A guy on Rush just ask where is the crisis in our current Health Care? Good question!
The answer should have been the system does NOT COMPLETELY cover all the illegals who will be made citizens to eventually vote in the 2012 elections to keep the dishonest, disreputable RATS in charge.
There is no crisis. The word is just being concocted by the democrats.
If our health care is so bad, why do people come from all over the world to use it? Even one of the architects of the Canadian system came here when she had cancer. The dermatologists and optometrists here in Panama City are full of Canadians during "snowbird" season. They don't want to wait for over a year at home for limited care when they can get it the same week here without the strings attached.
Not that I agree with all this, but here are the talking points you hear:
1. 45 Million Uninsured (of which 10 million are our Mexican guests, and a bunch are people making enough to buy insurance but don't, and the rest are young people who don't see the need).
2. The Government funded programs are bankrupt and may drag down the entire US government in time. Medicare is a bigger problem than Social Security. We spend more on a per capita basis on our public health care than any other country, yet only 40% of citizens get anything for it. (The old, the young, the poor, the rest of us pay but get zip.)
3. Costs on the private sector are high, and rising. This supposedly makes USA less competitive as an employer. (But the same people who whine about this don't ever consider the cost of OSHA, EPA, OECC, and dozens of other government regulatory schemes, so they are at best disgenious)
4. The USA subsidizes the cost of new drugs via high prices. Canada pays less for the same drugs. Why?
5. It is difficult to acquire insurance if you have any pre-existing condition.
6. It is expensive to get insurance if you are a self-employed person.
7. Because of the above medical expenses are the #1 cause of personal bankruptcy.
Etc. You've probably heard them all before...
My thinking is that almost all of the problems are the result of previous government intervention. The reason health care is even linked with employment is a leftover from FDRs new deal where wage and price controls made giving people a raise a crime. So companies gave health insurance to entice people to work at their factory vs their competitors.
The fact that the part of the healthcare system the Government ALREADY runs is bankrupting us seems to say to me that they should FIX THAT FIRST before messing with the part that isn't that broken.