I just hope we can continue to have privately-run healthcare.

Take comfort in the fact that you've been egregiously misled about Obama's plans in this regard. Your relief will balance out my disappointment on that score.

What are you disappointed by?

Chantal

Continuing to have private health care.

Amazingly diverse country, isn't it? :)

I am sure you will have no problems on that count even though I am no fan of private only medical care having it seen it bring people in the early 70s to the brink of suicide after gaining debts and people being turned away from hospitals at that was before surgery and the like became real expensive.

People not able to see a doctor or get the medicine they need. People whose have to choose between medicine and food.

The NHS is far far from perfect but they pull out all the stops for acute cases and we also have private health care to take some of the burden from the State for those who are in a positiion to have it.

I pay a nominal fee (if at all) for the medicine I need. It isn't free.. everyone pays a National Insurance contribution but it does mean if I need to see a doctor today I can do so without charge and knowing the horror stories from having worked in the medical profession and had a Mom that did in the USA for many years, I know where my feelings lie.

I'm also grateful that there will be no contested areas this time round.

Viv--*nods* The US system is far from perfect, too. Medical care is way too expensive--I think more expensive than it needs to be. And yes, catastrophic illness is indeed that if you haven;t prepared for it financially--and even, in some cases, if you have.

It's just that, over here, the government-run healthcare system (mainly the Veterans' Administration) is notoriously bad. And even if you have Medicare, which is the government-funded insurance system for the elderly and disabled, there are quite a few physicians who won't accept Medicare because it does not pay as much for procedures and office visits as private health insurance does. I also am not keen to pay the 91% tax rate that I've been told is levied in some countries to pay for their government-run health care.

What I would like to see is healthcare savings accounts and an end to the use of 'pre-existing conditions' to exclude people from obtaining private health insurance. I could be wrong, but I think, if the insurance companies would just make it possible for everyone to obtain affordable, reasonable private health insurance, rather than leaving large groups of people uninsured, that would help considerably. Granted, the premiums would probably rise, but that's to be expected, if you're going to force the insurance companies to eliminate the pre-existing conditions exclusion.

Chantal

healthcare savings accounts and an end to the use of 'pre-existing conditions'

...is a recipe for the collapse of the system. Healthy people will flee from group insurance plans to set up their HSAs, leaving the insurers with an ever sicker, more costly pool and reduced premium stream to pay for their needs. Rates spiral ever higher for the people who can least afford it and the whole private payor system collapses under its own weight.

The US is the only modern industrial nation without a single-payor public health system, and our industry is crippled under that disadvantage.

Sorry to butt in here...but where do people pay 91% in tax to pay for the public health care? We have a fairly well-working system in Denmark. (Though thanks to the non-socialist parties governing our country in the 80's and the past 7-8 years, it's getting worse and more run-down.)
But we're not paying anywhere near 91% - I, as a student, pay the lowest tax, which is something around 38-40%. Depending on your income you'll of course be paying more, but I don't think it's more than 60% if you're really wealthy. (And those people always know how to find ways of having to pay less anyway...but that's just my inner socialist speaking. *g*)

Oh, private health care is quite safe. Obama's plan is to cover those not covered by private insurance. All i can say is thank the gods. I've lived most of my life without health insurance, and I needed some kind of support. I wouldn't be in quite the pickle I am now if I'd had some preventive care and some other things happen in that time. Now, I just cling to health insurance tightly, and pray I never lose it again.

I've been without health insurance for several years, as well. It was expensive and not fun, though it did give freedom that I didn't have with insurance. If I really needed to see a specialist, I made an appointment for one, without having to go through the annoyance of needing a referral.

The problem I see with Obama's plan is this. Once employers know that the government will provide health insurance coverage to people who don't have it, what do you think some employers will do?

I think some employers, at least, will stop providing health care insurance to their employees, because they'll know that the givernment has a plan that those people can be covered by. Providing health insurance to employees is expensive, and I can easily imagine some businesses not wanting to incur that expense. So they might well stop providing insurance and tell people to get in on the government's plan.

So what we could have in the end is still national, government-run health insurance, just more slowly than it would happen otherwise.

Hey, are you doing NaNo this year? How far along are you?

Chantal

I make no bones of the fact that I detest the man and all he stands for. Those of you who know me know that I am a Southern conservative and a classical liberal in the Jeffersonian sense. I believe in smaller government and maximum personal freedoms -- things which we have been getting less and less of as the years march by. This narcissistic socialist which these United States have just elected is going to do nothing but accelerate that process.

Somebody up-comments talked about a sixty-percent tax rate like it's a good thing. Me, I must beg to differ. I work hard for my money, and fail to see any good reason at all why, in such a case, over half of it should be raped away by the government and much of it spread out over a class of unproductive drones who serve no purpose other than to parent more unproductive drones.

I'm not saying that help should not be provided to those that need it and are unable to help themselves. Don't get me wrong. I'm also aware of the fact that some reform is needed in insurance and health care in general, but you can only go so far since good modern medicine is going to be expensive. That's just the nature of the beast.

There's a lot of things an Obama administration promises us, in addition to the coming healthcare fiasco:

Higher taxes
More gun control
More State ownership of capital
Constitutional reconstructionism through the courts
Nanny government and oppressive regulation
A weak, impotent military
Inept foreign policy
More loose-constructionist liberal judges
More socialism -- it's already been proven not to work. Just let it die.
Internationalist subservience to the United Nations
Stronger labor unions
Racism (hiring- and college enrollment quotas)
Class warfare
Voter fraud
Lax immigration controls
Wealth redistributionism
Hostility towards business, and capitalism in general
Over-aggressive environmentalism
Support for failed social programs

I think we're in for at least a rough two years. The sad thing, to my mind, is that the Republicans held power for as long as they did, but in the end turned out to be just like Democrats. A case of power corrupting, and now I'm afraid we're all going to pay for it.

Hey, Dave--We could start up a rallying cry for Gingrich in 2012. I've liked his ideas about reforming health care.

And I agree with you about the Republicans. I don't think real conservatives would have come up with such a lame idea as the stimulus package, much less a second one. Why do they want to put us even more into debt?

Chantal