Greece ordered to bag govt. health system

don't doubt you've had marvy experiences with your health care system, but once again...
I was responding to someone who can't seem to find anything good to say about much. So, if he, who has not used the Canadian system can point all his perceived flaws of a systems he hasn't used, why should I not be able to parrot his line, he shouldn't be so shocked when someone questions his own imperfect system. Non???
Or are you saying the US's health care system is beyond reproach and without it's own share of horror stories?

No, I haven't.

I actually support a universal health care system. I want one for the USA. I wish the bill that was passed looked more like Canada (only better funded).

What I disagree with is people making arguments (or counter arguments) that rely on first hand experiences. I feel this way regardless of whether or not I agree with them.

I visit the doctor 1-2 times per year, had a hernia repaired 6 months ago, have had several sports injuries that required ER visits in the last few years.

Each and every time, I was seen quickly, my insurance didn't give me any problems, and had an almost perfect experience from every angle.

I've never heard a friend or family member complain about their healthcare expeiences either. I've heard several positive stories, the most recent when a friend had a baby 3 weeks ago. Her experience through the whole process was exceptional. I've heard a lot of good experiences from my family and friends.

Now, none of that matters when discussing the healthcare system as a whole, and how it treats each and every person. Obviously 40 million people who are uninsured are much worse off than me and my family/friends.


Regarding your last sentence (and Walter's comments), I'm left wondering why people insist on reading more into my post than what I've actually written. I wrote in English, using almost perfect grammer and spelling. I would have thought my point to be quite clear. No further thinking required beyond what the written words say.

Oh well.

Once again...

If I had the power to I would institute a sort of a basic health care reform which would be overwhelmingly simple and which would resemble the thing we're reading about in no way, shape, or manner. Key points would be:

1. Elimination of lawsuits against doctors and other medical providers. There would be a general fund to compensate victims of malpractice for actual damage and a non-inbred system for weeding out those guilty of malpractice.

2. Elimination of the artificial exclusivity of the medical system. In other words our medical schools could easily produce two or three times the number of doctors they do with no noticeable drop off in quality.

3. Elimination of the various games and monopolies which drive the cost of medicines towards unaffordability.

4. Elimination of the outmoded WW-II notion of triage in favor of a system which took some rational account of who pays for the system and who doesn't. The horror stories I keep reading about the middle-class guy with an injured child having to fill out forms for three hours while an endless procession of illegal immigrants just walks in and are seen, would end, as would any possibility of that child waiting three hours for treatment while people were being seen for heroin overdoses or other forms of self-inflicted or lifestyle related pathology.

All of those things would fall under the heading of what TR called "trust busting". There would also be some system for caring the truly indigent, but the need and cost would be far less than at present.

By far the biggest item is that first one. I don't know the exact numbers but if you add every cost involved in our present out-of-control lawyering, it has to be a major fraction if not more than half of our medical costs. The trial lawyers' guild being one of the two major pillars of financial support for the democrat party is the basic reason nobody is saying anything about that part of the problem.