Sen. Bernie Sanders [I-VT] On Heath Care:

[nebris]

Health Care Is a Right, Not a Privilege
Let's be clear. Our health care system is disintegrating. Today, 46 million people have no health insurance and even more are underinsured with high deductibles and co-payments. At a time when 60 million people, including many with insurance, do not have access to a medical home, more than 18,000 Americans die

Comments

[caliantrias]

No, Sen Sanders, Health Care is NOT a right. That's the problem. It should be.

[theheretic]

300,000,000 Americans.
40,000 killed in car accidents annually.

So 18,000 from waiting too long to see the doctor? That's not so bad.

[theheretic]

Which is why so many of us will face "pay to play" healthcare and the industry itself will collapse into a two tiered system "competent expensive Private care" and "incompetent/dangerous socialized medicine". If you are knowledgeable you might survive on the socialized medicine plan, however anybody without knowledge could easily die from anything more complicated than a GP can diagnose in 5 minutes.

It is already going that way. Its just going to be a more noticeable break instead of the pretend overlooked one we have now.

[nebris]

So you're admitting that Capitalism is the problem here.

~M~

[theheretic]

No. I am admitting that people are the problem here. See the difference?

[nebris]

Have fun when they cut off your feet.

~M~

[jimmywitz]

I am amazed and dumbfounded by the comments of so many on this board

[theheretic]

Hey, I know! I'll vote myself rich! I'll go to the polls and vote myself a millionaire! Because money grows on trees and those treasury fools can print me a 3-foot cube of $100 bills.

That's what socialized medicine is.

Hah hah!

[jimmywitz]

Are you serious? I guess you don't read or study much economics or political science.
And by the way, "socialized medicine" is a system of delivering healthcare that preserves private practice, delivers healthcare to 100% of the population, and costs, on average, 10% of a country's GDP.
Our system, in contrast, delivers a substandard healthcare poduct to only 75% of the population and costs 18% of our GDP.

Re: Hah hah!

[theheretic]

Guess you don't study economics or math much, then.

Where is the profit motive for a medical student paying $250K to become a doctor when he's going to make $70K/yr as a doctor under socialized medicine because they cut his wages to lower the total costs. Remember that 18% you were citing above? That means cutting costs, most of which are labor, and thus dropping wages by around half. Would a woman go to school 2 years to become a nurse only to earn around the same she'd make as a secretary, which is easier work, requires no student loan debts for nursing school, and has far fewer legal encumbrances compared to being a secretary.

What's my motivation? Keep asking yourself that when you start dictating terms to other people.