Would the quality of health care be diminished under Hillary's plan?

Question

What will happen to the quality of our health care under a Socialized medical plan? Please state why and how it would be good or bad.

Answer 1

The government has proven to be incompetent and inefficient on a lot of things...and that will automatically change in regards to our health?

Answer 2

Actually it has been better wherever universal healthcare is present.

Answer 3

I believe it would be good.  A Socialized medical plan is like the one in Canada.  Everyone has health care.

Answer 4

Anything mandatory is another freedom taken away. People should sign up and pay for whatever kind of health care they want and can afford. The ones that cannot afford it should be provided for from a voluntary pool of donations. If that is still not adequate they should go to their next-door neighbor and take it at gunpoint. Having the government legally steal it is no different. It just costs 5 times as much with administrative waste. Such theft from a neighbor by an ill person could be ruled as "justifiable theft" in the same manner we have "justifiable homicide".

Answer 5

First of all her plan does not resemble Canada's plan and more Canadiens like the healthcare than don't.

Also her plan is heavily private payer and private sector with some govt support, but far from socialized.  Even less so than Social Security.

State that have public healthcare programs like Hawaii and Oregon have had great success with these plans.

Nothing is perfect but 47 million uninsured in what is touted as the most caring nation, is unnacceptable.  I read her plan, I think it is pretty solid.

Her plan still allows for marketplace competition and Dr.s would still have just as high earnings as now allowing for us to still have the best doctors.

Answer 6

You Bet...and the wait times...and the cost...

Answer 7

I served in the military, it was run by the government, and I never had a problem getting treatment or with the level of treatment.

Answer 8

Yes it would go down.

Competition and the chance for high pay is what gets the best and the brightest to be doctors. With the cost of malpractice insurance on the rise the medical field is already losing a lot of the best and brightest to other fields where they can make the money. If you further cut pay by regulating it by the government what would it do to it. I mean if you go to school for 8-10 years to become a doctor and you are going to earn no more then someone working in a factor making cars plus you have all that debt to repay. I dunno just doesn't seem worth it.

Now day fiscally you would be better off with a Phd in engineering then a MD. Social heath care would only make it worse.

Also competition drives each clinic to have better then the others. That is why the little city i am from has dozens of MRI machines, but if you go to Canada a large city will have half a dozen or less. Canada basically has what she wants to go to.

If socialized welfare where really so good then the people who can afford to go out of the country to get heath care in other countries with it wouldn't.

It would raise the heath care level for bums without jobs, but for the average person it would go down significantly over time.

It all comes down to should everyone be handled at the same lever as people to lazy to get jobs or should you be able to earn better for yourself?

Answer 9

Hillary, Obama, and Roberts all have health plans that are better than what we have right now. But they're still tied in to the obscenely profitable health insurance companies.

In 2006:

United Health's CEO  earned 124.8 million in salary and 1.6 BILLION worth of stock options.

Aetna's profits rose 16% in the second quarter of this year.

Humana's earnings for the second quarter of this year were double what they were last year, revenue rose to 6+ billion dollars, a rise of 19% over last year.

Are you satisfied with the health care you get? I guess you live in heaven.

My experiences with New York health care is just bad. In a highly regarded hospital they gave me the one anesthesia I had told them I was allergic. And when I threw up for 14 hours they told me it would pass!

My mother was misdiagnosed by her physician and was put into a hospital for major surgery she did not need. Fortunately I found out about it in time and got a second opinion.

My friends, family and acquaintances all have stories just like this. All are well educated, most with graduate degrees, earn a good living, and still cannot get decent care.

So. I know that Medicare, a government-run health program for those over 65 works and it works very well. The Veterans' Administration works not as well but it's not as bad as general care in a NY hospital.

And, also, ask yourself: how much attention does your MD pay to you when you need help?

We have the highest health costs in the world.

We do not have the best health care. I think the US is now #8 among the western developed nations.

I read yesterday that 173,000 people have gone abroad to get reasonably priced, good quality health care. They seem to be voting with their feet.

So, again, are you happy with your health care and how much it costs?

Answer 10

If stats are any indication, the countries who have UHC all have higher life expectancies and lower infant mortality rates.  Sounds like an improvement in care to me.

Answer 11

It would diminish quite a bit.  Socialized Health care has never improved.  When the government takes control it becomes a budget issue rather than a health issue.  The government would do things no differently than a cheap HMO, looking for the least cost and determining weather or not that procedure is necessary to your life.  The willingness of what the government is "willing" to pay for health care will have an effect on those doctors that are at the top of their professions and on those who are aspiring to become doctors.  Those that are competent and who have paid large amounts of money and time to get where they are at will opt out of government programs and will continue their private practice.  The difference now will be that only the rich can offord them or those who will pay for private insurance.  Those who once wanted to become surgeons or doctors will seriously question their choice as they won't want to spend 3 times what an average college education costs and spend three times the amount of time in school just to make what the government "decides" to pay for their expertise.  There will be less education in the fields of medicine and new proceedures as there will not be enough or it will not be profitable to persue those issues.

The US is responsible for little more than 80% of new medicines and medical proceedures in the market today.  There is a reason for this.  We have the money to develope these things.  Other countries just benefit from it.  Which is great.  But I think you will find that socialized healthcare not only will have an adverse effect on the US, but the world as well.

It is no secret that Canadian doctors and patients come to the US for serious medical proceedures or to open their practices.

Finally, when has the government succeeded especially well with a socialized program that offers citizens "Free" anything?  You will always pay for it and you will see that reflected in inflated taxes.  A perfect example is Social Security.  How well is that national program working out?

Answer 12

Yes, the quality will go down, and the costs will SKYROCKET.

There are a lot of problems with healthcare in this country. First, few care about the cost, because we dont pay for it.... insurance does for the majority of Americans. The free market is not able to set the price.

The USA is ranked in the 30's for healthcare... but the rankings are based on DIVERSITY of healthcare... how well it is spread out... not on the QUALITY of the care itself. The USA has the best care in the world.

We dont need socialized medicine. The government can not do much right... we want them running our health care system?

We need to do several things. First... insurance should NOT cover routine care. When you go to the doc for a stuffy nose, you should PAY for it. You dont get insurance to put gas in your car... you dont get insurance for EXPECTED expenses.

Insurance should cover the catastrophic things, including expensive necessary tests. Everyone should have a health savings account that they can withdraw from for retirement at age 65. And everyone should have their own insurance.

The solution is to reform the problems, get costs down, and keep the GOVERNMENT OUT!

Socialized medicine has NEVER worked before. The surveys that rank places like France high are misleading... they look at how much the care is spread out... not the quality of the care itself.

People will die under Hillary's plan, and it will bankrupt this country.

Answer 13

Frankly, I doubt it would make much difference.  It won't get much better, it won't get much worse, and it certainly won't get any cheaper.  In fact, as in Canada, it would probably hide the increased cost by diverting it to your tax bill instead of your monthly premium.

Answer 14

Well, for one thing she promised this for 8 years when she was the first lady, and never followed through with it. Now she's using the same ol' song and dance to try to get back into the White House.

She's not promising everyone free health care. She promising to make health care mandatory, you pay for it ( just like car insurance is mandatory).

Answer 15

The giant insurance companies that are making obscene profits sure want you to think that.