Almost nobody who is pushing more government health care has more than a vague notion of how it would work, or a vague notion of how the systems work in other nations.
No two nations have the same kind of system, and the solutions are all over the map. There are private and public portions in most of them, and myth aside, they are no less complex than our system is. Some of them work better than others. Some aren't working very well at all. Most are still trying to figure out how to pay the bills and still deliver a "free" good to the public.
The main problem with health care now is that market forces have largely been removed from the equation. This is not recent, but a long-building trend for almost half a century. Insurance companies that cover far too much are as much part of this problem as an ever-growing government-provided system. What we have now is neither fish nor fowl, and it's actually surprising it works as well as it does.
The U.S. had three hundred million people in it, ten times the population of Canada, and five times the population of France. If we plugged Canada's system directly into ours, and had the same per capita costs Canada does, we're looking at over $1.2 trillion a year.
If one must try to create a working single-payer system, you have to take it away from the economically-illiterate Left and give it to people who know how money works and where it flows.
Just one example: You will never get the average citizen to pay the taxes needed for this. They would burn Washington to the ground when they saw the numbers. Think eight to ten times the level of current Medicare taxes. Yet this is the most common solution proposed, and believe me, you could tax the HELL out of "only the rich" and never come up with enough cash to support this enormous program.
Right now employers pay most of our private health care costs, and Joe Citizen feels almost none of this bite. If individual taxes are raised drastically, and the employers see large reductions in their insurance premiums, what are the odds the average employer is going to pass those savings on to keep Joe Citizen's head above the water? Yeah, don't hold your breath. Unless you're Joe Citizen five feet under the water.
My opinion? If you must socialize health care, the only way to make it work with as little economic disruption as possible is to pull most of the money from the employers who are paying the insurance premiums now. Ideally, the new taxes would be at least partially balanced by the reduced or eliminated health insurance premiums (hard numbers on this are badly needed). The hoped-for end result would be business cash flowing where it had been flowing anyway, and minimal shock to the system. Individual taxes could be raised a bit, perhaps, but remember, most employer-insured people are paying almost nothing for their health care.
Current Events » in reply to re: the canadian system will collapse if the USA ever adopts a full single payor system.
Some notes on health care
The whole thread (97 posts)
- Michael Moore Goes to Washington
- Socialized Healthcare for all will destroy the incintive to work for millions of baby boomers
- Review of reviews of the film
- Americans report their own health experiences on BBC website
- Took my sons last night
- the canadian system will collapse if the USA ever adopts a full single payor system.
- And who says America's future isn't bright?
- "My youngest told me he's going to live in Canada when he moves out of the house."
- I saw the movie "SICKO" today
- I so hope this movie is the kick in the rear Congress needs to finally ACT instead or argue. (n/t)
- Be careful what you wish for.
- That is just simplistic and not true
- "Our current health care system ....works"
- re: "Our current health care system ....works"
- re: "Our current health care system ....works"
- re: "Our current health care system ....works"
- Republicans have had 6 years to use "private solutions"
- Be careful what you wish for.