IT'S TIME FOR UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE

You don't seem to understand anything about "evidence" to back up your statements. You're too sloppy to be responsible for anything too important. Your statements have very little credibilty because they are sloppy and without evidence.

It remains to be seen whether Europe, with its aging population and restrictions on immigration will long be able to sustain the economic burdens of the relatively generous pension and social welfare systems it now maintains. Indeed changes and restrictions to them are already beginning to appear. It is likely that process will continue and grow.

UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE IS NOT THE ANSWER.

The only way that you're going to make this nation healthier, and to reduce the cost of healthcare is by making people responsible for themselves.

"Oh, you smoke? OK... then your insurance premiums are 5 times what our base coverage is."

Smoking Deaths Cost Nation $92 Billion in Lost Productivity Annually
Smoking cost the nation about $92 billion in the form of lost productivity in 1997-2001, up about $10 billion from the annual mortality related productivity losses for the years 1995-1999, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new lost productivity estimate when combined with smoking-related health-care costs, which was reported at $75.5 billion in 1998, exceeds $167 billion per year in the United States.

The report also finds that during 1997-2001 an estimated 438,000 premature deaths occur each year as a result of smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke. In comparison, approximately 440,000 smoking-related deaths were estimated to have occurred annually from 1995-1999.

"Cigarette smoking continues to impose substantial health and financial costs on individuals and society," said CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding. "We've made good progress in reducing the number of people who smoke, but we have much more work to do. If we want to significantly reduce the toll in this decade, we must provide the 32 million smokers who say they want to quit with the tools and support to do so successfully."

This latest study updates the number of deaths due to smoking during 1997-2001, specifically updating the 1995-1999 average estimates previously released. It also reports productivity losses from deaths and finds that smoking causes 3.3 million years of potential life lost for men and 2.2 million years for women.

Smoking, on average, reduces adult life expectancy by approximately 14 years.
should that not be a wake-up call for the nations of the world ???
but in particular the U.S. and canada ???

"Despite the slow steady declines in prevalence in the United States, cigarette smoking still causes hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths each year," said Dr. Corinne Husten, acting director, CDC Office on Smoking and Health. "It's in everyone's best interest to prevent and reduce tobacco use. People will have longer, healthier lives, and there will be fewer smoking-related costs."

For more information about tobacco use and smoking cessation, visit the Office on Smoking and Health Web site at http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco. One resource now available to all smokers is HHS' 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669). The toll-free number is a single access point to the National

Network of Tobacco Cessation Quitlines. Callers are automatically routed to their state's quitline services.

Cycloptichorn wrote:

I think that the hospitals and insurance companies both bill for each and every piece of work they think they can actually get away with - whether it is legitimate or not.

I should have been clearer - they pass the bills along, ie, refuse to pay, for everything they think they can get away with doing.

I don't mind clarifying, but it should have been apparent...

I agree that many countries in Europe with its high cost of social services will become a larger burden on their economies for many reasons, one of which is their aging demographics - especially in Germany. (This is what I read a couple of years ago, but think it still holds true.) The French continue to demand greater benefits and shorter workweeks that will also become a problem (if not already). They cannot possibly sustain this course without penalties within their own country and in the world market place. With two of the largest Euro countries carrying such high social costs cannot possibly continue without some consequences.

cicerone imposter wrote:

You don't seem to understand anything about "evidence" to back up your statements. You're too sloppy to be responsible for anything too important. Your statements have very little credibilty because they are sloppy and without evidence.

What evidence do I need to provide? If you don't believe me, ask your wife. If she is a nurse and works in a hospital, she will tell you everything I've said is true. What is it you need evidence for? I'm also wondering why you think I'm "sloppy". And again, I like how you're trying to imply that I'm a complete idiot.

Why is it that I have no credibility, but you, who obviously know nothing about health care and the systems that make it run, can post comments on here that DO have credibility? You're just looking things up in google and using that for "evidence" - which is hardly a reliable source.

What's with a company like Walgreens that increases the price of a simple generic antibiotic 10% each 3 months?

With food so expensive these days, I still wonder how so many folks are fat.