IT'S TIME FOR UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE

To the best evidence presented here, neither of us works in health care. See, these are the interwebs, and people can tell the truth or lie all they want.

It's entirely likely that under Obama there will be some form of Universal Health care, our system will adjust, and everything will chug along perfectly fine. I find your Cassandra-ish prognostications of doom to be specious at best; we'll find a way to work things out. And one which addresses all Americans, not just those who happen to be either already healthy or rather well off.

Cycloptichorn

Cycloptichorn wrote:

To the best evidence presented here, neither of us works in health care. See, these are the interwebs, and people can tell the truth or lie all they want.

It's entirely likely that under Obama there will be some form of Universal Health care, our system will adjust, and everything will chug along perfectly fine. I find your Cassandra-ish prognostications of doom to be specious at best; we'll find a way to work things out. And one which addresses all Americans, not just those who happen to be either already healthy or rather well off.

Cycloptichorn

Eh... well you don't have to believe that I am in the field; but your belief notwithstanding, I am. And many of the things I've mentioned here have come from the mouths of physicians. Which, of course, you probably don't beleive either.

hamburger wrote:

i don't know what it is like stateside , but in canada students are SCRAMBLING to get into medical school !
for every place in the medical faculties of our universities there are several qualified applicants .
some students attend medical schools in ireland and other countries to be able to practice medicine in canada .

we know quite a number of physicians - some are our neighbours - and while most of them don't live in million dollar mansions , they seem to live quite well .

if one wants to become a millionaire quickly , there are certainly other professions that make that possible . the physicians we know seem to want to be physicians first , rather than millionaires - which doesn't mean that we don't have any well-to-do physicians .
hbg

But, how is this possible? According to Hokie, all those physicians must be trying as hard as they can to leave your system, including emigrating to other countries.

Cycloptichorn

Cycloptichorn wrote:

hamburger wrote:

i don't know what it is like stateside , but in canada students are SCRAMBLING to get into medical school !
for every place in the medical faculties of our universities there are several qualified applicants .
some students attend medical schools in ireland and other countries to be able to practice medicine in canada .

we know quite a number of physicians - some are our neighbours - and while most of them don't live in million dollar mansions , they seem to live quite well .

if one wants to become a millionaire quickly , there are certainly other professions that make that possible . the physicians we know seem to want to be physicians first , rather than millionaires - which doesn't mean that we don't have any well-to-do physicians .
hbg

But, how is this possible? According to Hokie, all those physicians must be trying as hard as they can to leave your system, including emigrating to other countries.

Cycloptichorn

While the snide comments are amusing, you are exaggerating what I said. This has nothing to do with Canada - regardless of their health care system. We are talking about the US. And you are expecting to fundamentally alter the entire system which many, many people rely on for their well-being, and expect them to be ok with that. You are either stupid or crazy if you think physicians will let that pass without great opposition.

San Francisco has universal health care.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1207599,00.html

USAFHokie80 wrote:

Cycloptichorn wrote:

hamburger wrote:

i don't know what it is like stateside , but in canada students are SCRAMBLING to get into medical school !
for every place in the medical faculties of our universities there are several qualified applicants .
some students attend medical schools in ireland and other countries to be able to practice medicine in canada .

we know quite a number of physicians - some are our neighbours - and while most of them don't live in million dollar mansions , they seem to live quite well .

if one wants to become a millionaire quickly , there are certainly other professions that make that possible . the physicians we know seem to want to be physicians first , rather than millionaires - which doesn't mean that we don't have any well-to-do physicians .
hbg

But, how is this possible? According to Hokie, all those physicians must be trying as hard as they can to leave your system, including emigrating to other countries.

Cycloptichorn

While the snide comments are amusing, you are exaggerating what I said. This has nothing to do with Canada - regardless of their health care system. We are talking about the US. And you are expecting to fundamentally alter the entire system which many, many people rely on for their well-being, and expect them to be ok with that. You are either stupid or crazy if you think physicians will let that pass without great opposition.

Yes, they will be okay with that, and yes, I do propose a change from a broken system which does not work, to one which does work - and many other countries do just fine with. And it isn't as if they will have much of a choice; Universal health care of one form or another polls extremely well, and they will be unable to stop change from happening.

Some may not be okay with that, and they are free to leave. I think the number who choose to do so will be very small. We have made changes to our society in the past, and our country did not collapse then; it will not do so now.

Cycloptichorn

Since when does the common person really know what is best?

Majority of people also seem to oppose homosexual marriage, but I don't think we should really let the people that matter, right? I mean unless we want the system to work as intended.

You are either stupid or crazy if you think physicians will let that pass without great opposition.

Medicare
Douglas's (socialist premier of Saskatchewan and a fire-brand baptist preacher) number one concern was the creation of Medicare. In the summer of 1962, Saskatchewan became the centre of a hard-fought struggle between the provincial government, the North American medical establishment, and the province's physicians, who brought things to a halt with the 1962 Saskatchewan Doctors' Strike. The doctors believed their best interests were not being met and feared a significant loss of income as well as government interference in medical care decisions even though Douglas agreed that his government would pay the going rate for service that doctors charged. The medical establishment claimed that Douglas would import foreign doctors to make his plan work and used racist images to try to scare the public.[citation needed] Their defenders have also argued that private or government medical insurance plans covered 60 to 63 per cent of the Saskatchewan population before Medicare legislation was introduced.[citation needed]

An often forgotten political fact is that though Douglas is widely hailed as the father of Medicare, he had retired from his position as Saskatchewan's premier, turned over this job in 1961 to Woodrow Lloyd and took the leadership of the federal New Democratic Party.

The Saskatchewan program was finally launched by his successor, Woodrow Lloyd, in 1962. The success of the province's public health care program was not lost on the federal government. Another Saskatchewan politician, newly elected Prime Minister John Diefenbaker ( A CONSERVATIVE