Health insurance

Health insurance

I voted that the decision should be left up to the individual but at the same time I'd like to see free health care for the people. I know this equates to what most people call socialism but labels don't always tell the whole story. Do we live in such a barbaric world that even considering free health care for the masses is a bad thing? If it could be done right it would be a good thing. I've heard very good things from Canadians and I've heard bad things also. The problem is really about greed and about the quality of health care. People are afraid that if health care is free then the quality of physicians will suffer. This is a possibility. It's unfortunate that most doctors seem to get into the field simply to make money. They feel that since they have spent so much time acquiring the specialized knowledge that is needed that they deserve to get paid huge sums of money.

-laz.

Laz,

I have to disagree with you here. The poll question is a bit of a trick question, because nothing is free. Someone has to provide the medical services, the technologies and devices. I am an engineer in the health care industry. My wife works at a hospital. I can tell you first hand without any doubt whatsoever, the majority of costs in health care today are a product of too much government bureaucracy. There are also very large profit margins in the industry. But those profit margins are a product of government as well. Competitors would love to offer products at lower costs and gain market share. But they can't afford the validation required to get FDA clearance. Therefore, you have to be big to start with. The only new companies that come into the picture are those who innovate. And those are usually bought by the bigger companies. The FDA, while it is a pain in the keester and drives up our costs by 900 percent, also protects us from competition. The answer to health care is less government, not more.

Hey Battle,

I wouldn't call it a trick question though I would agree that most things advertised as free are not. I'm sure you're right, that costs are extremely inflated by government and insurance companies but at the same time doctors had a lot to do with it also. There were guilds and organizations that doctors created, in league with big business elites, etc., that have helped shape the monster that we call health care today. Bad government, corrupted government officials, senators, governors, presidents, you name it, all played a part in creating the health system in this country. If the government was run properly we wouldn't be in this mess right now.

Less government is not always good government, just as a good government that governs less cannot necessarily come up with a solution to offer quality, free health care (free being a relative term of course). It's not that I disagree with you, I don't. I'm just trying to say that if we think about the problem we can come up with a solution that benefits everyone. People shouldn't be made to suffer and die because they cannot afford health care, that's completely barbaric. Some burdens are worth carrying. I hear a lot of angry tax payers continuously complaining about having to support other people through their tax dollars. This is a foolish and illogical argument. Our tax dollars don't go where we are told they go to begin with and no one in this world gets by without paying some form of a tax, even the poor and the destitute.

The answer to health care hasn't been solved yet, that's as honest and truthful as it gets. The Constitution was and is a great document, but regardless, it didn't save us from the present corruption in our government. Some people like to argue that if the politicians followed it correctly we wouldn't be in this mess to begin with but that is a ridiculous statement. The Constitution has many weaknesses and because of those weaknesses we find ourselves in a serious mess. Our country, our Republic, is on the way out and despotism and tyranny are on the way in, are already here in fact. The people had no part in the drafting of the Constitution. It was created by the elite, the aristocracy that carried over from the old world to the new world. We're shy a fourth branch of government, which should have been the dominant branch, able to stop any abuse without mercy, quickly and efficiently.

That fourth branch is us, the common people of the United States of America. The people who fought and died during the Revolutionary war and brought freedom to the people, and unfortunately, power to the aristocracy at the same time. What most people tend to forget and don't really understand very well is that when we banished and defeated King George III, everyone living in what is presently called the United States of America became political equals, true sovereigns and completely free to live as they wished. Anyone willing to support the newly created government of the U.S.A. was free to do so but anyone unwilling to do so was free to live their life in peace, independent of organized governmental intrusion, as long as they obeyed the common law. One sovereign cannot impose its political will on another sovereign, at least not through the use of legitimate authority. The Thirteenth Amendment strengthens this self evident truth.

-laz.

