How could we make Health care free for everyone?!
Question: Nothing is free. Nothing. Free just means much higher taxes .
Answers: Nothing is free. Nothing. Free just means much higher taxes .
by moving to canada
No where will you find free health care, the goal should be to bring the cost of health care down where the average joe can afford it. A national health care program would at least spread the cost out over the general population, establishing a single care provider would put us in a position to lower health care costs across the board. The special interests that are profiteering from our current system don't want that, small wonder $$$$$. That is why our system is a global laughing stock and also why no one else ties heath insurance to the working class. Most of our personal bankruptcies are medical care based. Its going to take a national wakeup in the US, we may be closer to it than ever before...we'll see what 2009 brings.
The exact same way we make food, clothing, shelter, electricity, water, education, and more free.
In other words, it can't be done.
The better question is: how do we make reasonable levels of health care affordable for people?
Fortunately, there are ways to do that. A handful of folks largely do that now:
LASIK procedures are quite reasonable, but never free (and why SHOULD it be free?)
walk-in clinics where you can get diagnosed and fill the prescription for under $100
deals that esp. some grocery stores offer where a private lab, with NO insurance or checks accepted, will run legit and needed lab work (all the way through mammograms) for 50% or less than what you'd pay if uninsured. They usually offer some kind of special of the month where you can get a lot of vital lab work for around $50. Here's a relatively current example:
http://www.bashas.com/docs/HealthstylesP...
When DOCTORS, who were maligned by scuzzy attorneys and others who LIED and claimed they were jacking up costs and filing fraudulent claims on us so we "needed" to have "managed health care," were displaced in medicine so they became servants of the large insurers and government, we got ripped off. When doctors decide to band together and OWN and RUN a hospital as they certainly used to do, here's an example of what happens:
http://www.azcentral.com/community/gilbe...
People can get flu and pneumonia vaccinations easily, again, typically at grocery stores, via med clinics that offer very reasonable prices--and DO accept many of the insurances as well.
Urgent care clinics can handle MANY of the cases that go to the ERs and they cost way less.
People COULD, esp. while healthy, sign up for HSAs--a high deductible but savings for future health expenses--and be offered some reasonable catastrophic care coverage.
People could also do a LOT to prevent illness: do not smoke, drink, drug, engage in casual sex, deprive themselves of sleep, refuse to wash their hands, or remain overweight. Healthy diets and reasonable exercise do not have to cost a cent. If the public school system wanted to get serious about health, they could offer real education in proper nutrition AND follow-up with what they SERVE and the kind of vending machines they allow on the property.
People should also know enough to avoid garbage, such as high fructose corn syrup, which is probably largely responsible for a good 10 pounds extra on any fat person. It's virtually impossible to find things without that crap in it. A little education and some free market competition would work wonders for people. They mistakenly believe the government has their back and doesn't allow CRAP to be in food--but that's so clearly not true--too many things loaded with empty calories (as in NO real nutrition but LOADED with calories).
And if you want a sensible idea about what we could for EVERY interested American (no coercion) there is a plan that is explained that:
--offers catastrophic care insurance for everyone
--includes one physical with follow-up per year for a modest co-pay (so prevention can occur as well as early detection. This is sound economics and it's the moral approach to health care--reduce suffering whenever possible.)
--one visit to the ER per year if needed with modest co-pay as well
--limits out-of-pocket expenses per year so if somene is really sick or has a horrible event, he does not have to end up bankrupt. (More than half of all bankruptcies in America are for medical bills AND most of those folks have insurance, so clearly the current offerings fail to do the job they were actually designed to do--not cover every little visit, but deal with the truly expensive conditions without bankrupting the person.)
--no "donut hole" BS of Medicare with prescriptions
--no ridiculously low "caps" on needed procedures
--no requirement for employers to pay, nor for peoples' taxes to rise--there is a way to do it
Open the PDF (it's not the blurb on the page, it's the PDF file): http://www.booklocker.com/books/3068.htm...
Your intention is excellent, but the solution lies in getting the gorillas (government and the handful of large insurers) out of health care so the true professionals can offer what we need.