Need help with info on health care debate!!

[FreedomAngel82]

I'm for having public health care because we should want to take care of everybody in our society so they can contribute and be able to work etc.
On this board I go on I'm the only one for it. I've asked their stance on public education and one person stated, it appears to me, that they're only for it because it's written into state law(s). :eyes: I was thinking earlier about health care and tax payers already pay for people's health care correct? If they work for the government such as the military (which I think you should since they give their lives to the government), TVA and NASA. I was wondering if this is right what I'm thinking and who else gets health care from the government? Thanks.

[GrumpyGreg]

1. The poor and the elderly-Medicaid and Medicare.

[NewJeffCT]

2. Veterans get health care from the government

And, studies indicate that vets get better healthcare than most citizens, despite often being more at risk of things going wrong with them. However, there is a wide discrepancy in the quality of veteran's care - one VA hospital may be very good, others not so good.

Even our esteemed fearless leader * has said that veteran's care is good, but it's not fair to compare it to private healthcare because they can do things like negotiate lower prices with drug companies.

[sandnsea]

3. Pay through insurance premiums too

I happen to be having this argument through the email as we speak with someone who is arguing for free market health care reforms. Here's that portion of the email, if it helps:

"I have to address your thinking on one person paying for another's health care. What in the world do you think high insurance premiums do? People already are paying for those who can't pay, through their insurance premiums. In addition, they're paying for a whole other group of people to sit by the pool and collect dividend checks from insurance companies and health care corporations. It's baffling to me that your choice is to deny one group of people life-saving medical care because you think they don't work, but happily hand over oodles of money to another group of people who truly don't work. On top of it, you advocate giving them their oodles of money, completely tax free. I just will never understand that kind of thinking.

Finally, health care is not a matter of choosing Wendy's or Tony's. Disease and injury choose you, not the other way around. Besides, the law of supply and demand is supposed to work out so that the more something is purchased, the greater the supply, the cheaper the product becomes. You might ask yourself who has kept the supply of doctors and nurses out of the market."

[FreedomAngel82]

4. Thanks all for this

Much appreciated.

[pinto]

5. All federal employees can get federally funded health care. And,

Medicare - for retirees, the disabled and children of the disabled - is the other major federally funded health care program.

Both incorporate employee/employer contributions.

[davikim]

6. read uninsured in america

just finished it, it was so great and eye openning....

[FreedomAngel82]

7. Is there anything online from the book?

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

8. The military has its own health care system funded by federal tax dollars.

Its beneficiaries are active duty military, retired military, and dependents of same, although the access for these last groups are somewhat restricted.

The military system has its own hospitals and clinics. The doctors and nurses in this system are mostly active duty military officers (I was one of them for most of my career), with the money sometimes paying for civilian "contract" doctors and nurses if there is a shortage of active duty to take care of something.

Military veterans also have a large federally funded health care system, the VA, also with its own salaried federal doctors etc. This is for people who may not qualify as "retired" for care under the military system, but have service related disability or illness that require ongoing care. Let's say you acquired hepatitis from a blood transfusion while active duty ("line of duty"). When you get out of the military, you are still healthy but carry the virus. Subsequently you develop liver problems from ongoing hepatitis requiring care... you should be eligible for care under the VA system.

People who work for federal government agencies like NASA etc. do NOT get this kind of socialized care but get insurance benefits through their work for care like most other people.

Both the military and VA systems are "socialized medicine", i.e. government provided care with salaried providers who have no profit incentive.

I felt the care delivered via the military's socialized medical system was good, of course I'm biased since I spent most of my career delivering it. I make a lot more money in the private sector. There are definite advantages to the private system, but there are also advantages to the socialized system.

Socialized system:
Advantages:
-Everyone (in the system) is covered
-No "profit motive" to do unnecessary procedures
-No "cost cutting" motive to ELIMINATE necessary procedures/medicines

Disadvantages:
-Because of no profit motive, more wait for elective procedures (private sector would whip up more capacity to MAKE THAT MONEY)
-Best doctors tend to leave the system due to lots more $$ in private sector (there are many notable exceptions to this, and I've certainly known many, many superior doctors who spent a full career in the military, and known some real stiffs in the private world).

Private system:
Advantages:
-Many excellent doctors to be found there due to high reimbursement
-Easier access to things like surgical procedures, profit motive spurs doctors and hospitals to create access to these

Disadvantages:
-Profit provides incentive for unnecessary surgery/procedures
-Lack of access for those without jobs/insurance
-Tiered system where many of the most prestigious doctors don't want to care for those with no insurance or lower paying insurance like Medicare/Medicaid
-Cost cutting motive (as in HMOs) provides incentive to ELIMINATE possibly needed or beneficial procedures/surgery/medication

These advantages/disadvantages are just a few things right off the top of my head...