And I wants to go dancing, NEKKID!

[stannerz]

My first writing 101 assignment was to pick an important topic and make a list of pros and cons for it. The idea is, when you think of one pro or con, that brings up another idea, and another one, and so on and so forth until you have a comprehensive list of arguments for either side of the case

Comments

[prolog]

The argument that it's a step into communism is completely false. I mean, the American government already controls such things as education, social security, etc. People don't generally look at public education and think "OMG, socialist pigs!"

Anyway, here's my list, based on actual experience with the system. Note that I spent a good deal of my life living under the poverty line (as a student, and as a child). Right now, I get by on $9600/year. I'm just stating my biases up front.

Pros:
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- People don't die because of lack of coverage (bias: I didn't die because of a lack of coverage). I was born 3 months premature. I weighed 2lbs, 8 oz. I was in an incubator for three or four months, and had a number of health complications, including ruptured lungs, and poor fine motor control. At the time, my parents were graduate students, who wouldn't have had any kind of coverage with an American-style HMO system. I would have, quite frankly, bankrupted them at best. At worst, they might have pulled the plug.
- Good coverage, geographically. This is also one of the inefficiencies of the system. Places like Erikson, MB (pop 2000) will have regional hospitals (out in the middle of nowhere). Pro or con, depending on your position. People can get good health care, but the inefficiency adds up.

Cons:
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- People tend to be irresponsible, going to hospital for BS like small temperatures, etc, which can cause deaths of people who really need to use the emergency room (essentially, people are retards, but this isn't new in any system)
- Because it's accessible, waiting list for elective surgeries and the like (knee surgery, etc) can last a year or more.
- Sometimes people die because of being on a waiting list

Doctors here easily make upwards of $100,000/year. They're not government employees, with fixed salary structures. They run their own practices, and bill the government appropriately, essentially. Nurses, on the other hand, face the problems you mention. There's not enough, and those that exist are underpaid. A lot of people here bitch about all the nursing strikes, but if you had to work 12-16 hour shifts five days a week, having a degree, for so-so pay given the hours, you'd be pissed too.

My opinion is that a hybrid system would work best. Governments don't do well at delivery - they tend to be inefficient and beaurocratic. No news there. So combine the public health system with private delivery of the services, so that efficiency is maximized, and a lot of the problems are eliminated. Both public and private health care have a lot of issues. I think that a combination of the two of them would go a long way towards solving a good deal of the problems.

My personal belief is that if one's never been poor, one won't fully understand the utility of a public health service. Those that are poor aren't, by and large, bad people. They're human, and need the same treatments as everyone else.