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Originally Posted by Army_of_One  Social medicine does NOT work. SEE CANADA....and some countries are trying to go away from it.... |
I believe you meant to write "socialized medicine", and the Canada system is not a Canadian system but a provencial system. Regardless by and large it works better in that it guarantees a certain level of care for everyone. The well documented history of waits and "rationing" aside, it seems to work but it works at a high price. The lowered drug costs are well documented. If anyone thinks we can maintain the status quo in the US without resorting to asking the hard questions about instant access then they are sorely mistaken.
Seeing how you don't have to purchase health care and the quality of life for the over 65 population drastically improved with the advent of Medicare (and expanded social security), I don't see how you can assail basic government provided medical care as socialized medicine in an intellecutally honest debate. Our cost of care is the highest and public health indicators are generally among the lowest of the industrialized nations it's kind of hard to state that basic benefits guaranteed to a population does not work.
Healthcare takes a huge chunk of GNP already and it's going to get worse. There's more government involvement in private care now in the US than a good conservative would even think about.
Our basic healthcare safety net are requiring hospitals to provide free care and blaming providers and insurers for the cost of care. While there's some measure of blame, by and large its akin to blaming grocery stores for people going hungry.
And for the record, I think the H. Clinton plan is election season posturing and does not solve anything. Its just a way of claiming to do something and buys off the insurance industry in the process.