Is national health insurance "socialized medicine"?

*No.

*Socialized medicine is a system in which doctors and hospitals work for the government and draw salaries from the government. Doctors in the Veterans Administration and the Armed Services are paid this way. Examples also exist in Great Britain and Spain.

*But in most European countries, Canada, Australia and Japan they have socialized financing, or socialized health insurance, not socialized medicine.

*The government pays for care that is delivered in the private (mostly not-for-profit) sector. This is similar to how Medicare works in this country. Doctors are in private practice and are paid on a fee-for-service basis from government funds. The government does not own or manage their medical practices or hospitals.

*The term socialized medicine is often used to conjure images of government bureaucratic interference in medical care. That does not describe what happens in countries with national health insurance. It does describe the interference by insurance company bureaucrats in our health system.

http://www.pnhp.org/ http://www.dennis4president.com/go/issues/a-healthy-nation/ *H.R. 676 [109th]: Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-676

Panel to discuss health care reform in Lawrence,Kansas

Forum designed last year in campaign season may become annual event.

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2007/oct/10/panel_discuss_health_care_reform/?city_local

National Health Insurance is the way to go.

The U.S. spends twice as much as other industrialized nations on health care, $7,129 per capita. Yet our system performs poorly in comparison and still leaves 47 million without health coverage and millions more inadequately covered.

This is because private insurance bureaucracy and paperwork consume one-third (31 percent) of every health care dollar. Streamlining payment though a single nonprofit payer would save more than $350 billion per year, enough to provide comprehensive, high-quality coverage for all Americans.

*Currently, about 64% of our health care system is financed by public money: federal and state taxes, property taxes and tax subsidies.

*These funds pay for Medicare, Medicaid, the VA, coverage for public employees (including teachers), elected officials, military personnel, etc.

*There are also hefty tax subsidies to employers to help pay for their employees' health insurance. About 17% of heath care is financed by all of us individually through out-of-pocket payments, such as co-pays, deductibles, the uninsured paying directly for care, people paying privately for premiums, etc.

*Private employers only pay 19% of health care costs. In all, it is a very "regressive" way to finance health care, in that the poor pay a much higher percentage of their income for health care than higher income individuals do.

*Another consideration is that everyone would have the same comprehensive health coverage, including all medical, hospital, eye care, dental care, long-term care, and mental health services.

*Currently, many people and businesses are paying huge premiums for insurance that is almost worthless if they were to have a serious illness.

=================== The workers and others receiving the 64% of tax dollars thus far are not complaining about who is paying for their coverage....us the taxpayer. Adding another 36% would cover all so how bad can that be? ===================

It seems like we discussed this before recently--and ms_canada gave us some input on the way Canada handles it.

I think there should be a national health care system which provides basic and catastrophic insurance that is tied to our income tax return--we can indicate on that if we want to be a part of it. I think I mentioned this before, as well. I feel that there are so many people who work at jobs they are not suited for simply to be able to have health insurance, and we have so many jobs where really skilled people would make a difference in our society (mechanics, farmers, landscape gardeners, etc.) if they could do those jobs and have access to reasonable health insurance. Also, it would reward those who are willing to hold jobs instead of just taking from society. It certainly seems like such a plan would not be too complicated, and would make it possible for people to choose the level of health insurance on their tax return--having a larger percentage taken out of their income, etc., if they wanted more complete coverage.

I've grown impatient with LJW repeating the same questions. I don't think it should be reformed, it's just perfect. (So much for being truthful!)

I think it's more fun to hear about how impatient other posters can be, makes me feel better about my occasional bouts of "why in the blue blazes is holding up this line?", or "you need what? when?".

Too late to be heard.

I have insurance and my insurance company gets charged twice what it should to cover those that don't pay. Our system is sinking because of the poor and unhealthy.
Institute basic services for those that can't afford them and limited doctors visits. I would love it if there were doctors that the insurance companies could do business with and then there were doctors that the "unable to pay" could go to that would provide basic services and limited referrals. If you can't afford health care try living healthier and studying medicine....

How to reform the health care system?

I think we should start by having one...

First, take a hard look at malpractice lawsuits. Out-of-control punitive damage awards and 'pain and suffering' cases are just making lawyers rich, really - especially when it comes to elective cosmetic surgery. Suing someone for millions of dollars because you had complications when he (at your totally voluntary behest) injected you with botulinum toxin doesn't improve the overall standard of real health care. It just jacks the rates of malpractice insurance, which increases the cost of healthcare.

I'd love an option for nationalized health insurance. It wouldn't even have to be free, as long as it was reasonably affordable. That way, since I'm a contractor that works for several different agencies, I wouldn't have to work out how to pay for a health insurance plan I get from one employer while I'm on assignment for another employer.

I say we should be able to cut in front of other patients in the line at the ER.

That, and we should be able to bill Doctors for our time that we had to wait for them past our scheduled appointment time.

sigh

Sue's gone all Peruvian on us.

I just don't understand why some of you think that a government run health care system is so evil. You've been listening to too much propaganda. I grew up in Canada, and I can honestly say that although not perfect, it works. The health care system in the United States has advantages if you can pay for them, but most are advantages of convenience, such as not needing a referral to see a specialist. I have never been denied care or waited an excessively long time for a procedure in Canada, nor has anyone I've ever known.

Right now, this country pays more per person on healthcare than Canadians do. Of course, that comes straight from our pockets, and not from our taxes. Why can't we expect to pay the same that we do now on healthcare, and receive a better system than Canada? It makes sense, but that's not what we have, no matter what the propaganda machine tells you.

snap_pop_no_crackle,

That's a superb idea for discounts; I'm sure it will promote recycling too.

H_L

Life is about choices, finding a good doctor is a really big area of opportunity for the general population to make good choices, when those who do not have to many opportunities can make bad choices, they don't have to many opportunities to be able to overcome from the bad choices.

People who get hurt have no financial cushion because they medical insurance is not enough to cover all their expenses and they're living on fixed income.

The situation is that doctor's can have a free way to turn their office into a money business. Every 15 minutes they see a patient not enough for a complete examination. Making it easy to for everything to end in a malpractice, doctor "mistakes" ect.

Here is my..pain,my anger,my feelings, I went looking for a better quality of life and I almost did not make it back home . Because I went to fix my intestine tract and I came back with my intestine tract worst and my doctor told my family that he made a mistake at the surgery : he burn my left kidney urether ...!

So I will add here a 'YES' , USA need to reform it's health care system the "day before yesterday". Meaning "AS SOON AS POSSIBLE". http://listentolillie.angelfire.com/blog/