| i love xbox360 said: just a quick question to you americans! why are so many people so anti free health care? the nhs been a massive success in the uk even if some people moan about it, it still has been 99.9% good for the countries health as a whole. so why are so many americans scared of an american nhs? |
Because no healthcare is free. In any system, prices are paid to render healthcare. For example, NHS costs 110 billion pounds a year to your tax payers.
In the US, we have 'free' healthcare. Its called Medicare. It costs $8,000 per person per year. Comparatively, the cost of NHS per person is roughly $5500 per year, which is a bit less.
The reason we are 'anti free healthcare' is that the current plans to provide government healthcare to 100% of the population will still cost about $8,000 a person. We simply cannot afford that. We need solutions that lower the cost of healthcare, then look into how to ensure everyone is covered.
The problem with America, as Viper said, is that there are certain issues we have that ensure that medical care is far more costly than it should be.
For example:
- Our doctors get paid far more than NHS doctors do. It isn't simply because they demand more money in the US, but because it costs a whole lot more to become a doctor in the US than it does in the UK. It takes ~8 years to become a doctor in England, and ~12 in the US. Those extra years of schooling cost money, and are transfered directly onto costs of healthcare.
- Insurance companies are uncompetitive. Viper covered this one. Since companies cannot actually...You know....Offer competitive plans, they cannot fight for our benefit. It creates stagnation and problems in terms of prices.
- Insurance plans are simply too bloated. Most people want 'free everything' on their insurance. The thing about insurance is that insurance is a hedge against needing certain services. The more services you demand, the more it costs. For example, does an auto plan include oil changes, tires, and car washes? If not, why are we demanding the same level of products from our insurance plans? It adds to the cost.
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
