TRICARE Works ray because it doesn't have 250 million plus people managed under it also, it works because the contractors under TRICARE are not in direct competetion with the Federal Govt. to proivde healthcare to the general public. In otherwords the Federal Govt. is only offering this as a benefit earned, not as a healthcare product abailable for public consumption. So your using Medicare, TRICARE, etc. as examples is a weak argument at best. As for as the socialism thing goes, I personally don't care what label you put on it, you can call it wizbangcare if you want, it is still unconstitutional and as i pointed out, there are many ways to make it that way or perhaps work within the framework of this form of Govt. rather than look to another form of Govt. I find it actually amsuing that people would quote other nations as being shinning examples of care, when those nations are a disaster. One of the founders of Canada's Health Care system is now advocating "free choice" . U.K's health care system is in shambles. So when people put these statistics up , they don't reflect the reality of the situation. Yes, our healthcare system needs COST reform badly, it needs it to the point where healthcare can be affordable to more people thats true. There are as I've stated above many ways to go about this, mandating an illegal form of healthcare is not one of them. In fact the only group of Americans that are constitutionally covered for healthcare are prisoners.
Socialized medicine has meant rationed care and lack of innovation. Small wonder Canadians are looking to the market.
Mountain-bike enthusiast Suzanne Aucoin had to fight more than her Stage IV colon cancer. Her doctor suggested Erbitux—a proven cancer drug that targets cancer cells exclusively, unlike conventional chemotherapies that more crudely kill all fast-growing cells in the body—and Aucoin went to a clinic to begin treatment. But if Erbitux offered hope, Aucoin’s insurance didn’t: she received one inscrutable form letter after another, rejecting her claim for reimbursement. Yet another example of the callous hand of managed care, depriving someone of needed medical help, right? Guess again. Erbitux is standard treatment, covered by insurance companies—in the United States. Aucoin lives in Ontario, Canada.
The Ugly Truth About Canadian Health Care by David Gratzer, City Journal Summer 2007
Anyone naïve enough to believe that health provision in this country has become a little more market-driven under New Labour should take a look at the NHS Confederation's warning that the health service faces the gravest funding crisis in its history.
Such shroud waving by the state health care provider is designed to scare politicians of every stripe into continuing to treat the NHS as the great sacred cow of British politics that must be fed taxpayers' billions even when it is patently obvious such largesse is not working.
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According to the trustees report the financial outlook for the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund that pays hospital benefits has deteriorated significantly from last year, with annual cash flow deficits beginning this year. These deficits will continue through the decade and explode in 2010 as the first baby boomers retire and being using Medicare. By the trustees estimates the trust fund will be exhausted (broke) by the year 2019, just as the greatest numbers of baby boomers start relying on Medicare for health care coverage.
Medicare In Crisis
Congress will worsen a near crisis of runaway military health care costs if it enacts a Senate-backed provision to open the new TRICARE Reserve Select program to all drilling Reserve and National Guard members, the Defense Department's top health official has warned.
In testimony before a House subcommittee, Dr. William Winkenwerder said military health costs have doubled in just the last four years, from $18 billion a year to more than $36 billion, largely because of enhancements in benefits for retirees and their families.
TRICARE Near Cost Crisis?
As I said before, this is a COST issue and needs to be addressed as such, it takes a little more courage and working within the framework of this form of Govt.
