Health care is a basic human right.

Keeping workers healthy benefits the economy.

It's simple, I have worked with the VA Hospital for over 10-years. This is as close as we have come to socialized medicine (which every other country has -even Canada). It has worked very well here for all Veterans and the Docs work closely with major Universities to research and develop new drugs, treatments, and artificial limbs. This is all done with safety in mind and an honest need for the medication.
The Pharmaceutical Industry has gone to great lengths to create a drug for every ailment -even for social anxiety- with side effects of just being metabolized through the liver enough to kill a person! They have gone too far. Have you heard of Premarin? It consists of pregnant horses urine. They buy their own horse ranch and horses. The barns are constructed with pens for these pregnant horses to stand in and their urine is collected. The more concentrated the urine -the better- so water is restricted. There is no one over them to inspect these horses or the treatment of these animals, so they can do whatever they want to the babies born to these inhumanely kept pregnant horses. On top of this, there are many drugs on the market that haven't been fully tested. And another thing about their testing is that it's usually men most new drugs are tested on. They rarely have any statistics about how these medications will affect women.
As a nurse, I have friends who work in clinics and Dr. offices who are taken to the best restaurants in town on a daily basis for lunch -or have lunch and/or breakfast catered to their offices to get an inservice on a "new" drug they are pushing. These offices have a little pharmacy of their own with tons of samples that the Pharmacy Reps check and keep in stock and let the Doc know which meds are getting close to the expiration date- in order to use them up and get busy prescribing them to people. Is there really a need for this? The Pharmacy Reps are well-paid salesmen/saleswomen and are covered to pay for the best meals in town -and that includes dessert -and on many occasions wine.
I feel strongly that stem cell research will be the answer for 99% of the medical problems we have. The Pharmaceutical Industry would be put out of business if stem cell research could be given a chance to cure heart disease, lung disease, all kinds of cancers, Parkinson's disease, diabetes, and I could go on and on. Dr's could finally have a common goal to specialize in and we could be more involved in preventative care and natural remedies with Dr's who specialize in nutrition and exercise or even acupuncture for aches and pains.
The Insurance Companies make decisions for people about their healthcare and aren't even qualified to do so in the way they will pay or not pay for a treatment or surgical procedure. The elderly are having to choose between paying their electric bill or being able to pay for their medications (and so many elderly people are so over-medicated!) Compounded medications by a qualified Pharmacy are not covered on any insurance plan. I wonder why? Because that could take away from the Pharmaceutical Industries' greed. Rain Forests are being cut down for the Pharmaceutical Companies to re-invent their own controlled Rain Forests and to keep the Naturopathic Physicians from being able to use what they have been trained to mix and use for a natural cure. I haven't heard of one single Naturopathic Physician who has hurt anyone or done any harm to anyone they have helped. During the past 8-10 years, the Pharmaceutical companies are putting medical codes on all natural herbs and putting controls on how much can be used in vitamins, shampoos, lotions, etc. and getting a good grip on these to call them "their own".
With Universal or Socialized Medicine, we can work with the rest of the world to make things better. Have we heard bad things about socialized medicine from Canada? We were hoping to find a way to get our medications at a cheaper price from Canada-not so long ago. The friends I have known who have visited in Canada and Sweden said that when they became sick and went to the Dr. they were treated very well and were able to see a physician almost immediately being given an antibiotic and pain medicine for the bad colds they had, (if having that worked quite well for them to have a speedy recovery. Very little paperwork, and zero waiting time. I think it's time for our country to wake up and realize that we shouldn't have to wait hours in a waiting room for a Dr. who has overbooked himself and overextends himself to the point of mis-diagnosing or inappropriately prescribing the wrong medicine or the wrong dosage to us. These Dr.'s have taken out their malpractice insurance, for just these kinds of things, and yet no changes are made in his practice. If anything, he needs more patients to help to pay for the rising malpractice insurance costs. But, the Pharmacy Reps from 2 or 3 different companies will be dropping by during the morning to check and re-stock his med samples and to make plans for lunch at the local Steak House eatery. Try calling your Dr.'s office at noon. The answering svc. will answer every time -or there will be an answering machine taking your message and telling you the medical staff (nurses and Dr.) are out to lunch from 12 - 1:30. I kid you not.
In case you didn't notice, I am very much for health reform and a new outlook on healthcare. I despise the way Pharmaceutical Companies have taken control of Politics and attempt to brainwash us with commercializing medicines to have sex, enjoy life, to sleep, to breathe, or just to feel better- while the side effects are read about how this drug can cause a life threatening result-as the person on the commercial smiles and makes us think "that won't happen to me -I feel too good to have any side effects". It's so sick. I'm not so sure about the World Health Organization, either. They seem to be a very secretive group from the USA and are connected to the UN, somehow. Other countries have to apply to become a member of their group. I had never heard of them until I attended a seminar back in 1990, where a well-known physicians wife had contracted the AIDS Virus from a blood transfusion. She had had it several years, but was unaware of it until her symptoms became worse. He had speakers from Africa and all over the world who directly blamed the World Health Organization for this atrocity -along with some other politically known people. It has certainly turned my head. As a nurse, it was hard to believe that anyone involved in healthcare would want to hurt another person. But, when you think about population control or what could be in the best interests of our future as a whole? That is what WHO represents to me. As far as I know, they make the rules for the Dr.'s, the drugs, the way that vaccines are given, the way surgical procedures are done, etc., etc., etc. Are they qualified to make these decisions? I don't feel that they are and especially if I don't even know their names, much less their credentials. I don't know that anyone has any supervisory capacity over them. At any rate, our medical system is just ridiculous, and all based on capitalistic greed. I hope you will do some of your own research in reading about this. I admire President Obama for his forthrightness in this effort to give Healthcare some dignity for its own sake. I have to wonder a little myself about all this, since I understand the Pharmaceutical Industry is on President Obama's side to reform healthcare. I would like to see the Prescriptioned Drug commercials removed all together and the Pharmaceutical Reps position completely wiped out. They know the effects of "advertising". How many people do you know who can't sleep well at night these days? How many commercials for sleep medication have we seen over the past several years? Now that they have stopped many of them, how many of us became so used to them (with the music lulling us to sleep at the end of the commercial) that now we aren't seeing that anymore. For the past couple of years, all I am seeing are commercials for difficulty having sex -and the commercial ends with taking the med to make-it-happen. What will happen when they stop those commercials from being seen so often? A lot more sexual disfunction -would you agree? Commercials are very convincing, after hearing it over and over and over. There is a definite technique to get to us and in many ways to make us believe we have this problem or if we ever thought we did -we'd know exactly what to take to make it all better.
It's one thing to think that Sarah Palin can instigate some ludicrous 'death panel' involved with healthcare reform over simply finding out from our closest loved ones if they want to be resuscitated if they are found not breathing for an indefinite amount of time. Rush Limbough is engaged to his 4th wife and do they look like a perfect match? I feel embarrassment for these bullies who can WISH for the President to be unsuccessful in what he's doing to help the country! And for other kinds of bullies who mislead the misled to become fearful enough to be encouraged to carry a weapon and to kill. There are too many ignorant people out there (as Sarah well knows) who don't feel any need to research the facts -over the barrel of a gun.
Please know that I'm not on a 'hate' campaign against anyone. We have a responsibility to keep ourselves informed and to seek the truth about what we don't understand. I have a good long way to go with that. I don't proclaim to absolutely know anything. I do feel that in the questioning -and reading -and researching or googling -and then rating what's been read, we each come up with our own conclusions. All I would ask is that we don't fall for what one presently popular person decides to say. I would love to read about your ideas and what you've found to be true on this subject!

