Just posting this quick thread as I would like to know the majority of peoples idea re government healthcare. As most people here are from US it might be different from Europe.

The basica idea of government healthcare is that everyone is covered regardless of their financial situation or whether they have taken out health insurance.

This must be funded through compulsory taxes which if you refuse/try not to pay, you will be thrown in jail.

Firstly, is this unconstitutional? Also, does this invade our privacy and is it against our rights to be forced to pay? Is healthcare a right or is it so important that the government must provide it through a re-distribution of wealth? Is such a system similar to a ponzi-scheme and bound to collapse at some point?

In the UK the majority of people are for the NHS (gov healthcare). However, it is in a bad way as it is massively over-stretched. Many government run things tend to be like this?

Are you for or against?

Discuss.

I don't think the question should be quite this simple. I take the view that a free market approach or a government approach would be fine, but the current system is neither and is clearly the worst approach imo.

What, no the NHS absolutely isnt in a bad way or overstretched. If anything its over funded. Your analysis of the NHS is 100% wrong and i speak as someone who knows a bunch of people who work at various levels including nurses and a department head.

Well I am a fully covered VA patient so my situation is unlike many others, but I love it, and the price is right, virtully free because of my military background long ago! I would not change for private , for profit, care, but my situation is not like a lot of others, so whatever!

I've lived in two countries where it worked very well. It makes people feel safe and lets them get on with their lives. The US is the only Western country in which I've felt a strong undercurrent of fear in the populace, and I suspect it's due in part to the lack of the social safety nets which are found in other developed countries. Ask how happy people are with their lives in Canada, and how safe they feel, and compare with the US.

In terms of ideology, universal health care is undesirable, but ideology sometimes falls flat when it comes to reality.

And I don't buy that public funding costs significantly more or is significantly more wasteful. Considering that health care is basically a government protected cartel, via the standards and protections imposed on being a doctor, nurse, pharmaceutical company, etc, it makes sense to have its administration in government hands. Government protected cartel + free market pricing is rife for abuse IMO.

Should be all or nothing. Any mix of public and private is usually a disaster.

Would you class our NHS and BUPA system to be a mix, or one of the all or nothings?

I dont necessarily disagree with you, i just think all or nothing is too rigid a term.

Probably true. I mean that if the government is going to get involved at all it should be single payer healthcare otherwise the inevitable corruption gets too painful.

yeah its not in a bad way really

people just say that

Government should have a 100% coverage after a $20k deductible policy on all citizens. Protects people from a catastrophic loss incident with still room for cheaper private insurance to cover everything < $20k. It's really the 6 figure bankruptcy inducing hospital bills that people are worried about.

YEP.

I'm pretty sure for a lot of people 10K is still pretty catastrophic.

Not to mention this causes people to avoid cheap preventative care increasing the amount of catastrophic coverage that has to be provided.

To those [not necessarily anybody in this thread (yet?)] who have argued so much over the last year that this is government take over, mandates are unconstitutional, our founders would hate this, etc.:

http://www.politifact.com/rhode-isla...ress-mandated/

What say you to this?

Health insurance will cause me to avoid cheap preventative care? Does not compute.

Then buy health insurance. **** will be dirt cheap now that their big losses are capped.