socialized medicine, that's how.

if people pay "nothing" for their healthcare, it becomes far oo expensive and too inefficient.

what you think and what is reality are far apart.

Surveys very clearly show that most westernized nations with socialized health care have far greater appreciation for their health care than we do here and much more access than we do here.

Again, as elitist continue offering false information such as choice or death panels, 45 million Americans are uninsured.

Claiming there is a crisis in Britain without it actually being true makes you just another in a long line of people who are unable to make their claims honestly.

"Improved Medicare"

A pig wearing a bow is still a pig. Medicare is garbage

If you're a veteran or a reservist, you already have socialist medical care. If you have medicare or medicaid, you have socialist medical care. If you pay into a company health plan, you have a smaller scale socialist health care plan. If you pay into social security or a railroad retirement, you have a socialist retirement fund. The same can be said for most things we combine our money and treasure to fund. Whether that be roads, bridges, Police, Fire, water or waste water, we all do better when we all pull together. There will always be those who complain and whine incessantly about having to be drug along, but they are children in grownup bodies.

Socialism isn't the bogeyman, people who don't research and post blindly out of bigotry, hate or stupidity are.

"He that will not reason is a bigot; he that cannot reason is a fool; he that dares not reason is a slave." — William Drummond of Hawthornedenne (13 December 1585 – 4 December 1649), Scottish poet.

It's not possible to live as you wish to live..."to be left alone, and to leave others alone." Like it or not, your choices about how to live affect me, and vice versa. If you choose to smoke, you affect my health with your secondary smoke. If you choose to drive a vehicle, you pollute my air, water, and soil (which, in turn, affect my health.) If you choose to eat poorly and wind up with more healthcare costs than you and your insurance can cover, guess who gets stuck with the bill?

It is rather sad that a grownup doesn't understand that his/her decisions, even when leaving others alone, have effects on others.

Consider these:

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. C. S. Lewis

A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money. G. Gordon Liddy

It is not the responsibility of the government or the legal system to protect a citizen from himself. Justice Casey Percell

I believe that every individual is naturally entitled to do as he pleases with himself and the fruits of his labor, so far as it in no way interferes with any other men’s rights. Abraham Lincoln

"If you're a veteran or a reservist, you already have socialist medical care."

Lie.

I'm a veteran and we pay for our insurance through my wife's employer's) a private company) group. I get ZERO health care nor any benefit for the serving this country other than a headstone and maybe a flag when I keel over

"He that will not reason is a bigot; he that cannot reason is a fool"

He that lies is a liar.

You don't get health care provided by the VA as a benefit of having served in the military?

Perhaps you're choosing to buy other insurance instead, but I can't imagine why you wouldn't qualify for VA care.

It's now the law that if you have health insurance from a private company, you are required to report that to the VA so they can bill your health insurance company for the health care that you receive from them.

That is relatively new, so it is perhaps not well known.

There is also a means testing applied for non service connected health care, so whether or not you qualify for free health care depends upon your income.

If you are of limited means, take your DD214 and go to the nearest VA hospital and sign up as soon as possible. There are no fees at all if you cannot afford to pay.

But defiantly take care of the paperwork the first chance you get and get a VA patient data card, so that if an emergency arises you won't have to worry about that.

After you have the VA patient card, all you need to do is get to the hospital door and you will be taken care of.

For more information:
http://www.va.gov/healthbenefits/cost/insurance.asp

You left out retired military personnel, they get free health care from the VA also.

And, being on a VA disability pension is all the proof you need. If you're on a non service connected disability, which requires being disabled and also having served during wartime, they never means test you.

They don't need to, because they don't give you enough money for that to ever become an issue.

Retired military personnel (who do not have a disability) DO NOT get free health care from the VA. Even if they have a disability rating, the VA only covers that condition, not all health care in general.

Please stop talking about subjects that you obviously don’t know anything about.

Military retirees have insurance that is very similar to what many companies offer. The basic plan is at no additional cost, better coverage comes with premiums.

