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Forums - Politics Discussion - Should health care be private or public?

 

Which medical system do you prefer!

Public - all citizens hav... 51 55.43%
 
Private - citizens with c... 5 5.43%
 
Both, better treatment fo... 30 32.61%
 
Other (please explain in thread) 6 6.52%
 
Total:92

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I'd just like to note that there are very few health care systems in the world which are not mixed public/private. Up here in Canada, down there in US, over there in the UK... all mixed to different recipes.

Depending on how you've blended your public and private funding, the one of the key challenges is that the public and private systems can end up competing for scarce resources, mostly highly technical labour. The second challenge is political, where citizens wealthy enough to afford private care question why they should have to also fund the public system. So there's a pressure to de-fund the public system and give the wealthy a refund. You can see how both these issues threaten to undermine the quality of the public system if left unchecked.



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Rath said:
There you go again with the loaded poll.

Is it that hard to make the options simply

Public
Private
Mixed
Other (please explain)

Without putting your opinion in with the answers?



As for me I'm a fan of a mixed system with a strong public healthcare system but private for those who want to skip the waiting list.

This



I wonder what kind of healthcare system the US would have had had it done what other industrialised nations had done and made healthcare free for all + private for those who want better services. Reason I wonder is because the US has by far the largest economy so in theory if it did make healthcare public it could have by far and away the best healthcare system in the world. The big Corporations who are suffering due to having to pay for medical costs as part of their workers contract wouldn't be suffering as much.



makingmusic476 said:

Healthcare is not, and cannot be, a right. A right is not something that is given to you. It is something that you are allowed given you have the means. IE, in America, I have the right to own a gun if I so choose. A gun is not given to me.

As for the benefits of public vs private healthcare, I dislike aspects of both. Privatized healthcare obviously has issues with inflated prices due to a for-profit mentality, but I believe that's more an issue with our current patent law, which enables a sole company to sell a drug for years, preventing competition.

Honestly, I think a public system could work better than a private system in a variety of ways, but I fear the inefficiency that may come with a public system (ever been to the DMV? >_>), and thus I worry about the costs associated with such a system. I don't want another Social Security-esque albatross hanging around the federal government's neck.

Ultimately, I want what's best for the most people, and I haven't seen clear evidence that one system is really better than the other. All I know is that our current system here in the US is incredibly broken, but that's not necessarily because it's privatized.

If healthcare is not a right then can we say the same for firefighters, police, postal services, the Millitary, interstate highway system, waterways.....

According to Ron Paul the reason behind the broken helathcare system in the US is Corporatism. If the free market was able to function (i.e competition between the different services rather then collusion to keep prices artificially high) then the consumers would save a great deal of money.

Problem with privatised healthcare is the main reason to care for the patient is short term profit. So as we have seen countless times the Insurance companies will try and get away with not paying up by exploiting the small print and loopholes.



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Badassbab said:
I wonder what kind of healthcare system the US would have had had it done what other industrialised nations had done and made healthcare free for all + private for those who want better services. Reason I wonder is because the US has by far the largest economy so in theory if it did make healthcare public it could have by far and away the best healthcare system in the world.
The big Corporations who are suffering due to having to pay for medical costs as part of their workers contract wouldn't be suffering as much.

I would actually note it's usually the opposite.

I mean when you look at Europe the best socialized systems are the ones with the lowest populations.  In general it seems like more people = worse service.

 



Both really. Basic level of life saving should be paid from taxes, but higher level services and better treatent should be covered through private insurance we pay.



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I suppose it's both. As long as we have to live by the rules and pay for enforcing those rules, everyone deserves equally good chances. Personally I count equally good health in that. That said, it's impossible to give everyone perfect health care so it might be necessary to charge for some less common, more expensive areas...



Kasz216 said:
Badassbab said:
I wonder what kind of healthcare system the US would have had had it done what other industrialised nations had done and made healthcare free for all + private for those who want better services. Reason I wonder is because the US has by far the largest economy so in theory if it did make healthcare public it could have by far and away the best healthcare system in the world.
The big Corporations who are suffering due to having to pay for medical costs as part of their workers contract wouldn't be suffering as much.

I would actually note it's usually the opposite.

I mean when you look at Europe the best socialized systems are the ones with the lowest populations.  In general it seems like more people = worse service.

 

European healthcare is the best in the world ranging from countries with large popluations such as France and Germany to the Scandanavian ones and they are all universal. The American private healthcare system is terribly inefficient. 



Joelcool7 said:

Its sort of a no brainer to me being Canadian. However when Obama recently went on that health binge talking about citizens right to free or public health care. I was suprised at how many people thought poor people and people with mental handicaps didn't deserve health care. I even once heard somebody tell me "If you can't afford health care then you don't deserve to live".


It's very simple, people saying stuff like this basically think:

 

We worship the Economy

 

While I think in another way, wasn't the economy invented to help the people instead of a very select group of elitists?

 

Today the economy is more important then the safety and quality of life of the people, that is very wrong... capitalism is showing it's evil side.



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