In Sweden, as in most of Europe, we have universal health care. It's paid by taxes. There are problems (e.g. long wait times for some procedures), but in general it's quite good. Our university hospitals do world-class research. I usually go to a private clinic here in southern Sweden. They are privately owned, but get paid by the government for every patient they treat. So, it's a single-payer system, but not necessarily a single-employer system.I'm quite critical of some aspects of our health care system. But, I would never dream of proposing any system that differentiated on the ability to pay. Whatever problems we have, we can solve them, and still keep "same treatment for everyone". We do not want the U.S. system.
Interestingly, that would be a return to the way things were. Before Benjamin Franklin unified all of the private firefighting companies in Philadelphia into a consolidated municipal fire department, all (American) cities had exactly the situation you described. For what it's worth, fire departments are much more efficient as a government service than they were as competing private entities.
First off, stop calling our health system "free market." It's not. It is heavily subsidized, and heavily regulated by our government. Now, I would not know what our health care system would look like, but before even medicaid and medicare came out, we have a relatively free market health care system. There was much more pro-bono and reduced cost medical care for low-income individuals. Doctor visits between low and high income individuals were relatively the same(high income had 1 more per year than low income individuals...hardly a difference). But since the creation of medicaid and medicare, these things have slowly been reducing.
I'm glad you have good health insurance. One of the major problems with our system is you're sunk if you lose your health insurance, and you're also sunk if you lose your job. Just moving to a new employer with great health insurance may not be sufficient: you may have your malady exempted under a pre-existing clause at your new employers. This happened to me, although I didn't change my job. I just had 3 different insurance carriers in a row go out of business. Each time I had to find a new carrier and reapply and each time my condition was treated as preexisting and therefore not covered for a period of one year (I think it was one year). Major hassle and major expense.
I think we should increase all entitlement payments and create new entitlements. We should also nationalize big oil , banking, grocery retail. That would get rid of a major portion of evil such as: Exxon-Mobil, Bank of America and Walmart. Soon to come......."Big Corn". Who cares about the consequences.We need things.
Injecting profit. That is the problem as I see it. Imagine if we injected a profit based system into our other vital public services...like law enforcement and fire fighting.
omg! RusselDovey, please don't ever describe your medical issue ever again on the interwebs.Balls twisting their cords.... For f**ks sake, man...My balls just crawled up inside my body. You scared them.
udahlenJul 2, 2007
In Sweden, as in most of Europe, we have universal health care. It's paid by taxes. There are problems (e.g. long wait times for some procedures), but in general it's quite good. Our university hospitals do world-class research. I usually go to a private clinic here in southern Sweden. They are privately owned, but get paid by the government for every patient they treat. So, it's a single-payer system, but not necessarily a single-employer system.I'm quite critical of some aspects of our health care system. But, I would never dream of proposing any system that differentiated on the ability to pay. Whatever problems we have, we can solve them, and still keep "same treatment for everyone". We do not want the U.S. system.
fediraJul 2, 2007
Interestingly, that would be a return to the way things were. Before Benjamin Franklin unified all of the private firefighting companies in Philadelphia into a consolidated municipal fire department, all (American) cities had exactly the situation you described. For what it's worth, fire departments are much more efficient as a government service than they were as competing private entities.
xevecJul 2, 2007
First off, stop calling our health system "free market." It's not. It is heavily subsidized, and heavily regulated by our government. Now, I would not know what our health care system would look like, but before even medicaid and medicare came out, we have a relatively free market health care system. There was much more pro-bono and reduced cost medical care for low-income individuals. Doctor visits between low and high income individuals were relatively the same(high income had 1 more per year than low income individuals...hardly a difference). But since the creation of medicaid and medicare, these things have slowly been reducing.
dwelltimeJul 2, 2007
I'm glad you have good health insurance. One of the major problems with our system is you're sunk if you lose your health insurance, and you're also sunk if you lose your job. Just moving to a new employer with great health insurance may not be sufficient: you may have your malady exempted under a pre-existing clause at your new employers. This happened to me, although I didn't change my job. I just had 3 different insurance carriers in a row go out of business. Each time I had to find a new carrier and reapply and each time my condition was treated as preexisting and therefore not covered for a period of one year (I think it was one year). Major hassle and major expense.
theundertokerJul 3, 2007
How about YOU go f**k yourself, buddy. Is it that hard to even entertain the idea?People like you are what's wrong with our country.
aadyssJul 6, 2007
I think we should increase all entitlement payments and create new entitlements. We should also nationalize big oil , banking, grocery retail. That would get rid of a major portion of evil such as: Exxon-Mobil, Bank of America and Walmart. Soon to come......."Big Corn". Who cares about the consequences.We need things.
circlefusionJul 16, 2009
Injecting profit. That is the problem as I see it. Imagine if we injected a profit based system into our other vital public services...like law enforcement and fire fighting.
circlefusionJul 16, 2009
omg! RusselDovey, please don't ever describe your medical issue ever again on the interwebs.Balls twisting their cords.... For f**ks sake, man...My balls just crawled up inside my body. You scared them.