When you hear "Universal Healthcare" what automatically comes to mind?

Question

Are your beliefs on what universal healthcare is based on facts from the current Democratic candidates plan for universal healthcare or just a general it is socialized healthcare that will raise our taxes and erode the quality of healthcare in the US?

Answer 1

"Universal" health care simply means everyone has accessto healthcare. That isn't "socializedhealth care" to anyone butthe right-wing.



The Democratic plan has faults--but its betterthan the mess the GOP has created in the last 12 years. And it is NOT socialized medicine--it supplements, not replaces, the private health care/health insurance system.



As far as the quality of health care in the US--we are now 41st in life expectancy. Real good performance there. Pathetic.

Answer 2

The only candidate proposing Single Payer Healthcare is Dennis Kucinich.



"One of the greatest hoaxes of this campaign — everyone’s for universal healthcare,” Kucinich said. “It’s like a mantra. But when you get into the details, you find out that all the other candidates are talking about maintaining the existing for-profit system.”



Kucinich quoted the 2003 study published by the New England Journal of Medicine that found that 31 percent of healthcare expenditures pay not for actual care but for administrative costs. That compares with only 16.7 percent in Canada. Administrative and clerical employees make up 27 percent of the healthcare workforce in the United States, compared with 19 percent in Canada.



“With 46 million Americans without any health insurance at all and another 50 million underinsured,” Kucinich said, “isn’t it really time to look at the other models that exist that are workable for all the other industrialized nations in the world? When you think about it, the only thing that’s stopping us is the hold that the private insurers have on our political system . . . corporate profits, stock options, executive salaries, advertising, marketing, the cost of paperwork. . .”



I envy people that can sleep at night knowing they don't have to worry about an Insurance Company or HMO denying them coverage or making them pay $10,000s out of pocket for a precedure not covered because of a discovered "preexisting condition;" people that have Single-Payer Coverage in:

Answer 3

Integrity comes to mind.



We can spend $450 billion to wage an unjust war, but can't lend a hand to struggling Americans? I'm not talking about illegal immigrants or unemployed people or tax evaders. I'm talking about hard working, tax paying Americans who get screwed over by a healthcare system that is set up to leech every last penny from the average person. It is a system setup so that only the rich can realistically afford it.



There needs to be reform. It needs to be illegal for HMOs to terminate contracts once they are signed or deny service to anyone for any reason. Then, healthcare needs to be made AFFORDABLE. Enough arbitrary price inflation. These should be the first baby steps.

Answer 4

Socialism

Answer 5

Social Security

Answer 6

What comes to mind? Slavery. What else can you call it when someone is forced under the threat of violence to work for someone else? Sure, taxes are "limited" slavery since governments in the US take only about half of a working person's paycheck. But being forced to pay for someone else's medical care (or school or roads or plane flights....) is slavery just the same.

Answer 7

Access by everyone



Not having to wait to be really sick to use the emergency room if one doesn't have insurance.



Taking the uncontrolled profit out of medicine



Despite what the anti Universal Health Care people are saying, its got to be more streamlined then the endless paper work and denials by the insurance industry.



Peace



Jim

Answer 8

I think of every developed country except the US. We all have it - and it has never erroded quality of healthcare. Stop believing the scare campaigns by the big business groups - it is a lie. Get a passport and you will find this out for yourself.

Answer 9

To me it means universal access to health care. The health care system in this country is in shambles. HMOs are reaping obscene profits. There is an incentive to find ways to deny services to people who need them. The system is in dire need of reform. Business should support reform if they become free from being saddled with the costs associated with providing health care for all their employees.

Answer 10

Christian: Noun, a guy or woman who believes that Christ is the Son of the Abrahamic God, despatched to maintain the international of their "sins". it extremely is the definition. everyone who tries to generalize all Christians in a marvelous or detrimental style is in simple terms being biased.

Answer 11

first thing to come to mind is 'it's about time!' no this is not got anything to do with partisan politics. got more to do with the several million underpriveliged children that have little or no access to healthcare. and about 30 other points, but i'll leave it at that.

Answer 12

The politicans lining their pockets with drug company cash. Selling the formulary for americans to the highest bidder and there are billions at stake. This will make Abramoff look like space dust vs cataclysmic meteor.

Answer 13

Universal healthcare gives Democratic candidates yet another social spending program to promise in exchange for votes. But, at its very core it is unfair for the taxpayer who must fund it due to the fact that the recipients of the program are under no obligation to restrict their behavior and engage in preventative health in order to reduce their burden on the very people footing the bill for their healthcare costs.



Bigger Government is never the correct, successful, or best answer to a problem and Government almost always fails in things it gets involved in and at the very least it always costs more money when we expand government and most of us want the money we work hard for not want to give it away, not to mention it is not anyone's job to pay for lazy people that don't work or to provide health care for the so called poor people that mis-spend their money that they could have spent on healthcare. The majority of the democrats so called 45 million uninsured poor people that we need to provide health care for fall under these conditions;



Forty-three percent of all poor households actu¬ally own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.

-- Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, in 1970, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.

-- Only 6 percent of poor households are over¬crowded. More than two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.

-- The average poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)

-- Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 31 percent own two or more cars.

-- Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.

-- Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.

-- Eighty-nine percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and more than a third have an automatic dishwasher.



So forget the so called facts from the democrats that are just trying to get votes and force people to learn to manage their money better and get a job to begin with for those welfare people that want to live off the government. Forcing people with money regardless of how much money to pay for those without or that mis-manage money does not bring those people up to a more competitive level it brings us all down to a collective mediocrity



Canada is a perfect example of failure in this aspect, they have to send people here because they are so backed up, just a few weeks ago they sent a woman to i believe it was Minnesota to have her child cause they were so far behind the woman would have not had medical care till the baby was a few months old, if it survived.



The best answer would be a tax credit for purchasing your own healthcare as it would create more competition in the medical community and competition always drives down cost.

Answer 14

I wouldn't categorize anything the current dem crop says about the subject as fact. You can't have Universal Health care without an upheaval this country is unprepared for. Oh there will be a lot of hoo ha about the subject but not a one that will tell you how to pay for it nor where the medical professionals will come from. Social med is hard on docs the pay scale drops drastically. Then you have to get into education and so on. In the end UH is more expensive and of a far lower quality than I am prepared for personally.

Answer 15

What comes to mind are the shallow minded individuals who post trash facts that have little or nothing to do with poverty



Forty-three percent of all poor households actually own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.

-- Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, in 1970, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.

-- Only 6 percent of poor households are overcrowded. More than two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.

-- The average poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)

-- Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 31 percent own two or more cars.

-- Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.

-- Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.

-- Eighty-nine percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and more than a third have an automatic dishwasher



This says nothing of the rising gap between incomes inside the US…that alarms most of the rest of the world…economist, activist, politicians …who argue that this gap is proof of our failed system…in this country two cars, two TVs, two window AC units, a microwave and a stereo can have a value of less than $1000 US…these “facts” do not take into account the relative wealth of this nation to other countries…many of these possessions are relatively considered JUNK…



in the US are density is very low…in many situations a car is necessary to conduct any sort of business...often these possessions (cars) are shared with other poor households around them on a regular basis (giving rides, carpool to low wage jobs or else they cannot afford to operate it) A family of 5 (three children two adults) with two adults working full time at low wage jobs will still fall far below the poverty line. In smaller communities public transportation is virtually nonexistent or actually so…more living space has more to do with actual density that it does actual poverty…I trailer built in 1970 has more space than the typical flat in London…it says nothing of its quality… as far as only 6% overcrowding…Well they take children out of these situations and place these kids in overcrowded foster care homes where GOD ONLY KNOWS what happens to them…include foster homes the %s are higher but they are not considered so…a foster home can have more kids to a room than other homes(like mine)



Healthcare will be out of their reach even if its 100% paid by employer. Often poor families are required to take their children to the doctor every time they are sick (for those children that are sick more than 9 times in a year) by force. No child left behind is a driving force in unnecessary trips to a doctor by compelling parents to get a note from a doctor for absolutely everything…even before no child left behind this was the case at a local level …



OK I will stop….but THAT guy is the first thing that comes to mind…GREEDY SELFSERVING PEOPLE that are so extremely against any program that might dip into their pocket that they cut their own throats so to speak…I feel that any sytem that could work will prolly fail due to the misuse of information that was posted above…

Answer 16

Without reading the additional information, the first thing that comes to mind is healthcare provided for everyone. Do I agree with it? No. Does our current health care need reform? Yes.



I accept the fact that many underpriviliged and even children, especially, need health care. Our current system is not recognizing them in a just way.

Answer 17

Here's a little snapshot of "socialized" health care-in France,when a woman has a baby,she has the option of having a nurse's aide come to her house the first month of the baby's life.Of course,even though the French have a much lower rate of birth defects,still births,cancer and many other disease than the United States,or the fact they live longer than Americans doesn't matter,because they're all just a bunch of commie surrender monkeys with "eroded" health care....

Answer 18

huh? Maybe it means all the aliens in the universe will get health care. If they are smart........they will wtay away from us.....we are dangerous!

Answer 19

the poor gets better health insurance, than us unfortunates who r in lower middle class-but economically in the same boat.after reading raven I AM POOR!! but make to much. if only we didn`t eat & pay our bills lol

Answer 20

home. Canada has universal health care. Its a wonderful thing, but I realize in your country you beleive only the wealthy deserve medical treatment.

Answer 21

universal is just another hype word in america.......the word universal means worldwide for all the world to have.....another bad word for healthcare in america............healthcare for all americans is the correct way to say healthcare for people in america.......clear speech in america is what we really need not more hyped clutter and mouth fog ..

