Healthcare in the USA Pt.1

[PrettyGirlOtaku]

Health care is a right, not a privilege! Why we don't pay for the following?

-Police

-Fire Dept.

-Military

-Public schools

Health should be any different? NO!!!!!

[creamycurdy]

wow it sucks american health system serves the rich

thank god for the NHS

[JudgeBash]

There is a documentary by Michael morre called sicko. "A lot of people critisise moore for being fake and buyest, for casting things in the wrong light" however the people are very real and healthcare is an importnat issue

[player1vladimir]

It is great to be an American if you are rich

if you aren't rich it sucks to be an American...

[robers05]

Glad that we have got universal healthcare. How do the USA-citizens survive with such a crappy system, which favors people with money?!

[JESS6TY]

This is Bullshit...I have a family of 4 and pay 6k per year...not 12k. I bet my coverage is as good as any in the world if you include the quality. My 6k tax bill is a hell of a lot less than the extra taxes people in Canada and Europe pay. I'm not saying something shouldn't be done about healthcare, but when someones get on here and lies, it should be backed up. This isn't real news, it's real left-wing news.

[ilargitxo2]

you pay less than europeans??? do you have free doctors, free surgeries, free medicines, 4 months payed for pregnancy, unlimited illness payed days, non preexisting conditions, all covered by social security, retired people don't pay anything they have free medicines and a pay every month do the doctors go to your home when you have a stomachache? do you have minimum 4 weeks holidays payed per year? shut up you want to be blind

[JESS6TY]

The US (as a whole) spends more on health care than anyone. While I totally agree that the system needs to be more efficient and the "profit motive" should be greatly reduced, it's also because of malpractice attorneys who make a living suing our doctors. Many of the 47 mil that don't have insurance choose not to buy it. That's a fact...many don't even know that we have medicare/medicaid. Many employers provide many of the benefits you describe or some form of it.

[JESS6TY]

We need to fix our system...I don't question that but they way this video portrays our system isn't completely honest. I'm sure many stats could be brought up about Europeans health care and the rationing that takes place.

Preexisting conditions is a stupid policy that should be abolished, but your system isn't free.

A lot of these problems vary from state to state. Like I said...I spend 6k a year for a family of 4 and I would put my care up against yours any day of the week.

[JESS6TY]

Among the uninsured population, nearly 37 million were employment-age adults (ages 18 to 64), and more than 27 million worked at least part time. About 38% of the uninsured live in households with incomes of $50,000 or more. According to the Census Bureau, nearly 36 million of the uninsured are legal U.S citizens. Another 9.7 million are non-citizens, but the Census Bureau does not distinguish in its estimate between legal non-citizens and illegal immigrants.

[JESS6TY]

It has been estimated that nearly one fifth of the uninsured population is able to afford insurance, almost one quarter is eligible for public coverage, and the remaining 56% need financial assistance (8.9% of all Americans).

Is this video misleading? I'd say it is a downright lie. It took me 5 minutes to find this info(which I already knew)

How many of you Europeans make 50k per year and how much do you pay in tax? Here...a family making 50k with a child pays little if any tax.

[JESS6TY]

According to a 2006 study published by The Lancet, survival rates in the U.S. for a broad range of cancer types are the highest in the world, with five year survival rates for men surpassing those of Britain's National Health Service by an average of more than 20%

The World Health Organization (WHO) in 2000 ranked the U.S. health care system first in both responsiveness and expenditure (NOT MENTIONED>>>i'm shocked)

The WHO marked down countries w/ high per-capita private health treatment

[ilargitxo2]

well I don't think those stadistics about cancer are right. IN USA most of the population is not diagnosticated. So yes if you have 5 maybe the 5 of them survive.

[murphyj87]

The US ranked very low (lower than #37) on access, quality, and outcomes however.

[JESS6TY]

lol...you obviously don't live in the US. access? That's misleading. Quality? are you serious?

Outcomes? We have the best surgeons in the world. Comparing Canada, which has a population of less than California is a joke.

We need a better system....no doubt...but your rankings are really talking about UNISURED. 80% of Americas that have insurance are happy with their coverage. 25% of those that don't can afford it, but choose not to buy it. We need to force them to and help the rest.

[murphyj87]

You have the 19th and last heatlh care system in the industrialized world. Canada ranks #6.

[JESS6TY]

based on WHO rankings?...have you looked closely at how they arrived at their rankings? It depends on how you use the data and what criteria you consider most important.

