I think that healthcare is important to have in every country.

Mind elaborating on that point illusionsca?
Or are you just keeping us in suspense?

It's important as long as everyone benefits and contributes for it. The problem is that a lot of people scam the system, leaving the "needy" people with nothing. The money goes from department to department, from hand to hand, and a long the way some of it gets lost
I agree with you, it's very important, but countries should have a task force just to administer that system, to run random auditories on the various departments that benefits from that money. This is my humble opinion!

hhmm.......quite an issue this, sometimes over here in the UK i think....is the NHS worth it???? Then i thank the powers above here in the UK we don't have the same sytem thats in place over in the US.

Obviously both private and public healthcare systems have their advantages and disadvantages......whats important that a system is in place at all......

peoples welfare is what matters......

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Economic Left/Right: -6.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.72

that is if you can wait long enough to get one, or if you can even get one due to your budget. As a matter of fact, I want to hear you say this when ever you take most prescription drugs or use any of a number of the technology private health care in the US has made possible. What is more disturbing is that you pay an obscene amount of taxes for the horrible system you have. Great thing this national health care is. I will take my capitalist health care any day over your socialist kind any day. I would rather go to my doctor tomorrow and get treatment that might take months for you to get. I do not gamble with my health. You are forced to.

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"It aint over, till it's over"

Ay? Can't get a cat scan because of your budget? It's free. If your penniless in America there isn't much you can do in the way of health.

Sure you could have to wait for 6 months but there are also areas that have cut the waiting list to 3 or 4 weeks.

What exactly makes you think it was the privatization that magically invented these things? As truly shocking as it may sound there have been breakthroughs originating from outside the US.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/455204.stm
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medi...p?newsid=24868

Can't see any reason why medical science would slow down if the US health care system was or had been in the past nationalized.

Horrible? Explain how its horrible.

I'd rather know that everyone was getting equal access to good quality health care personally rather than seeing a privileged few take great health care while others end up with sub par.

No. No we don't. If we did the British public wouldn't support the NHS staying public and free.

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What's this i hear bed? Word has it you and Pam are sleeping together.

Nobody, if you were a low-income person you would see the benefits of a Public Healthcare System. Obviously the waiting list is longer in a Public System, but you would use it if you couldn't afford health insurance or the out-of-pocket fees that Privite Hospitals demand.

You do know that there are tons of disabled people and elderly people that are on fixed incomes that can't afford to visit Privite Hospitals, what would you do with them, let them die. You have no heart nobody. Sure a Public Healthcare System requires more taxes be paid, but its necessary if you don't want low-income families, disabled people and elderly people suffer.

You never know when you'll get laid off and need Affordable Public Healthcare, its there to benefit everyone. Get that through your tiny brain. If you don't want public healthcare, don't use it, but its good to have the system in place for those that need it.

use the "freedom" card to defend the dreadful healthcare system we have in the U.S. I don't get it. I suspect that few if any of the contributors to this forum are self-paying in the area of health care. What is "free" about having an employer pay your health insurance and thus being insulated from the actual price tag of a given proceedure as well as being dependent on your employer? Through my taxes, I am paying for all of the healthcare needs of federal , state, and local workers as well as poor and elderly. Funny, but I never hear them complain about the awful SOCIALIZED medicine they receive.

This system is a dreadful accident of history. It makes U.S. corporations less competitive and it stifles freedom and innovation because people are afraid to change jobs or be self-employed (particularly people with any sort of comprimised health history). Britain, as I understand it, has an underfunded national health, but people can choose to buy additional health insurance and go to private doctors/hospitals. At least regular people do not have to face the prospect of bankruptcy due to health problems.

The NHS does need more funding but even so our system is possibly the best in the Western world. It allows all people access to free health care and it also allows those who want to to pay to get private health care and skip the queues. It excludes nobody.

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It's the difference between suicide and slow capitulation... - Jim Morrison

And here I thought that the basis of international trade was that each country should produce that which they can produce more efficiently and trade with other nations for that which said other nations can produce most efficiently.