Three big reasons socialized healthcare will not work in America:

1) America cannot keep Social security afloat, cannot get aid (or trailers) to hurricane victims, and has a public school system that is slowly falling lower and lower on the list of good education systems. I realize socialized healthcare works in other nations, but I simply do not trust our government with such a task. Our government has already failed too many times to gain my confidence in such a task as healthcare.

2) We currently have many people complaining about unemployment. If the government takes control of health insurance, or all healthcare, think of all the people that will become unemployed. I realize that most of the insurance employees and doctors could start working for the government, but most of them will then have a lower income, because the only people that work for the American government that get paid well are the politicians.

3) We have people complaining about illegal immigration. Socialized healthcare offers additional incentive for immigrants to flood across the border and use up OUR tax dollars while not paying a single penny into the system. As a result, we will need to start filling out more paperwork every time we visit the doctor's office to ensure that we are American citizens, which will waste everybody's time.

Adding to the red tape blocking healthcare is just a bigger thorn in the side of every American, especially the impoverished and working class that such ideas are intended to help. My mother is a perfect example. She has been working hard now for three years with a full time job WITH benefits and has been making just enough money to get by. She has NO savings. ALL of her spare time is taken up with filling out paperwork just so that she can continue to drive her car, get financial aid to pay for my college, and keep her various insurances up to date.

The working class cannot afford to waste any more time with govewrnment regulated bureaucracies and red tape. They, like everyone else want to be able to work, and spend time doing the things they want to do, and spend THEIR money on what THEY want to spend it on.

If you want to help AMericans get healthcare, do two things:
1) Find a way to make healthcare more affordable, not by subsidizing it, but by reducing the cost to the doctors. Malpractice insurance costs are through the roof because of the high incidence of frivolous lawsuits. Protecting doctors from these lawsuits is the first step to reducing the cost of healthcare.
2) Create a national health insurance policy that people can opt to pay into with their taxes. This way only the people that trully need the insurance will be paying for it, and the American government will not be stealing from the majority to aid the minority.

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"Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys." - P.J. O'Rourke

"Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none." – Thomas Jefferson

"Some can be happy under socialism, but under socialism, none can prosper." - Me


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Often is the question asked: What's wrong with the American health care industry? The answer can be found in the question. It's an industry. Saving money at the cost of human lifes is wrong, no matter how you look at it. Can you be sure to get compensation for your medical costs when you are ill? What if they deny to pay for your treatments and your life is at stake?

Apparently you didn't read your insurance policy.

People like to blame the insurance industry while ignoring the individual's responsibility to address what is in their actual policy. If your policy has a "gap" in it then buy supplemental insurance to fill that gap or find another insurance provider.

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I read the health care article by the two Princeton professors, and they make several good points. The main one being that health care is perceived in this country by people as a moral issue, whereby you get sick if you are immoral and stay well by being moral( i.e. not smoking, eating well, exercising, etc.). The only problem with that belief is poor people cannot afford to eat well because organic fresh food is the most expensive and they will pass it up. Almost 80% of Americans do NOT smoke so that is not an issue either. Poor people will pass up $300 on cigarettes per year so their kids can eat. They also must work at very physical work where they are tired at the end of each day, and many times they do not have access to the corporate gym to work out. To deny them insurance also so they can have no access to basic care unless it is life threatening is further punishing them for their status as poor people. I think the other issue about illegal aliens is a different matter, but we allowed them to come here for years because they were a form of cheap labor for many employers, who also did not have to supply medical insurance benefits. The answer to denying basic health insurance coverage to those who can't afford it is short-sighted because it ends up costing everyone more in the long run. It's the same mentality the rich CEOs use to tell the middle class they are worth only a fraction of what they make, while they send their jobs overseas. Getting sick is a function of stress, exposure to viruses and food additives which have been put into the majority of our processed foods.

I live in Canada and I haven't un into any redtape ever. If I see a new doctor or check into a hospital I present my Medicare Healthcard, confirm my phone number and address and that's it, all done. If you're not a citizen or permanent resident you don't have a card, I don't know about students on visa's though or work visas.