Medicare. I. E. UPS etall do a much better job than USPS etc..

One of my grand children was in an auto accident in a county with "free" healthcare.

The driver received a broken nose that was set without local anesthetic. He want to a doctor when he returned to the US and needed surgery to have it proper repaired. The doctor asked if he set his nose himself?

She was not badly hurt, only sorta beat-up a bit. She was thus a low priority. She was placed in an un-air-conditioned thirty bed ward, with people with all sorts of diseases. The only way she got help from the two nurses, that monitored the ward during two 12 hour shift, was to befriend one of them. The bed covering was only changed every three days. The locals brought clean stuff from home for their relitives. She never was seen by a doctor after she was admitted. As the old adage states, "What value has anything that is free?' ;)

mike

The American government isn't afraid to hand out free health care. > Senior citizens get it. Veterans get it. As SiCKO shows you, even the > detainees at Guantanamo Bay get it. > > So, too, do our federal elected officials. It doesn't matter if they > are Republicans or Democrats, young or old, healthy or sick -- they > are entitled to free, government-provided health insurance. They don't > have to worry about being able to pay for medical help -- even if many > of their constituents do. > > When Senator Sherrod Brown was running for a seat in the House of > Representatives over 10 years ago, he saw something wrong with this. > He pledged not to accept his free government health care until > everyone in the United States had the same luxury. (He's still > waiting.) > > Brown reasoned that politicians should have the same privileges as > those they represent. I know a lot of the Democrats running for > President understand this principle. Monday night during their YouTube > debate, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, > Barack Obama, and Bill Richardson all pledged to work for the minimum > wage should they be elected president -- to show that they're in touch > with the plight of everyday Americans, and to make sure they are > personally invested in making sure the minimum wage in this country is > a livable one. Good for them. > > Now, candidates, how about giving up your health care too? If elected > president, you and your family will be entitled to free government > health care, courtesy of the fine doctors at the National Naval > Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. But nearly 50 million of your > constituents will go without any medical care at all -- and 18,000 of > them will die during your first year in office simply because they > lack health insurance. As the head of the government, how can you take > advantage of its health care services, but deny it to so many > citizens? > > I am calling on each presidential candidate to pledge to refuse their > free government health care until every person in this country also > has it. I want every candidate who said they'd work for the minimum > wage as president to work uninsured, too, until health care is > universal. And I want the other candidates to join them. (Yes, I'm > looking at you, too, Republicans. I know you can afford to do it.) > > During Monday night's interactive debate, I submitted this exact > challenge on YouTube, just like everyone else. CNN didn't choose it -- > maybe Dr. Gupta was making the selections? Anyway, I am issuing it > here. All candidates should pledge to take whatever health care is > available to the least fortunate American. Right now, that's nothing. > Hopefully as president, they'll have to make it something. >
Reply to
Mike Hunter
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Probably because his movie is about health care for the average person, but every country has different levels of health care for the average person and the priviledged.

Moore never said it was 100% free in the sense that absolutely nobody pays for it through taxes Rather he said it free the way public libraries and fire departments don't cost the individual user extra whether they use them or not.

In 1968, when Robert Kennedy was asked who would pay for the universal health care system he proposed, he unhesitatingly said, "You will".

Do you realize that the rest of the world thinks our health care system is bankrupt? Even the Economist described it as such, a few years ago.

What happens now when government proposes to cut Medicare services? Senior citizens fight like crazy, as every member of Congress knows.

Then how do you explain that all other developed foreign countries have cheaper health care than we do, despite their systems having much higher government involvement and covering higher proportions of their populations?

In the Phoenix area, the lowest cost hospitals are Maricopa County General and Boswell Memorial, and they're both very good, with County being one of the nation's best burn treatment centers. It used to generate so much profit that the county government would use the money to sweep other county shortfalls under the rug. Boswell is private but receives a higher percentage of its revenue from government than any other private hospital in the area, and in the medical insurance industry you'll find that the private sector has copied the innovations of the federal government, not the other way around. Still, it can't compete with government on efficiency because of its huge bureaucratic and marketing overhead, this despite it charging people more if they have certain preexisting conditions, something that government doesn't do.

False, because the amount that HMOs cut costs by denying treatment is more than offset by their enlargement of the medical bureacracy, and this has been true even when they've operated under Medicare rules. Every time Medicare has contracted out coverage to an HMO, the cost to the taxpayers has been higher, not lower..

What will UPS deliver for 41 cents, and why are Parcel Post and Priority cheaper than UPS ground (or even FedEx ground)? Also USPS generally delivers a day sooner compared to UPS and FedEx ground, and a few surveys have found that their breakage rate is lower. I don't know any surveys that have said otherwise, unless you go back over twenty years.

What county? The people I know who've gotten medical treatment overseas, mostly Mexico, one person France, another Britain, said it was very good.

Reply to
larry moe 'n curly

How does extending their healthcare to others help to lower the cost of healthcare? How did we ever get to the point that we allowed elected officials to be given a pension? If we did what the founders intended and served our county for a short time as "citizen Legislators" and then went back home to let others do their civic duty NOBODY would get a pension OR healthcare.

mike

Your kidding right??

Reply to
Mike Hunter

I hear a lot of opinions but few verifiable facts

You mean like under our present system?

Moore's whole premise is flawed, there is no such thing as "free" healthcare.

What do you mean extra cost, do you prefer not to have the protection of police and firemen? The most expensive cost to any city is police and fire protection. NYC has 39,000 cops

You admit we can not afford more government "free" healthcare?

Because no county in the world has healthcare as good as the US. Eighteen of the top twenty hospitals are in the word are in the US. In Canada hundreds of new life saving drugs that are available in the US can not available in Canada

Search the Hill Burton Act and you will see why.

Hogwash, how can the costs be any different when Medicare sets the reimbursement rates? I have more coverage at lower cost and less expensive drugs with an HMO than I would if I had accepted Medicare. I have never been denied any coverage for anything by Senior Blue

If that is true why do compaines prefer UPS and FedEx over the USPS? UPS etall are banned by law from delivering mail.

Spain. In the UK there are private groups that many join to get the care they want

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Reply to
Mike Hunter

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