Answer 22

another head ache like the depatment of motor vehicles.

Answer 23

No matter what statistics cons and neocons fabricate, the US is way behind the civilized world providing its citizens their rightful health care, heck we are behind CUBA, not to mention CHINA, VIETNAM and TOGO... (perhaps)!



Tats what comes to my mind!

Answer 24

the first image that comes to my mind is sitting in a place like th DMV, another government organization, where it's smelly, crowded, the service is terrible and the lines are long. then i picture all those people in urgent need of quality healthcare having to wait hours, days, even months to be attended to. they could have gotten better service for little or no wait at a private doctor's office

Answer 25

have you looked at the dvd called sicko it's about health care all across this globe get it if you don't have it will make you mad and upset!!!!

Answer 26

quick association would be:



"Least Common Denominator"

Answer 27

I don't believe in so-called "socialized medicine". I believe in "single payer health care".



This is analogous to Prom (that's right the high school dance event). Everyone buys a ticket up front, same price for all. The money goes to a committee, they pool the money and purchase everything in bulk basically. Because the caterer, DJ and hotel don't have to deal with creating individual bills they save a huge amount on administrative work and can have lower prices. Also the committee can shop around for the best deals. The DJ, caterer and hotel remain privately owned and run they are just paid by one group.



How does this translate?



In a single-payer health system, everyone has health insurance. According to the Institute of Medicine, 18,000 people in the United States die every year from a lack of health insurance--that's two people every hour. The US also has higher infant mortality levels(more children under 1 year of age die) compared to most other democratic companies. Babies would be healthier if all pregnant women could get access to a doctor while they're pregnant. Or think of how much less-crowded emergency rooms would be if people could see a primary care doctor when they were sick, instead of only going to an ER when they become sicker.





Imagine if all doctors and all hospitals in the US had just one type of form to fill out. And all patients had one insurance card. And all patients had health insurance by virtue of being US citizens. And now think of the savings in time, money, paper-pushing. Doctors would have more time to care for patients; everyone would have fewer headaches waiting to talk to their HMO to prove their coverage; nurses would be less frustrated with their work.

Single-payer saves money.



By having one organization handle all of the bureaucracy and all of the administration of the health care system (mostly consisting of paperwork and payments) paper-pushing greatly decreases in frequency and cost. More of each of our dollars that go toward health care would actually be used to care for people's health, instead of going toward managers and forms. Single-payer eliminates the bulk of paperwork duplication, and in the process, could potentially save hundreds of BILLIONS (that's 100,000 million) of dollars. As it is right now, American businesses are at an economic disadvantage, because their health costs are so much higher than in other countries. The Canadian branches of Ford, GM, and Daimler-Chrysler all publicly support Canada's health care system, because it saves them an enormous amount of money, compared to their counterparts in the US.



What's more, a single-payer system would mean fewer personal bankruptcies due to medical bills--and an end to patients actually receiving bills. In most countries with a single-payer system, patients never see a bill. The billing process doesn't even involve patients. (This saves money, too--think of how much work goes into itemizing each bill, sending it to each patient, following up on the bill if there's been an error... and on, and on.)



Most single-payer systems save a ton of money by buying prescription drugs for its patients in huge bulk quantities. You know the money you save for buying in bulk at Costco or Sam's Club? Think of applying that concept to buying prescription drugs for America's 290 million people. (Hint: this is what Canada does--it's what makes their drugs much cheaper.)



Americans love choices. We love having options. With a single-payer system, patients could go to any doctor they wanted (try doing that with your HMO!). You could see the doctor that's closest to you, the one that your friends all recommend, or pick one that's your same religion, ethnicity, or race. It'd be a much different experience than getting a specific list from your HMO, telling you who you're allowed to see, if you don't want to pay an arm and a leg for it.



Even better, people wouldn't be tied to their current job for the health insurance it provides. People could find jobs they're happier with or even consider starting their own businesses. It would make employers work harder to make employees happy, and employers could be more confident their workers were a good fit for their jobs.

Answer 28

What comes to mind is it's cheaper than invading Iraq.

Answer 29

commie takeover and they are supporting the terrorists. sorry,i forgot i'm not a con. i actually think of Teddy Roosevelt.



"This country will not be a permanently good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a reasonably good place for all of us to live in."



"There is not a man of us who does not at times need a helping hand to be stretched out to him, and then shame upon him who will not stretch out the helping hand to his brother."

Answer 30

complete failure ,,,I SEE DEAD PEOPLE,,lol..also see in my mind Hillary Clinton in a nurses uniform,,,NOOOOO....haaa. seriously she has been pushing this dream for 20+ years,,,its never going to see the light of day,,,I think...chow hot one,,,freepress

Answer 31

High taxes

Answer 32

More death and more taxes.

Answer 33

what automatically comes to mind? "im &*$^@#!"

Answer 34

100 million more illegal immigrants draining legal Americans of every last cent they had!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!