Europe's free, state-run health care has drawbacks (AP)

It's a miracle! After months of fawning coverage of healthcare "reform" there's finally an opposing view by AP. Nationalized health care does not save money without rationing. If it did, why are they having to find over $1 trillion to fund the plan? Why do we need $1 trillion to "keep us from going bankrupt" which is supposed to be the justification for the government plan?

You want reform? Cap damages in lawsuits as a start. And then stop the "all you can eat" mentality that lets people get obese and smoke and pay the same premiums as someone who stays fit.

Too bad it took a huge swing in public opinion for these "journalists" to start doing their job rather than being shills for the White House.

Hey AP get on that energy tax bill pending. People would hate that too if they knew anything a bout what it will really do.

Keep thinking the rest of the world's health care stinks -- until YOU are seriously or terminally ill, gone broke paying medical during the first part of your illness, and cannot get medical treatment. Then start writing about how assisted suicide should be GREAT!
With unemployment at 9.5%, how many people are continuing their regular medical coverage?

There are quite a few problems with our own healthcare as well.
1. Many prescription drugs cost as much as 7 times as much as they cost in Canada.
2. We pay many times more for our care as anyone else in the world.
3. We have rationing already.
4. Many doctors in high cost areas have figured out how profitable it is to send patients to their own labs and radiology clinics, and order many unneeded tests and procedures.

These are only a few of the drawbacks of the present system.

What would be better is to have everyone get a completely stripped down, absolute minimum care with the option for private companies and individuals to be able to buy increased care/choice/options from private health insurance companies.

That way you could solve the gross inequity of having rapists and murderers get completely free care, but the least of our honest citizens get nothing.

As a person who suffers from Type 1 diabetes and Asthma, I am fearful of government-run healthcare. I say to anyone who will listen, look at the type of care our government gives our veterans..it is horrible! I will do whatever it takes to continue my private insurance, otherwise I will be one of those people who the government (within a few years) will not allow to live, once rationing kicks in.

The same crowd that brought you the US Post Office and the IRS, and all the other bloated bureaucracies, not to mention MOUNTAINS of debt, plus Medicare and Social Security needs to butt out of health care. They will ruin the best health care system in the world. Cost will be controlled via rationing, and they will dictate who can get what and when. This march that we are on towards total socialism/communism must be stopped somehow. The freedoms we once had are being taken from us drop by drop.... soon, none will be left.

Is there any group of people anywhere on this earth that has any kind of healthcare system that is currently clamoring for their system to be changed to the American system - I think not. The opposite is not the case as evidenced by the fact that a person can get elected in America by promising to change the system to one similar to that of another country. Is everyone wrong or stupid or perhaps the USA system is in serious need of reform.

This story is pure BS. It might have well been written by Limbaugh. The author is a well-know neo-conservative, and thus we should believe her? LOL

in europe's free state run health care THEY ALLOWED MY AUNT TO DIE, EVEN THO THEY COULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING AS SIMPLE AS ADJUSTING HER MEDICINE TO KEEP HER ALIVE.

WAKE UP FOOLS, I PROMISE YOU YOU DON'T WANT IT COMING HERE.

you want universal health care?

and if they tell you, or someone you love, that you can't get treatment because you are too old, or too useless to society, then what will you do?

why are people from around the world taking "medical vactions" to the

US to get medical treatments that they can't get under thier socialist universal health care?

because they'd rather pay for the best treatments and live, that's why.

i think we need to leave well enough alone, look into United Health Care and I work for the company Whole Foods Market and I have had no problems with my health care as of yet.

Sadly, too many people can't see past the "free" price tag to realize how much it will actually cost us as a whole. And in the lowest of human characteristics(greed) will want it because they feel that they somehow "deserve" it.

It's an uphill battle for now. But those of us that are paying the taxes for these freebies that everyone else gets have got to start telling elected officials "Enough!". After all, politicians seem to jump when the advocacy groups scream when they want something and want everyone else to pay for it. How about those of us that pay the bills start screaming to politicians that we are sick of paying for it and remind them that they could be unemployed if they ignore us.

