National Healthcare for the USA

by sammielee24 348 Replies latest jw friends

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  sammielee24

  I would also like to know what everyone thinks about our prison population and healthcare? We have approximately 2 million people incarcerated. Do you think they have healthcare while in prison? Do you think they have a right to healthcare while in prison?

  If you believe they have a right to healthcare, if for no other reason than the fact they are incarcerated - then that doesn't make sense when you argue that health care is not a right of citizens of the USA. If you don't believe they should receive healthcare, then how responsible are we by spreading TB, HIV, Hep C, sexual diseases etc inside prison and then releasing those infected people to the outside population? You can't bill a prisoner for his healthcare based on future earnings because stats indicate that most don't or can't get jobs after release or they get the lowest paying jobs or they end up back inside.

  <<<<<<According to the International Centre for Prison Studies at King's College London, the U.S. currently has the largest documented prison population in the world, both in absolute and proportional terms. We've got roughly 2.03 million people behind bars, or 701 per 100,000 population. China has the second-largest number of prisoners (1.51 million, for a rate of 117 per 100,000), and Russia has the second-highest rate (606 per 100,000, for a total of 865,000). Russia had the highest rate for years, but has released hundreds of thousands of prisoners since 1998; meanwhile the U.S. prison population has grown by even more. Rounding out the top ten, with rates from 554 to 437, are Belarus, Bermuda (UK), Kazakhstan, the Virgin Islands (U.S.), the Cayman Islands (UK), Turkmenistan, Belize, and Suriname, which you'll have to agree puts America in interesting company. South Africa, a longtime star performer on the list, has dropped to 15th place (402) since the dismantling of apartheid.

  The average age of the prison population is rising, and as our old lifers age, they, like everyone else, have increased health care costs.>>>>>
• 

  donkey

  I'm embarrassed that the U.S. would treat it's citizens this way.

  
  

  
  You make it sound like they are mistreated pets. Sorry they don't belong to me and I'm not responsible for them.

  Everyone wanting a free ride? At WHOSE expense? There is no moral obligation on behalf of anyone to pay the way for anyone else. Why not get a sign and stand at a traffic light that says: YOU OWE ME FOOD; IT IS MY RIGHT!! Watch everyone stop and feed you....

  The same is true with all these other financial demands.

  That being said I do feel for those who cannot afford healthcare or those struggling to pay exhorbitant bills. While I strongly believe you have no right to demand that the rest of us pay for your healthcare I believe just as strongly that it is immoral that the legal system (blood sucking lawyer leaches and pany-ass judges) has been allowed to hurt people in this way. Therefore if I take you first sentence, the one I quoted above, I would rewite it as:

  America has allowed unfettered legal exploitation of its industries, especially healthcare, to the point where these industries are experiencing a crisis and the ordinary citizens are suffering at the expense of this travesty. Unfortuantely, these citizens are now at the point where they are wanting to socialize healthcare without looking at the root cause of the problem - f****G greedy lawyers that have messed up the system for all concerned.
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  sammielee24

  Those figures might be great in an ideal world, but reality is such that it's a lot more wasteful

  LT - I do agree with you that reality is a little harsher than theory but I believe the figures include all of the time, money and duplication spent in trying to get payments.

  I worked for non profit in the finance department of Comm & Soc Services for a long, long time and I understand the budgeting and application process, I've seen the abuses and the duplication but not always from the bottom - from the top as well. There are whole industries here that are created by people 'collecting' money from other people for their medical care. There are something like 1600 various providers with varying forms, many doctors offices have 3 or 4 secretaries to handle just the paperwork, you have collection agencies that handle the collections of delinquent accounts, you have the bankruptcy courts, you have credit card companies, hospitals have to spend more time on forms and billing and ensuring their costs are high enough to show a profit - all of these things take time and duplication. I think that's where the figure comes from. Multiply this fact by thousands upon thousands and you can see the inefficiencies. I was appalled the first time I saw someone that had to pull out a credit card to pay for some much needed treatment because they didn't have the money in the bank to pay for the service. This just put them further back in the hole.

  No solution is perfect. We will all have differing opinions and while I have no problem recognizing that a small percentage of any national system will overuse or abuse the what is offered, I believe that is offset by the millions more who won't. I see every child as being equal and deserving of the same medical care regardless of wether their parents live in a million dollar home or a trailer park. Doctors in report after report have stated that the poor will not receive the same care or the same tests - I won't rehash it all, but I don't see national healthcare in some form or other as being an option any longer. Like any office, you can walk in and see waste, make the proposal to streamline the office and either act on it or hire more people and pay them to contribute more to the wasteful processes you already have in place and then in turn increase your charges to your client to pay for the additional help. sammieswife.
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  LDH

  So why not extend Medicare to every American?

  From your article, swife.

  We can't extend Medicare because Dr's can't afford to practice medicine under this model. Did you review the table of Medicare reimbursements I posted?

  Do you want to get paid $35 per patient visit, all day long? Will $35 even begin to pay the salaries and keep the lights on?

  No one has shown a proposal that keeps costs at 3.3% AND gurarantees a GOOD standard of living for health care professionals. Shit, I could keep costs to 1% if I don't pay the radiologists, nurses, etc.

  I see every child as being equal and deserving of the same medical care regardless of wether their parents live in a million dollar home or a trailer park.

  I AGREE.

  Please show me how we get there by addressing by bullet points I raised earlier in the thread.

  Lisa
• 

  sammielee24

  LDH - people securing the country -

• Bush Administration proposal would end health care benefits for 173,000 veterans. More than 173,000 veterans across the country would be cut off from health care because of Bush Administration proposed budget cuts and its plan requiring enrollment fees and higher out-of-pocket costs. ("Support for Troops Questioned," Washington Post, June 17, 2003)

• Bush Administration budget cuts force more than 200,000 veterans to wait for health care. Over 200,000 United States veterans have to wait more than six months for a medical visit because of health care shortages. ("VA Health Care Funding Alert," Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States Press Release, January 31, 2003)

• Bush Administration opposed plan to give National Guard and Reserve Members access to health insurance. Despite the war efforts of America's National Guard and Reserve Members, the Bush Administration announced in October 2003 its formal opposition to give the 1.2 million Guard and Reserve members the right to buy health care coverage through the Pentagon's health plan. One out of every five Guard members lacks health insurance. ("Bush Opposes Health Plan for National Guard," Gannett News Service, October 23, 2003)