oh really "poor nations"...I guess you better inform the WHO and the CIA to correct their statistics... longest lifespans belong to the most industrialized nations with the best health care not to poor nations, poor nations where people work their butts off everyday just to feed themselves...
The United States has the highest Cancer, Diabetes and Heart Disease rates in the world. eg: Vietnam is 10 times lower.
You do that all the time. So do I and so do we all. That's because we are part of society. You should try find out more about it before automatically assuming you don't want it.
Don't we Americans have the misconception that all countries' national health care systems are for fixing everybody at all cost? No. Only we Americans are so arrogant that we expect a healthcare system, public or private, to heal everyone always. Other countries' national healthcare systems are reasonable, they are there to fix reasonable things that can go wrong with you, before they become a disability and put you out of work. These would be like a few broken bones, catching flu, fix a rush, ... . Definitely not about keeping your cancer or heart failure or kidney failure alive indefinitely. It is our own American arrogance, controlled by insurance industry public relations, that clouds our own understanding and prevents us from going to a doctor with even as little a your kid's pulled wrist after gymclass.
Try addressing what I said. "The United States has the highest Cancer, Diabetes and Heart Disease rates in the world."
Well I do pay taxes, maybe not much but pay for things I don't want. I don't like our big military and think we spend twice as much as we need to so why should I be forced to pay for that? I don't drive so why should I have tax dollars subsidize roads if you drive YOU should pay for the costs. I don't care about education the government should fund that at all K through university level let parents be obligated for education. Churches I don't like their tax protections treat them like any business and tax them like a McDonalds the donations as income. I could go on there are lots of things I don't approve of but have to pay for but do with my money so what makes YOU so special? So you don't want to buy insurance fine don't or you don't want to go to doctors fine don't I don't see a gun to anyones head the law says you cannot go to jail over not paying for coverage but they can go after the money in other ways like docking your pay its still a tax debt you can't bankrupt out of it. Health care for me is one thing that makes sense poor sick people cost alot of money to treat in the ER and hospital, they cost alot if they get a community disease and don't seek prudent immediate care and spread Bird Flu to others or people like me get so disabled we can't work then we get full support from society. And I noted if health care was covered I would work to my normal number of hours earning more and being a more productive citizen while saving money for retirement. Right now I must meet Charity Care law demands so opt not to do so, I also refuse to act on my credit file right now its "thin" and have no credit scores at all again a defense for creditors combine that with a verifiable for ten years crappy income it means I cannot hope to pay even if they push for it.
I don't believe they can dock your pay, if you have info on that please post it. I have a full time job and make good money, I made a deal with my employer to cut my insurance but to pay me more, they did it. I have private insurance for Emergency Care, and that's it. Hospitals, Prescription drugs..... no f'ing way.. I live healthy in every way and so will never need the common "HealthCare". No Sir, not going to do it. I am not going to be responsible for the unhealthy lifestyles of others all while making 100's of Billions of Dollars for Big Pharma. cheers
you come up absurd silly logic for political reasons to oppose health care... the US is ranked 7th for cancer http://www.wcrf.org/cancer_statistics/cancer_frequency.php 13th for heart disease http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_hea_dis_dea-health-heart-disease-deaths and doesn't even come close for making the top 10 diabetes http://healthhubs.net/diabetes/which-countries-have-the-highest-rates-of-diabetes/ there's a reason why the poorest countries have the lowest life expectancies, they don't have healthcare, the same principle works for americans with no healthcare
head in the sand denial-ism based on some extreme political ideological stance isn't going to protect you, everyone gets ill...
No, everyone does not get "ill" But please if you will, post some examples of your definition of "ill".
Well, actually, western UHC schemes do try to keep people alive as long as possible, as long as it's in their best interests. Naturally, there sometimes comes a time when palliative care is the best option.
They cannot jail you but its still a tax due even if a penalty and they can as far as I can tell treat it as a civil debt if they wanted to that is if it racks up the IRS could take someone to court, get a court order and act on the debt with the usual methods and you cannot bankrupt discharge an IRS debt. The law actually is neutral on this sort of action but they cannot give you a criminal penalty for this that is in the ACA wording. Actually I would think if you opted out and owed them money at some point the IRS would go after people for the money owed its their job.