As an Australian who enjoys the benefit of a public system and private system working in parallel, I cannot believe you don't have something similar and that there is so much debate and resistance over something that so many western countries take for granted.

I can walk into any public hospital in Aus and be treated. Yes, you can wait a long time in the emergency room (hours) but that is only because other people may have more urgent conditions and I would hope that if I was seriously ill, I would be bumped up the queue also. (The government is trying to address our hospital queues right now by building more hospitals and employing more staff.) However, I do have private health insurance that I pay for every month and which covers all of my family. This does not come with my employment as generally employers do not provide health insurance as a benefit in Australia (perhaps because it is so easy to get health insurance and it is quite affordable so nobody would choose to work for a company just because they provided health insurance). The reason I have private health insurance is so that if any family member requires a hospital stay, we can have a private room - the level of medical care really doesn't differ between the public and private system.

I recently watched 'Sicko', the Michael Moore doco, and while I understand that it would have been very exaggerated (I hope it was because if not, that's truly scary!), I couldn't believe that health insurance companies rejected claims for so many dodgy reasons. A health insurance company wouldn't stay in business in Aus if they behaved in this way. Anyway, it incensed me enough to write here today and has made me even more grateful to be living in a country that provides Medicare as a birth right.

Good luck!

I work with a physician here in America who did a fellowship in your country. He observed that when doctors first complete their medical training in your country they work in the national system. After a few years, if they are good, they leave the national system for a private practice.
As a health care provider I know that the level of care provided by someone right out of training is no where near the care provided by an experienced provider who has proven their abilities and therefore advanced in their practice.
The private health option provides a lot more than a private room.

