Steve Driehaus Health Care Forum, Aug. 3rd, 2009 (2 of 8)

[liberal4ever]

they boo the idea of negotiating costs with drug companies? don't these people realize that many seniors in the US are reduced to either going to Canada for meds illegally or having to choose between food and adequate medicine? or don't they give a damn? look, I wish churches and charities could do the stuff government does and on a national scale, but it's just not gonna cut it.

[nwoebcke]

The people disrupting this conference are trying to drown out intelligent debate. The congressman is trying to get feedback from his constituents and the hecklers don't care about the democratic process. This is similar how the 'brown shirts' shouted people down did in 1930s Germany.

[telmcg74]

In 2008, the Commonwealth Fund ranked the US last in the quality of healthcare provided; this was out of 19 countries. The Commonwealth Fund also reported that the US "leads all industrialized nations in the share of national healthcare expenditures devoted to insurance administration."

75% of all people who went bankrupt from 2001 to 2007 because of medical bills had health insurance

[telmcg74]

America has socialized medicine (Medicare, Federal Employees Health Benefits Program), too, and all of the countries you mentioned have vastly different healthcare models and each has its pluses and minuses.

In 2000, WHO conducted a study and ranked American healthcare 37th in overall performance and 72nd in overall level health in the 191 countries included in the study.

[allycjlong]

Reality check.... Do some research about the huge shortcomings of the system in the UK, Canada and other countries that have socialized medicine. It pales in comparison to what we currently have.

[bernople]

In the U.K, if you work, you contribute a portion of your wage to national insurance. This fee more than pays itself back if you get sick and if you dont at least you know your contributing to the hospitals to help someone else. We introduced the system after world war 2 ( When are country was on its knees financially ) because if there was one thing we learned during that war it was we are all equal and we should be treated as such.

[liberal4ever]

if the system in the UK is as terrible as all the conservatives in the US say it is, is there an effort there to dismantle it? is there a mass of people going "shoot, we should do what the Americans are doing!"?

[bernople]

We even have a private option called BUPA that people are more than welcome to use. The thing is the rich that tend to use this option dont complain at having to contribute towards national insurance. So you see we do have a choice over here, which i never see reported on your news ( well fox news that is ), fact is most people are happy with the NHS.