"Becca" > ha scritto nel messaggio
...

> The single payer system is different, so it frightens people.
>
> If the US put as much money in health care as we put into the military, we
> would have a healthier nation.
>
> Becca

We were manipulated into fearing it by the medical establishment. They
thought it would wreck their incomes, but instead the insurance companies,
once the public were scared to death to do without them, gradually cut into
their fees anyway. I remember clearly the outcries against socialized
medicine, the inference that it was yet another Communist inroad. I
remember also that the argument went on when many were not insured, but a
simple operation including hospitalization was about $300-500, although
salaries may have been $5000 p/a. You didn't lose your house, maybe, but
you went into debt.

This is one area where enterprise screwed the people and made them happy to
have it done. IMO, enterprise should never have entered such a vital
service.

I much prefer the system where I am, although it is flawed, of course.
Baldness prescriptions are covered but breast reductions are not. There's
always something to which to take exception. In the end, however, medical
needs will not put me on the street nor ruin my old age. And I do get to
choose my primary physician and also to seek help from specific specialists.
And if I want to pay for it, I can go off-system for any care. I now pay in
a year what I used to pay per month for insurance, co-pays and drugs. If I
need a drug that isn't on the system, the prices are a fraction of what they
were in the US.

People who have not experienced anything but the US system haven't a clue,
and that's partly because what they hear of other systems is very
controlled.

--
http://www.judithgreenwood.com