Where did you find this fact?

Mmm, not my experience at all! The obstetricians here, no matter how experienced, do both Public and Private - I'm not sure whether it's compulsory or just something you do in order to give back to the system that provided you with the training to gain your experience. Also, if you have cancer here, you get access to the best doctors and professors in the public system. My mum has cancer and has been provided with all treatment and care via the public system (without any money changing hands) - the doctors she sees also operate within private practice but again, it may be the done thing to do the right thing by the hospitals that gave you the training opportunities. My friend is a doctor within the emergency department - he really has nowhere to go if he was to leave the public system because that's where the EDs are. Some private hospitals have EDs but they are small and very quiet because (get this!) you have to pay $250 AUD to be seen there.

Therefore, I'm not sure which doctors leave the public system here to go into private practice as they seem to operate in both. Perhaps surgeons? But then all the research and the interesting cases are done at the Public hospitals - you don't separate siamese twins at a private hospital, and you don't remove complicated brain tumours at private hospitals. The hub of expertise is in the public system, and that expertise seems to be shared across both systems.

Private health insurance is more than a private room, I agree. But my point was that I can get quality care in either system - for me, I took out private hospital insurance so I could get a private room in a private hospital (as they are closer geographically and smaller) - otherwise I frankly wouldn't have bothered as there is little difference in the quality of the medical treatment I would receive.

Nobody in Australia gets turned away from any public hospital because they don't have health insurance or cash and I can't imagine living within a system where your survival chances are determined by your socioeconomic status.

I would LOVE to see a private/public health care system working in tandem but that's NOT what's being proposed here in America.

The bill we are fighting against will destroy our economy and solidify socialist/communist agendas and power here. We are adamantly opposed. It's not about health care at all, that's just the way it's been labeled. Most of the 'health care' in the bill doesn't even become active until 2016 but the taxes to pay for it start in 2012. They say five years of taxes will cover ten years of 'fixing'. Does that sound right to you? It doesn't to us.

Just so you know, I can also walk into any emergency room in America and get the finest care regardless of my financial status or insurance level. America already has 'universal health care' in that respect. in fact, hospitals are legally banned from turning anyone away but there is no system set up to cover these costs. This is a very large factor in why health care is so expensive here. MILLIONS of people use hospitals as primary care givers.

our health insurance industry needs an over haul. the regulations that control it need an overhaul. our public health care system needs an over haul. The proposed bill doesn't do any of that, it just spends money we don't have.
It's not that Americans don't want health care, we're just not going to give up freedom and economic stability to get it and no one is going to convince us otherwise We really don't care(or we shouldn't) what the rest of the world is doing or thinking we should do. That sounds harsh, but it's true.

freedom is everything
Dawn

You talk about human rights but you have no clue what you're saying. Here's a simple way to adapt your thinking.

picture the last man on earth. he is absolutely alone. there are no rules to follow.there is no infrastructure to support him.
what 'rights' does he have?

he has a right to fight for his survival.
he has a right to find his own food
he has a right to shelter himself
he has a right to wonder about the world he is in
he has a right to keep himself in the best health possible

now, what does Nature/God provide him?

raw materials to use in weapon making, shelter building, and health insuring (plants, mud, fire,etc)
animals and plants to eat
diversity and beauty to wonder at
intelligence enough to choose the best things to insure his survival and health
the freedom to make his own choices based on how he wants to live (he can live in a cave or build a cabin, he can fish/hunt or gather berries and roots, he can stay healthy by eating properly, avoiding physical harm, and seeking remedies for what ails him or not)

what does Nature/God NOT provide him

the ability to sit on his ass and do nothing and survive.
if he doesn't work for it, he will die
Nature/God doesn't guarantee anything, certainly not health

health care is a commodity created by humans specializing in ensuring the health of other humans. You can avoid paying for it by becoming a specialist yourself or eschewing the care provided by others. YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO DEMAND THAT ANYONE ELSE KEEP YOU HEALTHY.
if you think I'm wrong, imagine if that's what our lone man decided to do...stand on a high mountain and shake his fist at the world and demand it keep him healthy because that's his right.
yeah, that would work.

Dawn

We can find this fact in a democratic society. Health care is Human's common interest.

Im from Canada, and I am thankful that we have a government funded health care system. I believe that we as tax payers pay for essential services, and health care is one of them. Yes, our doctors dont make as much as those in a private health care system, but due to regulation, whether you live or die does not rely on your bank account, or having to deal with tricky insurance companies. So many people that I know personally are still alive today, where they would not be if it was solely based on what they could afford. And having a government regulated system, doesnt allow for the demand or need for the service to be directly connected in how much the doctors charge. I truly wish all good will, health and happiness :)