Universal Health Care? In This Economy??

[knapplc]

Aussie, your country may not be plagued by the same bizarro-world sense of entitlement that America currently deals with, and that may be a key issue. While I doubt there will be the kind of crazy-long lines that some people are complaining about, there probably will be more takers in the States than in Australia. So culture plays a part as well.

Other than that, I completely agree that a lot of the fear of such systems is unwarranted, and further that it is stoked by the "starfish" portion of American politics.

[Phatferd]

Aussie, your country may not be plagued by the same bizarro-world sense of entitlement that America currently deals with, and that may be a key issue. While I doubt there will be the kind of crazy-long lines that some people are complaining about, there probably will be more takers in the States than in Australia. So culture plays a part as well.

Other than that, I completely agree that a lot of the fear of such systems is unwarranted, and further that it is stoked by the "starfish" portion of American politics.

I already wait hours upon hours for the handful of times I had to go to the emergency room.

[Madison]

Aussie, your country may not be plagued by the same bizarro-world sense of entitlement that America currently deals with, and that may be a key issue. While I doubt there will be the kind of crazy-long lines that some people are complaining about, there probably will be more takers in the States than in Australia. So culture plays a part as well.

Don't forget to add in the drama queens to that list.

I know one person who gets a paper cut, but when she tells it, her skin split open for no reason and it took 8 stitches to close it up ! She's always in the hospital for something or other and due to it costing very little (government aid), it's nothing more than attempt to seek out attention.

I also know someone who's kids are always "sick" and they visit the emergency room weekly. Again, the government is paying for it because it's a 4 person family but only 1 actually works, and it's part time work at that. Just another desperate attention grab by the non-working adult.

So yeah, in this country any kind of standardized healthcare is going to run into some big problems. And that's not even bringing the cost of it into the picture. Even at just a couple hundred bucks per month for a family of 4, there will still be tons and tons of people and families that cannot afford it.

[The Artful Dodger]

Simply, I don't think we can have universal health care that's on a more cost-effective scale with say, Europe or Australia. Another thing is, the quality of public health care really differs area to area; Los Angeles County is a perfect example of that. Universal health care ensures "free" health care for everyone, but I don't see it entailing that quality standards will rise or even out.

[AussieDodger]

Aussie, your country may not be plagued by the same bizarro-world sense of entitlement that America currently deals with, and that may be a key issue. While I doubt there will be the kind of crazy-long lines that some people are complaining about, there probably will be more takers in the States than in Australia. So culture plays a part as well.

I never thought of it that way. Also the fact that everyone and their dog has a gun over there...........

Other than that, I completely agree that a lot of the fear of such systems is unwarranted, and further that it is stoked by the "starfish" portion of American politics.