Why not Universal Healthcare?

[blackraven]

Feanor, you take me all wrong. several times I have said in this post that I support universal health care and that I admire the Canadian system and that it would be a good template for our system. (but it seems to me that you cannot take any criticism about the Canadian system when I say its not perfect and has some problems. I guess I'm a liar and all the Canadian Dr's and the few Candian patients that I have taken care of who have come to the Twin Cities for treatment are all liars.) All I'm saying is that the changes that need to be made will not set well with the American public. It needs to be a slow change and it needs to be done right. And yes, we are afraid that the gov't will screw this up. Every thing that the gov't touches is Fk'd up. Social program after program has failed or not lived up to its potential. Politicians are for the most part corrupt or in bed with big business, both republicans and democrats alike. This country is so in debt because of one poor gov't decision after another. Just look at the recent events with the bail out of banks and GM. Look at our involvement in Iraq and the whole weapons of mass destruction. There are too many hands in the pot. The forefathers of this country never meant the gov't to be so intrusive in States and the private citizens business. We have a right to question our gov't. Even Obama is untrustworthy. Earlier in the year he stated that he supported a single payer system and just last week he back tracked and stated he never endorsed a single payer system. WTF is that crap. So don't criticize us for mistrusting the govt when you have not lived here and experienced it first hand on every level from the local level to the state level and the federal level. Currently most people I talk to in the Twin Cities have no confidence in our gov't to make the right decisions. And I come in contact with a lot of people. We see over 40,000 patients a year in our ER!

Just a clarification about my comments about death panels. All I said was that there will be Ethics committee's to deal with end of life care. They are in place all ready. Every one in medicine knows that the majority of the cost savings will have to come from end of life care in the last 6 months of life where 75% of medical costs are incurrred. This does not mean that we are going to kill people, it just means that unnecessary treatments and test will be curtailed if there is no chance at survival or quality of life. Get used to that thought because it is gonna happen and it needs to happen. The public has no clue as to how much money is wasted and how much more pain and suffering is caused trying to keep a terminally ill patient alive usually against their wishes.