I'm not saying we don't need improvement in many areas of the country. All I can tell you is where I live, I have access to the best hospitals and doctors in the world. I have the best emergency facilities and I pay less than 500 a month for 4 people.

[murphyj87]

Ok show me an international study or a study by a respected university that supports that the US is not last in the industrialized world.

[JESS6TY]

There won't be one until we force people to purchase insurance(because coverage is the main factor) and have certain laws that provide for people that can't afford insurance.

We need a better system...quality of healthcare and tweaking the system are 2 different things.

We spend more than anyone in the world...it's not because of the insurance profit margins...it because of several factors, one being FRAUD...Medicare has found 50 billion of it last year.

[murphyj87]

Most Americans have no quality of health care. Canadians have better access and quality of health care than the majority of Americans.

[murphyj87]

Americans pay alimost twice as much as anyone else, because insurance companies have 41% overhead, and only 56% is paid out for health care. You get 56 cents worth of health care for every dollar you pay in insurance premiums. Canadian overhead is 9%, Medicare overhead is 6%.

[murphyj87]

Well, 1 in 3 Americans have no access to health care at all. 15% uninsured and 21% with minimal insurance not covering their medical needs.

[JESS6TY]

thats bs...a little over 10% don't have insurance. Thats completely different than NO ACCESS. 30 million AMERICAN citizens don't have insurance and 12 million of those are young or choose not to buy it.

[murphyj87]

Canada's cancer survival rate is basically the same as the US.

[JESS6TY]

thats "basically" not true...look it up.

[murphyj87]

Yes, it is basically the same as the US.

[JESS6TY]

no..it's not

[murphyj87]

Canadians live two to three years longer than Americans and are as likely to survive heart attacks, childhood leukemia, and breast and cervical cancer

[murphyj87]

In 2004, researchers published a study comparing health outcomes in the Anglo countries. Their analysis indicates that Canada has greater survival rates for both colorectal cancer and childhood leukemia, while the United States has greater survival rates for Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma as well as breast and cervical cancer

[HarveyRex23]

Actually, medical malpractice amounted to less than 2% of overall health care spending. According to the Congressional Budget Office 1/08/04. Tort Reform Myth: "Health care costs are rising & doctors are unable to practice due to litigation."

[JESS6TY]

The Trail Lawyers and left wingers would love you to believe this but it's not so simple. There is a lot of examples of how those true cost can't be measured.

Read this...dailyfinance. com/2009/06/12/reform- health-care-now- the-malpractice-liability- crisis-persist/

[JESS6TY]

A real life example...

My niece was pregnant(she had a baby boy) but in her 3 or 4th month she was spotting on a sunday afternoon. She panicked and went to hospital(emergency room).

They took extremely good care of her but the bill was 6K! Come to find out, light spotting is normal for some women during this time of pregnancy. The doctors had to cover their ass and did all these unnecessary test to insure everything was OK, when her Gyno would have done one test and told her it was normal.

[murphyj87]

Actually malpractice accounts for only 1/2 % of US health costs, according to the most recent stats.

[JESS6TY]

that is misleading...it doesn't account for many unneccessary treatments due to fear of lawsuits.

If you factor in defense medicine, it actually comes out to be about the same as the profit margin of insurance companies.

[murphyj87]

You're really sucked in by Republican and insurance lobby lies, aren't you. Look at some objective data.

[murphyj87]

It doesn't account for the 120,000 and some say 225,000 Americans who die each year from medical 'mistakes" and unnecessary surgery..

[JESS6TY]

that's not our insurance system at fault...think about it

[murphyj87]

It's the presence and predominance of insurance that causes those deaths.

[murphyj87]

If insurance were abolished and a single payer system like we have were implemented, those American dead would be alive,

[murphyj87]

59 cents, not 56.

[murphyj87]

It's the fault of the low quality of US health care as well as the insurance takeover of health care.

[murphyj87]

Add the 120,000 who die there with the 45,000 who die from lack of health care and you get 165,000 Americans who die because of the US insurance-run health care system. The insurance takeover of health care kills hundreds of thousands a year.

[murphyj87]

Last I saw, malpractice in the US accounted for 1/2 % of health costs.

[murphyj87]

No, the last year I lived in the US I paid an average of $3000, a month fior taxes+health care+deductibles+copays. The next year in Canada (making the same amount) I paid $1800 for taxes (including health care, no deductables, no copays). That means I had $1200 more in my pocket in Canada teach month than I had in the US the year before.

