Isn't a single payer health care system?

Question

the beginning of a dystopian future? We put all our health care decisions in the hands of politicians. There will always be pressure to cut the amount of resources going in to the system. We know that systems like the National Health Care in the UK and Medicare in Canada take age into account when deciding whether or not to treat someone. Now, how far off is Logan's Run?

Answer 1

Yes, the Drudge report has 2007 footage of Obama talking about how he will ELIMINATE private insurance and develop a single payer. This will "transition" over a 10-15 year period according to him. Now he says this is a lie, but video does not lie, does it?

Answer 2

Sorry but you don't know what your talking about, The NHS provides universal health care for all and does not discriminate against age.



The only thing they take into account is the cost of drugs e.g is a course of drugs costing £60,000 which will keep a patient alive for 1 month best use of resources. Sometimes they have got it wrong but in most cases they do make the right decision.



Compare this to the U.S. system where most insurance companies would not fund 'experimental' drugs so those without insurance don't get the drugs, those with insurance don't get the drugs, only those with enough money to pay get the drugs.



I know which system you would have a better chance of getting treated under.



Edit

So one poll of 200 doctors finds that some of them 'may be worried' that they might not get the full treatment that a young person could expect, is reason to condemn an organisation which treats 10's of millions of patents a year very successfully? I can assure you there is far more litigation in American health care than there is in UK.



Recently I had to have a disk removed from my neck quite urgently, I had the services of a neurologist, a neurosurgeon, a team of theatre technicians and nurses involving a 5 day stay at a top neurological hospital.



This cost me the price of using a TV at my bed during my stay (£10). Nothing else. In the U.S. someone in my position would simply not be able to get that operation and I would have ended up in a wheel chair.



Edit

I was given a choice of three NHS hospitals to consult my Neurologist, however I was treated by a specialised neurological hospital, I doubt if there are more than one of them in any American city. So you would only have the same choice through your insurance that I do. The difference is that in your country many people do not have any choice and would not get treated, in the UK everyone is. I don't think that is an unreasonable expectation in a rich industrialised democracy. Cuba is able to do it.



By the way, I have paid for this treatment many times over through taxation

Answer 3

No one is proposing a single payer system. It's not even on the table. None of the versions of the bill have included such a system so I don't know why the hell the right keeps talking about it.



EDIT - I don't know how to respond to right wing paranoia such as "the public option is a Trojan horse". It's as useless as opponents of HC reform who storm congressional town hall meetings and prevent meaningful dialog between the people and their elected representatives on this issue. As an American who wants to see a serious issue addressed, those people disgust me.

Answer 4

Competition always helps keep everyone honest.