[Nathans_Dad]

Ok, I might shock some of you here, but I actually am in favor of some sort of nationwide health care system. Now, before you throw me off of the conservative bus, let me explain.

First, we are ALREADY paying for healthcare. It comes through government grants to hospitals and through Medicare/Medicaid, not to mention increased charges to paying patients by clinics and hospitals to make up for those who cannot pay. The problem is that people are using the ER as a primary care clinic. A ER visit for medication refills and a physical may cost medicaid $250. The same visit in a clinic might be $50. Not only that, but these people do not go to the doctor routinely, so hypertension that might have been easily controlled in a clinic setting 2 years ago is now out of control and requires hospitalization.

Therefore, it seems to me that a basic nationwide system would actually end up saving us money, or at least be cost neutral. Of course, that depends on what the system ends up looking like.

I have said in earlier threads that there already is a free or nearly free healthcare system available to most if not all Americans. It is the county system. I think that we should increase funding for the county system and make it more available to the public. If you need more capability, then augment the system that is already there.

Now then, one thing that I think will be a sticking point. Obviously the US is not going to a completely socialized system a la Canada. The middle class through upper class will not stand for it. If you can pay for your healthcare, you have every right to get your care faster than someone who cannot pay. Healthcare is not a right, it is a commodity. The US public has to understand the problems with a socialized system. Wait times are common. You might not get your MRI next week, it might be 6 weeks from now. Your bypass surgery might be 4 months from now. These are things that I saw regularly in the county system. It's a fact of life...when you have limited resources then wait times increase.

I personally have no problem with a basic national system which you can then lay your private insurance on top of. I don't have a problem with the idea that someone who has private insurance will get admitted to a nicer hospital with possibly better physicians (due to increased pay) and will get their operation faster than someone who is in the national system with no private insurance.

My fear is that the Dems will want to make everyone equal in their access to care and thus pull everyone down to the lowest level of access. THat plan will never pass, the public won't stand for it.

If the Dems (and Reps for that matter) are smart, they will implement a tiered system which really addresses the issues.