Today in the economy

[Kirkland Laing]

Whats different about your system versus what Canada has? B/C I've never met a Canadian that liked their health care system. And how do you choose the insurance company to negotiate the price with? I also don't see how this forces doctors/hospitals to compete against one another and conversely their prices. Obviously we would then do away with medicare/medicaid but whats the real cost to the taxpayer? How much does a guy like me on $50,000 a year pay in taxes so myself and everyone else gets it?

The insurance companies go out of business. There's only one company and that deals with all the hospitals and doctors. Doctors and hospitals don't compete against each other, they just do what they're doing now except with infinitely less paperwork, so they save time and money. The number one complainr of doctors is that they spend all their time and their staff do too filling in forms that the insurance companies use to try and cut/deny healthcare to people. The whole thing works out vastly cheaper than the current system, not more expensive. It would cut yearly costs by hundreds of billions and extend care to everyone. Here's the doctors themselves to explain it :

What is Single Payer? | Physicians for a National Health Program

Why the US Needs a Single Payer Health System | Physicians for a National Health Program

[Kirkland Laing]

“The invisible hand of free markets has succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest expectations."

George W Bush
October 18th, 2006





March 31 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. government and the Federal Reserve have spent, lent or committed $12.8 trillion, an amount that approaches the value of everything produced in the country last year, to stem the longest recession since the 1930s.
New pledges from the Fed, the Treasury Department and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. include $1 trillion for the Public-Private Investment Program, designed to help investors buy distressed loans and other assets from U.S. banks. The money works out to $42,105 for every man, woman and child in the U.S. and 14 times the $899.8 billion of currency in circulation. The nation’s gross domestic product was $14.2 trillion in 2008.






http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...CA4&refer=home

[VictorCharlie]

I feel pretty positive that we are well on the way to a single payer system and it sounds great in theory. I'm just not sure it will work as perfect in practice as described. Guess we will just have to wait and see.

[Kirkland Laing]

I feel pretty positive that we are well on the way to a single payer system and it sounds great in theory. I'm just not sure it will work as perfect in practice as described. Guess we will just have to wait and see.

Whatever they come up with it'll be corrupt and not work nearly as well as it could do. Finland usually ranks as the least corrupt government on earth. Their healthcare, education, general state system works really well and they only have a small fraction of the wealth of the United States. I'd like to see what a bunch of Finnish advisors could do for the US government. And the British one too.

[VictorCharlie]

Ever the optimist Kirk...We can only hope that if Obama does it that he puts together a really good study of the nations who do it well and who dont

[Kirkland Laing]

Who'll read it? He promised to hold healthcare negotiations in public with the healthcare people and their lobbyists so that people see whose side the politicians are really on. I'd like to see that.

[VictorCharlie]

Damn't man give some strand of hope I can cling to

[El Kabong]

Who'll read it? He promised to hold healthcare negotiations in public with the healthcare people and their lobbyists so that people see whose side the politicians are really on. I'd like to see that.

He's a politician that's what they do....and then they count on people not to call them on it.

Bipartisanship, ending pork barrel spending, transparency in government...etc etc etc.

Nothing will come of them. Universal healthcare is coming to the US...it's going to suck big time, I'm the first guy to say the healthcare system isn't perfect but nationalizing it won't help ANYONE.