Health care ideas for the US

[_krose]

I am uncomfortable with the way health care is used as a campaign issue. I do want a new system in the US, because it's clear the current system is not working. However, I don't like the way all of the politicians have approached the issue.

Each candidate has come up with a plan, and we are expected to evaluate them based on that plan, assuming that it will be implemented if they are elected. But no matter how smart and caring the candidate is, I don't want a new system based on his or her ideas alone.

I want a commission appointed, with a lot of smart people getting together to develop the best system for the country. They should study all the systems used in countries around the world, and come up with the best one for us. The US is very much behind the rest of the world, but there is an advantage in coming to the game late that can benefit us. We have a chance to evaluate the other systems and take what works and avoid a lot of the problems.

What think you? What do you know about what works well in other countries and what does not? I think the Swiss model looks pretty good, for a start.




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[_bcspace]

I am uncomfortable with the way health care is used as a campaign issue. I do want a new system in the US, because it's clear the current system is not working. However, I don't like the way all of the politicians have approached the issue.

One of the biggest problems has been insurance mandates. Used to be that you could customize your own insurance, now we have to pay for someone else's lifestyle choices.

For example, many of you might not apprecciate paying for the pre-natal and delivery of my seven children. So likewise, I don't appraciate paying for someone else's smoking or overeating habits.

Each candidate has come up with a plan, and we are expected to evaluate them based on that plan, assuming that it will be implemented if they are elected. But no matter how smart and caring the candidate is, I don't want a new system based on his or her ideas alone.

I want a commission appointed, with a lot of smart people getting together to develop the best system for the country. They should study all the systems used in countries around the world, and come up with the best one for us. The US is very much behind the rest of the world, but there is an advantage in coming to the game late that can benefit us. We have a chance to evaluate the other systems and take what works and avoid a lot of the problems.

Anakin Skywalker said much the same thing in Episode II. It's not going to work in a democracy and lo! what did Anakin become? Do you really want that? We have it in Obama and the Democrats.

What think you? What do you know about what works well in other countries and what does not? I think the Swiss model looks pretty good, for a start.

I'd have to look into the Swiss system but the European way is fatally flawed in general being Socialist. It looks like it works at first because you have a relatively low population and a relative lot of initial wealth (North Sea oil and such). But all the is changing now.

Also, the US is subsidizing the world. In the socialist plans, the price is artificially low which drives up the cost in the US. Think about. The US does the most medical research and our premiums and co-pays rise to keep pace while the other countries contribute nothing to the effort.

If the US goes universal, everything collapses and you have little or no advancement or supply becuase the artificially low price drives up demand.

However, I've given though to what ought to be in a health care system and this is what I think...

1. Eliminate all coverage mandates.

2. An insurance company must cover everything.

3. An insurance company must be allowed to charge any price for any coverage.

4. The consumer must be allowed to opt out of any coverage (they build their own plans).

[_ajax18]

When you mandate that people go to school for 12 years memorizing facts that they forget in a messy all over the place subject like biology (sadly not at the level of physics yet at all), you end up paying a lot of money for 2 minutes of someones time.

The more we regulate, mandate and make decisions for people, the more it's all going to cost. Medicine is not really a free market. It's an artificial market controlled by the AMA to a large extent. We can't handle a free market in medicine therefore we forfeit a free markets benefits.

Life has a price. People are far from rational enough to even talk sense when it comes to that. We just think "survive at all costs." Basically we want too much, and in the process, we get even less.

[_bcspace]

The more we regulate, mandate and make decisions for people, the more it's all going to cost. Medicine is not really a free market. It's an artificial market controlled by the AMA to a large extent. We can't handle a free market in medicine therefore we forfeit a free markets benefits.

That is correct, which is why I've reduced it to a couple of mandates that really only explain and mandate a free market along with the only regulation needed.

[_Brenton]

The biggest problem, from most international observers point-of-view with U.S. healthcare is that it is costly.
Healthcare should be one of the cheapest, if not totally free things in any nation.

Healthcare should have way more funding than military, for example.