"..... apparently the IRS does not have the legal authority to force anyone to pay this tax, regardless of whether or not they choose to purchase health insurance. According to the law, the IRS will not be permitted to freeze the bank accounts of taxpayers who choose not to purchase health insurance, nor will the agency be allowed to garnish wages. The IRS also does not have the authority to levy interest charges on those who choose not to pay the penalties. The only thing the IRS is permitted to do under the new law is withhold tax refunds from those that are due them, and that do not purchase health insurance. Since the majority of tax filers every year are owed refunds, the IRS hopes the threat of not receiving one will be enough to convince the American public to comply with the federal government’s forced health care system. If this does not work, the IRS is likely to simply send out threatening letters in a desperate attempt to scare people into paying the tax. According to Elizabeth Maresca, a former IRS trial attorney who now supervises the Tax & Consumer Litigation Clinic at Fordham University‘s Law School, most people end up paying whatever is demanded of them by the IRS when it comes in the form of a scary letter. The fact that the IRS lacks any legal authority to collect an Affordable Care Act tax needs to be spread far and wide so that the American people know their rights. When it comes time to “pay the piper,” taxpayers need to know that, legally, they have the option to refuse both mandatory health insurance and the penalties associated with non-compliance."
Um, I never implied that we pay for research out of our pockets. In my corporation, I actually am paying for research out of my pocket. We fund of millions of dollars of research every year. Drug companies and medical device companies usually pay for research dollars. With money payed to them by our healthcare dollars. I'm not sure what "keyhole" surgery is. Ahh, just googled it. Ofcourse we have very many different types of endoscopic procedures available here in the states, from joint, heart and even brain guided endoscopic procedures. And this isn't true at every facility. It is VERY dependent on equipment, personnel, and allotted set up and surgical time. Costa Rica and Guatemala. And as a side note, many, many, many physicians and nurses from Canada, Germany, France and Italy wish to practice right here in the USA. I've met many, work with many, and many say the good folks back at home feel the same. The better compensation that is seen here has a direct impact in all those countries you mentioned: It pulls and attracts providers from those countries. And who can come? Only the best and the brightest. This same phenomenon can be expected to be seen here, if our healthcare system moves in that direction. As I stated, I am a healer first. I am willing to help. And I think we need to all help equally.
Please again, Europeans, take note from a world class American physician that your own health care providers wish to leave your countries to the US for higher pay, and we only accept the best and brightest for workers permit. This is because Universal healthcare systems in France, Germany, England, Italy etc. all underrate talented health care providers which ultimately promotes inferior care to patients. (Emphasis Mine)
You're saying it again. You're a doctor and you don't know about keyhole surgery? Seriously? You have exactly the same type of endoscopic equipment in the USA as we have in Europe, by the way. Come off it. They come because they can earn shedloads of money and see the world. hmmm...
I think Universal Health Care should work still like an insurance scheme in that large scale and very expensive conditions should be excluded. It should target things that are fixable, and exclude epidemic bufflers such as obesity. The US healthcare, public or private, is unaffordably expensive, because we don't just expect it to fix us, but we expect it to continuously prop up our unfixable conditions.
There are negatives to the Canadian system to. Can take a very long time to see a specialist. Some people fall through cracks because they have UHC but no prescription coverage and cannot afford the expense of the added insurance. Not to mention very high taxes when compared to much of the U.S. I am an American living in BC by the way. When I was in the States, I had times with great private insurance, times with no insurance, and times when on public insurance. Even when I had no insurance I had great healthcare because there are public stop gap measures at the City, County, State, and Federal level. Personally I would much rather have the U.S. health insurance system, even with its flaws. Like I said, the Canadian system is not without its own flaws.
Just a reminder, because the US has a private insurance model, we have the most up to date equipment unlike Europe (reference proton therapy machines earlier in the thread). So when the American physician seemed to have trouble recognizing a keyhole surgery, it is because our equipment is more advanced and we don't do out of date surgeries like that of which utilize older equipment as seen in the Universal Healthcare model overseas.
