Universal health care

[anvi]

So people with good genes should subsidize those with bad genes?  More relevantly, people with good health habits should subsidize those with bad habits?

Good genes and good health habits are no guarantors against health emergencies.  Besides, anyone who just buys private insurance but doesn't need to make any claims is subsidizing the costs of others in that private pool while at the same time covering their own risk.  That's how insurance works. 

[freefair]

Yes,, people with good genes should subsidize those with bad genes. Some things you should be entitled to just by being born.
More relevantly, people with good health habits should NOT subsidize those with bad habits or those who acted irresponsibly. This is a problem with some UHC systems around the world, but you can do things like refuse treatment. It really peeves me when leftists complain there isn't enough money in the NHS for "little kids with cancer" and ask to whack up taxes, but are happy to provide care to robbers who cut their hand punching somebody's windows in or a triple bypass for some 600 kg housewhale. If you are to have UHC, make sure its based on Need+Individual Repsonsibillity

[Filuwaúrdjan]

And how, exactly, would 'individual responsibility' be defined? 'Exactly' being very much the operative word.

[freefair]

Was this Illness, Injury or Disease clearly brought on by your liefestyle or actions?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

And how, exactly, would you define that? And by 'that' I mean almost all of it... 'lifestyle', 'actions', 'clearly', 'brought on'... and who would make the decisions? Who would have the power? How would the system work?

[DemPGH]

Unhealthy lifestyles can certainly exacerbate existing conditions or conditions one is prone to have, but eating your oatmeal every day and running a mile is absolutely no guarantee against anything, and while it's a great idea to eat your oatmeal and run your mile, the heart association as well as any physician will tell you it's no guarantee. That said, no, you don't want to blow up your weight and eat fast food and doughnuts.

Breast cancer is not self-inflicted. Some people smoke and get lung cancer, some people don't. Determining causation is a slippery slope and nearly impossible because of genetic factors.

And yes, it's not too much to ask those with "good genes" to help those with "poor genes," if it's to be worded as such.

[Blackacre]

Yes. We have a horrible health care system in this country (pre-Obamacare anyway). TBH I'd wait until Obamacare gets implemented fully in 2014. Let it work for 2 years, then assess it. If it does its job fine, then case closed, we don't need a change from that. If Obamacare isn't enough to catch up to other 1st world countries, let's go universal. Healthcare is a right, and the more things removed from greedy private giant corporations, the better

[Wyoming Conservative]

NO.

[Donald Trump 2016]

I would say yes do to the fact Trump supports it.

[McGovern]

We need it now more then ever.

[William Poole]

Our great founders and natives that found this fine land did not bleed and fight for use to have socialism or free healthcare. The natives of this fine land know this.

[Peter the Lefty]

Our great founders and natives that found this fine land did not bleed and fight for use to have socialism or free healthcare. The natives of this fine land know this.

Define "natives." 

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Our great founders and natives that found this fine land did not bleed and fight for use to have socialism or free healthcare. The natives of this fine land know this.

Define "natives." 

Given who this troll took as a screen name, White Anglo-Saxon Protestants.  William Poole was a Know Nothing who wanted to keep the Irish Catholics out.

[muon2]

Why does the question assume that universal health care requires single payer? The Bismarck model is common in developed countries like Germany and Japan, but does not use a single payer.

[angus]

Why does the question assume that universal health care requires single payer?

I'm not sure that it does.  You can be in favor of universal health care but not single-payer systems.  In that case you'd vote No in this poll.

We had a thread a while back that compared four basic medical services models.  The conclusion was that the United States was unusual because it maintains so many separate systems for separate classes of people, utilizing aspects of all four of those models.  Apparently all the other countries have settled on one model for everybody, and any of them seem to be simpler and less expensive than the US system. 

I voted No as well, for what it's worth.

[Sbane]

No, I don't, because I favor a bismarck model. Of course even a single payer system would be better than the current system, even after the implementation of Obamacare.

[Blackacre]

Obamacare is a good "testing the waters" for healthcare reform in the US. If it doesn't live up to its goal, then we must move on to single payer. If it works, we keep it for at least a generation.