Laz,

You are a historian and a scholar. I do not disagree with anything in your reply. From my perspective, mildly regulated free market capitalism is the best option we have availabe today for our economy, and that should encompass health care. The downfall, as I see it, with free market capitalism is that it creates a larger disparity of wealth which can only be moderated through philanthropy or through government regulation. The upside of free market capitalism is that history shows it to create wealth, whereas socialism and communism are proven to destroy wealth. I'm sure there is a better system which could be put in place. I just don't know if anyone has thought of it yet. As much as people complain about health care in America, it is still the best health care available in the world.

And, by the way, I completely agree that the constitution has some weaknesses. In fact, it is almost entirely irrelevant to our government officials today.

Hehe,

Thanks, ditto back to you.

Do you think we still practice free market capitalism though? Remember what John D. Rockefeller said back at the turn of the 20th century, "Competition is a sin. He's said worse than that but you get my drift. There is definitely not a free market at work now or in the last 30 years in our country. It might appear that way but it is a clever illusion. I'm not disagreeing with you though, just mentioning that the powerful cabal of elite have been keeping a tight rein on our economy and the world economy. I even think the whole Chinese thing (them keeping our economy afloat) is a bunch of crap. There are things going on behind the scenes that we cannot grasp because we lack accurate information. The best we can do is sit back and take in the larger picture.

I think you're right but philanthropy and charity cannot cover everyone. In a perfect free market environment we wouldn't need free health care because there would be jobs for everyone and good paying jobs at every social level. Insurance would actually work, the insurance companies making only a minimal and fair prophet for the services they provide. If we had a well regulated financial and health care system these things wouldn't be such of a big deal but we don't and it is.

As much as people complain about health care in America, it is still the best health care available in the world.

This is where things get a bit tricky. I know you're a health care worker and you take pride in your job, maybe you're even proud of what we have in America, I don't know but there isn't really any objective way for you to know if that's (the best health care available in the world) the truth or not. Sure, you can read reports and statistics but without checking things out for yourself there is still a little room for doubt. Like I said before, I've talked to Canadians that have said their health care is excellent. On the other hand I've watched and heard things about Canadian health care that made me cringe. Did you watch that shill Michael Moore movie, Sicko? Look at how he manipulated reality by showing us Cubans getting new teeth from the local communist dentist. Or the health care in the U.K. which he talked up. It sounded and looked good but it was a lie. In the U.K. they do some very strange and very scary things in their socialized medical system. They euthanize their elderly or make them suffer needlessly because they are too old to benefit from "healing". Sick, really sick.

In America we have tainted vaccines (the whole theory of vaccination is weak in my opinion), vaccines made out of aborted children, vaccines that cause disease rather than cure disease, etc. A Cancer industry which is more akin to car salesmen selling the next brand new lemon. You'd think that after all this time they could offer us something more than handfuls of our own hair and debilitating drugs that make us feel as sick as the actual disease they are supposed to be fighting. A man in Canada makes a high quality hemp oil (THC hemp oil). He gave it to his father as a pain reliever because his father had cancer. The father took the oil orally four times a day and within three or four months his cancer disappeared. So the guy goes to his local VFW and gives it to his veteran friends who have cancer and other debilitating diseases. Their cancer disappears too and the ones with depression and other problems are feeling great.

So the guy who made the hemp oil calls up the Canadian Cancer society and tells them what has been going on. Even the local doctors (some of them) are astonished and back up his claims that the oil has made the cancer disappear. How does the cancer society respond? We are not interested in a cure for cancer! What? No joke, that's what they said to him. If you ask the medical community or the powers that be about the medicinal properties of marijuana they will tell you, We are still researching the possible medicinal qualities of Cannabis. Battle, How long does it take to research marijuana? They've been researching it for over 80 years and they still don't know a damn thing! What they will say is that it is harmful, addictive, dangerous, yadda, yadda, yadda, which are all lies. During the mid thirties Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia of New York City did an independent study on Marijuana and declared it completely harmless.

Suffice it to say the Federal government was not pleased with him and J. Edgar Hoover and Du Pont probably wanted to have him assassinated.

My point, yes, America has excellent health care in some respects, but in other areas it's just a scam like everything else. If you go against the system, regardless if you have something that will help the people, you will be smashed into the ground.

-laz.