[JESS6TY]

keep drinking the kool aid

[murphyj87]

It's Americans drinking the kool aid to not see the tens of thousands of dead in their backyards each year.

[JESS6TY]

do you realize our life expectancy is lower little lower than Puerto Rico? It's almost the same as European union!

Are you saying that Puerto Rico has better healthcare? think about it

These numbers are so misleading is actually stupid to even argue. Get off your high horse as though Canada has all the answers to healthcare...it's not as simple or clear cut as you make it out to be. All these "systems" need work...the USA needs to quit EATING so much fast food.

[murphyj87]

Our life expectancy is 2.6 years longer than the nation with the so called "best health care in the world" which ranks #19 of 19 industrialized nations while Canada ranks #6. Regarding obesity rates: Canada 15% are obese. The US 34.3% are obese.

[murphyj87]

Canada doesn't have all the answers, just ten times more than the US has.

[suneku78]

I'm glad that I can go to any doctor any time here in Germany without having to worry about how to pay for the bills. My current premium is about 60 Euros a month. It's so weired Americans don't believe in the right for universal healthcare. Why doesn't the US government spend all of that tax money it receives on health care and social security - that is, his OWN people, instead of military spending for stupid wars? Must be the lobby groups I guess.

[RadekEU]

I think americans believe in universal healthcare, as they shown in polls.

Majority is already sick from

"Hello doctor ... thank you doctor ... bill please!"

[1911arthur]

McCain's health plan sucks! He has been bought off by the insurance lobbyists that run his campaign!

I checked it out and found out it will cost me 600 a month more than I pay now and he is going to tax it for the first time in history!

Throw this fraud out! I'm voting Obama!

[fredfelosofar]

I think you can tell whether a government really cares about its citizens by looking if it has a free healthcare system. If it does not, then its obvious that it does not.

[jotunobsidianeyes]

$5000 tax credit? Do you know how much Remicade costs? $2,500+. And it's administered every 8 to 6 weeks.

[carlkepler]

to bad they never mentioned that the fact that american health care system is already 50 percent socialized

[jotunobsidianeyes]

Really? I never found it in all my trips to the hospital.

[ProsecuteCheneyEtAl]

I wish you were right.

[murphyj87]

DOD and DVA and NHS on Britain are socialized medicine (physicians are civil servants) , but Medicare and Medicaid and the Canadian system are not socialized medicine (physicians are in private practice).

[abilityoflove]

Thinking about the immensity of the present health-care system I realise that there is really no health-care system which can protect people from the stress of capitalism, pollution and the consumerist appetites gone mad.

It is obvious what it needs to happen: we need to reduce greed on many levels, in order to increase our health. So a creation of a national health-care system and a change in our life-style have to go together.

[mzambo666]

There are two models that I think will work well for the eeuu either like the japanese or the english do it.

[MooseOfReason]

So Obama's won't work because his answer doesn't involve enough government?

Can someone explain that to me?

[ProsecuteCheneyEtAl]

Certainly. I don't know if it "won't work" but it will certainly work with a high level of inefficiency, costing far more than a single payer plan, like Canada's, were implemented. In this system the health insurance industry is eliminated and the governement takes its place. This gets rid of vast amounts of waste (and I mean vast) and actually makes doctors more free than in the American system, where insurance comapanies and HMOs actually tell doctors what drugs and procedures they can use.

[murphyj87]

US Insurance-run health care gives people 59 cents worth of health care for every dollar of premiums you pay. Canadian health care gives people 91 cents worth of health care for every dollar taken in. US Medicare gives 93 cents worth of health care for every dollar taken in. Clearly the government funded systems are far more efficient and cost less.

[pongman]

I don't see how we can nationalize healthcare because there are too many people in the industry that would lose. Tell me what CEO of any insurance company, hospital, manufacturing, pharmaceutical or physician group will give up his salary to want National Health Care?! It ain't going to happen it's just a dream and Congress also wont give up its paycheck from these entities to make millions of Americans lives better. Perhaps Obama has an answer because he has a mandate from the American peop.

[PersonalJesus348]

We'll do it how the other countries with national health care did it. We'll threaten our government by any means necessary.

Unfortunately we have a nation of wimps.

[rell127]

who knows it could happen

[oinkysqueak]

America runs off Greedy Rich People wanting more Money! So cant see them fixing their backward Health System and actually Helping the Public? :)