As a military retiree, I will go on record and say that we “paid” for our health care in advance.

To see if you qualify for health care from the VA, click on this link and answer a very few questions:

http://www.va.gov/healtheligibility/Library/tools/Quick_Eligibility_Check/

After you have a VA patient card to present it is good at any of the over 170 VA hospitals and 400 outpatient clinics across the nation. There is no wait for processing or any questions, with one swipe of the card you are admitted, and then you are in.

And, all of the doctors at any of them can instantly retrieve all of the health care information about all of the health procedures that the VA has done for you. In that respect, the VA health care system is light years ahead of the private system.

And, if the particular VA hospital cannot provide you with the services you need in a timely fashion, they will refer to to a hospital that can, and pay the bill for you.

But, you need to go to a VA hospital first and request health care there.

If my dr had better informed me he was going to drill a hole in my knee, I might not have had the surgery that will probably keep me from be crippled at 60.

I can barely watch the video because it hurts too much unless the Vicodin is hitting it's peak serum level. OUCH!

"The US tends to have a high infant mortality rate because we have a very advanced health care system that delivers very premature children that other countries wouldn't be able to deliver."

Source? And why is the rate higher than many other advanced countries that can also deliver premature babies?

"I agree with more computerized medical records, but they bring another set of problems not experienced before."

I have to wonder what those problems could possibly be. Your medical information going back for many years is available for the doctor's use in less than a split second, and can be charted and graphed in a chart that goes back for over a decade in any fashion that he chooses with a few keyclicks. It is an amazing thing to see!

Also, a complete list of all the medications and the dosages for each that you have taken for the last decade or more is right there for very quick viewing.

And, all if the notes that every doctor you have seen in the past decade or more are right there for quick and easy reading.

The only thing left out is - the doctor does not ever have to ask you any questions, which you would not be able to completely and accurately answer in less than 5 seconds anyway.

"And just because you move charting to a computer doesn't mean it takes any less time."

Only if the doctor is damn good with a slide rule, and can slow down the clock!

Well, like I said, I agree with computerized medical records, for just the reasons you outlined. But just because it's on a computer doesn't mean it's problem free.

For example, everyone thought e-scripts would ensure that miss filled prescriptions would be a thing of the past because everyone would be able to read what was prescribed. Well, that's true, but now we get e-scripts that simply don't make any sense.

For example, we got one the other day that said "Atenolol (50mg) 100mg PO daily" Well, how do you fill that? They make both a 50mg and 100mg tablet? So did they want them to have two 50mg tabs daily or one 100mg tab? Yea, it's all the same dosage, but if the patient has been taking one tablet and now all of the sudden is supposed to take two, it might confuse them. They might still only take one and only get half the dose. Then when they go back, the doc sees their BP is high and asks if they've been taking their meds, they say, yea, I take a tablet each day. So he goes up on the dose, or adds another med they not only don't need, but could harm them.

I think computerized medical records are good, but I think the public should be aware that they pose a new set of problems not dealt with before. When I have just a piece of paper, I can write exactly what I want. But when I have to send an e-script, the system sets many restrictions on what I can put on that script.

Well, that's just one example, there are many more. Electronic medical records are good and I think they need to be used more, but they are not problem free.

The instructions are VERY CLEAR. If you do not understand them, you are given the telephone number extension of a nurse to call in case you are confused.

And if that is still not enough, you are given instructions and the times to go see your doctor for a DIGMA meeting.

But you are correct, nothing is ever going to be perfect. The thing that worries me the most is that many of the instructions on the medicine bottles and the disclaimers are in VERY small print, and are therefore very difficult for many people to read.

Also there is also the fact that the VA uses a bid system to procure the most inexpensive generic drugs whenever they are available. I have been quite shocked at how different in appearance the different pills of the same dosage are!

For example, my original Lisinopril (to lower blood pressure) medication was VERY small. When the refill arrived, it was much larger, and a dead ringer for my Welbutrin pills!

