Universal Healthcare? Should We Care About Other's Health? Obamacare = Socialism?

Universal healthcare is one of the biggest issues today. How do you feel about this issue? Tell me what you think.

Universal health care is a term referring to organized health care systems built around the principle of universal coverage for all members of society, combining mechanisms for health financing and service provision.

Germany has the world's oldest universal health care system, with origins dating back to Otto von Bismarck's social legislation, which included the Health Insurance Bill of 1883, Accident Insurance Bill of 1884, and Old Age and Disability Insurance Bill of 1889. In Britain, the National Insurance Act 1911 marked the first steps there towards universal health care, covering most employed persons and their financial dependents and all persons who had been continuous contributors to the scheme for at least five years whether they were working or not. This system of health insurance continued in force until the creation of the National Health Service in 1948 which extended health care security to all legal residents. Most current universal health care systems were implemented in the period following the Second World War as a process of deliberate health care reform, intended to make health care available to all, in the spirit of Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, signed by every country doing so. The US did not ratify the social and economic rights sections, including Article 25's right to health.

Universal health care systems vary according to the extent of government involvement in providing care and/or health insurance. In some countries, such as the UK, Spain, Italy and the Nordic countries, the government has a high degree of involvement in the commissioning or delivery of health care services and access is based on residence rights not on the purchase of insurance. Others have a much more pluralistic delivery system based on obligatory health with contributory insurance rates related to salaries or income, and usually funded by employers and beneficiaries jointly. Sometimes the health funds are derived from a mixture of insurance premiums, salary related mandatory contributions by employees and/or employers to regulated sickness funds, and by government taxes. These insurance based systems tend to reimburse private or public medical providers, often at heavily regulated rates, through mutual or publicly owned medical insurers. A few countries such as the Netherlands and Switzerland operate via privately owned but heavily regulated private insurers that are not allowed to make a profit from the mandatory element of insurance but can profit by selling supplemental insurance.
Universal health care is a broad concept that has been implemented in several ways. The common denominator for all such programs is some form of government action aimed at extending access to health care as widely as possible and setting minimum standards. Most implement universal health care through legislation, regulation and taxation. Legislation and regulation direct what care must be provided, to whom, and on what basis. Usually some costs are borne by the patient at the time of consumption but the bulk of costs come from a combination of compulsory insurance and tax revenues. Some programs are paid for entirely out of tax revenues. In others tax revenues are used either to fund insurance for the very poor or for those needing long term chronic care. The UK government's National Audit Office in 2003 published an international comparison of ten different health care systems in ten developed countries, nine universal systems against one non-universal system (the U.S.), and their relative costs and key health outcomes.[3] A wider international comparison of 16 countries, each with universal health care, was published by the World Health Organization in 2004 [4] In some cases, government involvement also includes directly managing the health care system, but many countries use mixed public-private systems to deliver universal health care.

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[tooncrazy1]

More government control over our lives. Less about health. You went bankrupt. The current policies of the health care bill, along with many other policies of the president will bankrupt us all. Socialism is about making us equal. Equally poor.

[Yariitzaable]

Wtf?

[RonSchinners]

theres other ways of getting taxes for healthcare...ie cigarrettes...alcohol... heck legalize pot...tax it... and put the money to healthcare.

[MrChannelinc]

Great video! Most people are just miss informed about healthcare and just hate the President.

[tonyhaqim]

That was a very good point. As a kid from the city of New York that has been hurt with no insurance I can tell you a system in place is needed. Now that there is a system in place people could have supplemental insurance to cover the grey area's. this could make cost's cheaper. Oh, oh that is why insurance companies are complaining!

[CoolScoobydoo]

@ubercomrade This country isn't ready for that because they believe in American exceptionalism and don't want to be like Europe. He should have stuck with the public option, but he caved in and didn't fight for it.

[ubercomrade]

I wish Obama proposed single-payer. It is very popular and effect here in Canada.

[windyshrimp]

Yeah, I've changed my stance on healthcare from a year ago, honestly. I was completely wrong on that point.

[striker1224]

If we have more people paying taxes, that means we have a much higher budget for healthcare.

That whole population argument is a complete myth.

[striker1224]

If we Americans pushed our government to end these pointless oil wars in the middle east and reduce our military spending, then maybe we could save up enough money to implement a National Healthcare system.

My $0.02