Care - a little mind experiment. Imagine a society where health care is not seen as a marketable commodity but available on the basis of need. Could it work?
ohhhh it could work in a heart beat diuretic.
BUT sadly, I also now know my country, and my congressmen and senators and government and the Lobby machine and simply -the greed that rules many....
Basically, WE would F-it up....someone or some political party will be chosen to represent someone or some entity or some lobby in this whole thing and the end result would be a messed up system that favors someone that the congresscritters are in the pocket of....and this could bankrupt the country, if we are not already on the way there already...I'm serious! I trust no one in Congress to do this without messing it up.
even Obama's plan, includes the middle man, the private insurance companies...so that isn't a universal plan in the least...just a bunch of middle men getting their "cut"....that's pretty costly...
We have to do some thing, I recognize such... the whole system is messed up...
I have insurance and went to the doc last year and got a bunch of tests done and expected it all to be paid for outside of a small deductable.... Been fighting them for over a year to pay it and got nothing but a song and a dance, got the bill from the Hospital on Friday, insurance refused to pay, final answer, i owe them $1850....so now, i am going to have to find some agency to help me fight it...
between what we pay as our share and what the employer pays -the policy is $900 bucks a month and what the hell for....? if they don't even pay your doctor bills when you have to see him? CIGNA btw...buyer beware!!!! Now we are with United Health Care and I hope they are better...our share is $100 bucks more a month than the last policy, let's hope it means they are better?
Anyway, as I said, something has to be done, I acknowledge such.
I have concerns that this is just a gifthorse to corporations and businesses that pay for nearly 60% of America's healthcare costs right now...
when i worked and as an executive, the company used to send me a recap of my TOTAL COMPENSATION at the end of the year....it included my salary, my bonus, my stocks given, the portion of Social Security that they had to pay out in my name, the amount they paid out for life insurance for me, and the amount they paid yearly for my and my husband's health insurance policy....about $10 grand a year....(it was a MUCH better policy than what we have settled for as of late)....
Anyway, this was considered my TOTAL compensation as mentioned...so they counted it as money they were giving me via this perk...
If we go to a true universal system, the companies no longer pay their portion and my bottom dollar is on the companies not increasing the person't salary by the $19k they save, while the taxes of the same employee going up to pay for the universal plan....
like i said, a gift horse to the corps...
that's just one thing...
Another is that before changing to a Universal plan we need alot of reforms...right now it is set up where we can not negotiate with the PHARMA industry on getting a bulk discount for medicare...this was a gifthorse to PHARMA....along with not having the ability to execise free trade and import our drugs from another country that buys them cheaper than us....
the whole thing is a mess... I think we need to be able to negotiate our prices down with PHARMA as ALL other countries in the world do...IT WILL BANKRUPT US, this is the single thing that is putting us in to a destined bankruptcy, before this recent mess....
There are so many, many things that are all done because of being in someone's pocket, it's just unbelievable....
So YES, i believe we all deserve to be able to have health care...I just don't believe anyone in congress really has the citizen's best interest in mind...again, sadly.
Care