A simple challenge: Prove to me that it is viable.

US is the only country in the west that doesn't have socialised healthcare.

One can never prove such a thing. But it has worked very well in every country that has tried it.

Show me some countries that are reasonable to compare one self with and tell me where universal healthcare has not succeded.

The problem is that the US government does not really care about their citizens =P

Get universal health care. Its the Christian thing to do.

It's possible. You'll just have to spend about 1% of the current defence budget on that.

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Originally Posted by ~Crusader~
A simple challenge: Prove to me that it is viable.

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Okay. Show me a country with around 300 million people that has a government healthcare plan. As it is currently the U.S. government allocates more of its money to healthcare without it being standardized than any other nation.

The only way I can see national healthcare in the United States working is if we kill off 250 million people.

Why would it be more difficult for a 300 millions pop. country to organise an universal healthcare system, if, all proportion kept, it is much, much richer than a 60 millions pop. country who has successfully did it?

Say, apparently, China's healtcare system has been publicly funded for some times. Only recently have patients been asked to pay for some of the procedures. But anyway, its apparently much more affordable than in the US.

Okay so... I'll be less of an asshole and actually discuss this socialised healthcare.

1) Socialised Healthcare costs too much per capita

http://www.nybooks.com/images/tables/20060323img2.gif

These are the numbers for healthcare spending in countries using socialised healthcare, similar to the United States (specifically Canada and United Kingdom) compared with the United States. Every country using socialised healthcare has at least 50% savings if not more compared to the United States in healthcare spending per capita. There is virtually no justification that socialised healthcare would cost you more money. In fact, all evidence points to it costing less.

Socialised healthcare allows all citizens to pay into a single insurance plan. This eliminates administrative overhead used in the competitive insurance market. Since all insurance companies share the same pool of income, their only choice to be profitable is to deny claims to individuals and prevent higher risk individuals from buying their service. This is a very high administrative cost eliminated in socialised healthcare. In socialised healthcare, everyone simply buys the same plan and spreads the risk equally between all citizens.

Socialised healthcare allows the government to bargain and demand lower pharmaceutical prices. With a monopoly control on the purchase of drugs, Canada is able to purchase the same drugs as American citizens at a 17% discount. (I'll find a source later)


2) Socialised Healthcare provides worse services

Actually using the same table from before, America has worse health indexes than all other western countries. I would spend more time to compile more data, but generally, even Cuba has better health metrics than the United States. There is no justification that the health of the American people would fall. There is only evidence that it would rise.

3) Scale of America

China has socialised healthcare with a population of 1.3 billion.
India has socialised healthcare with a population of 1 billion.
Taiwan switched over to socialised healthcare in 1995, growth in healthcare costs slowed rather than quickened. Coverage went from 57% to 97%
Canada and most of Europe uses socialised healthcare.

What evidence do you have that having 300 million compared to the European Union's 500 million (?), that your scale "is larger"? In fact, what evidence have you that when places like India and China have socialised healthcare, that it is impossible for you to implement?

citizens to pay into a single insurance plan. This eliminates administrative overhead used in the competitive insurance market. Since all insurance companies share the same pool of income, their only choice to be profitable is to deny claims to individuals and prevent higher risk individuals from buying their service. This is a very high administrative cost eliminated in socialised healthcare. In socialised healthcare, everyone simply buys