I just now counted the number of different medications that I take every day in order to live as normal of a life as possible. The number is eight. The doctor wanted to put me on another one also, but I refused because the side effects are horrible.

Some are to be taken during the day, and some are to be taken at night. I have to keep them all in a row, one row is for daytime, and the other row is for at nighttime.

And it is the damnedest thing - the pills very often look very different from the last time I got them. Sometimes I am to break them in half, other times not.

I very carefully arrange them when I receive them in order to avoid confusion, and I try to always read the labels as I take them out of the bottles to take them.

But I'm sure I've made mistakes in the past, that's why I try to reread what the bottles say every time I take them.

Most people will never understand what it's like to have to take that many medications just to stay on an even keel. The strange thing is - when I'm doing OK, I am perfectly normal in every respect. In fact, my psychiatrist assures me that when I'm doing well, I function at an amazingly high level.

But quite regularly problems arise, and I don't want to leave the house at all when that occurs. It makes keeping a job impossible.

With the VA's computerized medical system, the first thing done is you have your blood drawn. About 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours later, the lab has the results ready for whatever the doctor ordered.

Then about 1 and 1/2 hours later, you talk to a nurse who takes your vitals, that is, your weight, heart rate, blood pressure, and asks you a few questions about your health concerns. And, also gives you your flu shot, if you consent.

Then, you wait about 10 to 15 minutes to talk to the doctor. Last time, he was a bit concerned with my blood pressure. So, he clicked the keyboard, and showed me a graph of what my systolic blood pressure had been measured at on many dates over the last ten years.

Sure, it went up and down, but the line representing my systolic pressure seemed to be centered at about 135. So, he recommended that I be put on a high blood pressure medication. That took about 30 seconds altogether.

Then, he looked at the graph of my LDL cholesterol, with many data points, again going back about ten years.

That seemed rather high also, so we discussed what changes I should consider making in my diet and exercise plans, and what medication might help. And then, a few keyclicks, and the prescription was on its way to me, no need to visit a pharmacist. That took about three or four minutes.

And then, I left. I had seen the doctor for less than 15 minutes for my physical, and everything had been covered.

And, I had only been in the hospital for a bit over 2 hours.

What if you need an electrocardiogram? I know from experience that from the time the doctor orders it to the time it's done is barely over an hour.

And a stress test of your heart? Get in line, and wait for 30 minutes. Then you are injected with a dye, and then you have to wait for about an hour. Then electrodes are attached to you, and you run on the treadmill under the supervision of the doctor.

Less than 2 hours later, you are done.

An X ray? That's done digitally on a computer, and takes about 20 minutes. And, it can be viewed at any of the over 170 VA hospitals later, should the need arise.

Without computerized medical records, how long do you think all those procedures would take?

And no one ever looked for, and then ran around with pieces of paper.

It costs less than $100 to have a female cat spayed. It is very rare for a cat to die while being spayed.

But the exact same procedure on a woman is called a hysterectomy, and usually costs at least $2,000.

Very costly procedures at hospitals provide top quality treatment for chronic and serious disease. This is all good. But the problem is, it all goes into hospital overhead and thus increases the cost of rather minor and preventative services. This is not so good, because it raises the cost on everything (ie $3 charge for an aspirin).

I just think we can have a broader health care system that provides the basics for everyone at a lower cost. It might not be as fancy, but it would be more accesible to all.

But, SSI is still available if you don't have enough Social Security quarters to qualify, but it can take a very long time to get approved. Then, Medicaid will cover the cost, if you can find medical providers that accept it.

Being able to stay on your parent's medical insurance hopefully will be long enough to cover that gap in coverage.

When my wife and I visited Canada, we spent several hours talking to a couple, who were both doctors, and who had practiced in both countries.

Their thumbnail sketch of the systems was that if you had a lot of money, you could do better in the US, but if not, you would do better in Canada.