2010

I have family in the Netherlands. They claim their healthcare system is broke beyond repair and compare Obama to Bush for not listening to the people. People say no, Bush did it anyway. People say no, Obama does it anyway.

holy s*** !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! a reporter who has seen the freakin light.... someone pinch me, this can't be a article reported from the AP.....

but anyways, yeah, most people have already noticed this junk, im glad someone is here finally to let the rest who don't know it, recognize what's going on...
truth is, so what has he done? GITMO is still open. No one has been guaranteed a real trial. Warrentless searches are still on. Healthcare, don't make me laugh. And the stimulus? What a joke. Just look at the numbers that came out a couple days ago. We're going to double down in Pakistan and that will blow up in our face... and as for Iraq, Doesn't look like much has changed, except we gave them the keys to their own country back. But will we really ever leave?
There is a lot more to be reported on, the health care plan is just a butt in a big joke thats known as Obama's plans

The worst system is the one we have now in the USA. We are all one illness away from being homeless, whether you have insurance or not. Your insurance company will drop your coverage as soon as the big bills start coming. Every 2 minutes an American files for bankruptcy because of the outrageous costs, the medical industry have their lobbiest in Washington for the status quo. I've been through it, paid $5,000 a DAY for a room with 3 other patients in it, this didn't include medical, or operations and my medical bills have almost ruined me, and prior the the illness I had hit my first million dollars net worth, and it's all gone. Don't think it can happen to you? Obama's plan is the best thing for us Americans. Call your representatives DEMOCRAT, or REPUBLICAN, ( I'VE BEEN A REPUBLICAN FOR 30 YEARS), and support Obama's plan. This is not a bipartisan issue, it's a matter of your family's survival. WE NEED CHANGE NOW!

Japan has national health care but the one difference there is the politicians care about their people. I'm sure you have heard of politicians or businessmen committing suicide because they disgraced their office. It's their way of saving face. Yes, they have a smaller population than we do, but they respect the needs of their people. It would never work in this country because those in Washington place their needs first and look to see what they can gain.
Can you imagine any of our politicians committing suicide because they disgraced their office, or willfully step down because they got a sweetheart deal or caused the collapse of Freddie or Fannie? Our government cares so much for their people that you will be fined 1,000 for not having health insurance. Do they even consider individual circumstances? No.

The biggest drawback is you have to be a Commie to move to the front of the line.
....or maybe a drunk MA Senator who drove a pregnant woman half-way across a bridge.

The worst system is the one we have now in the USA. We are all one illness away from being homeless, whether you have insurance or not. Your insurance company will drop your coverage as soon as the big bills start coming. Every 2 minutes an American files for bankruptcy because of the outrageous costs, the medical industry have their lobbiest in Washington for the status quo. I've been through it, paid $5,000 a DAY for a room with 3 other patients in it, this didn't include medical, or operations and my medical bills have almost ruined me, and prior the the illness I had hit my first million dollars net worth, and it's all gone. Don't think it can happen to you? Obama's plan is the best thing for us Americans. Call your representatives DEMOCRAT, or REPUBLICAN, ( I'VE BEEN A REPUBLICAN FOR 30 YEARS), and support Obama's plan. This is not a partisan issue, it's a matter of your family's survival. WE NEED CHANGE NOW!

It ain't free someone has to pay for it. On PBS's To hte Contrary" one of the woman commentators made the assinine comment "Most Americans get their healthcare for free from their employer". The others accepted this as fact.

healthcare:

don't eat at mcdonalds,

As much as I trust Doctors and Insurance Companies,, If you see me Lying on the side of the road and you can get a pulse,,,, Leave me be!,, I'm just resting,,, Never mind the Blood,, it's just a scratch.

What about Canada's univeral health care system, which is provided by private service providers? Statistically speaking, and from talking with people is some of these countries, not everyone feels short changed by universal coverage. Many like and support the concept. Take a look at the data on Wikipedia, the US is not ranked number one.

Those of you all for government run healthcare here need to look up this article on yahoo buzz:
Under Senate health care plan, either way you pay (AP)
Now tell me you really want to be forced to pay for it or fined $1,000 and possibly subjected to a jail sentence. When the government considers taking your choices away it is NOT a good thing. When they force you to join a program under threat of punishment by using the guise that it's for the good of everyone, you're not in a free country any more. Read it and weep. It's not free healthcare. You'll be paying out the nose.

The first step to help care reform must address the unjustified "entitlement mentality" that somebody else must pay for one's helath care. Our culture promotes unhealthy life styles and unhealthy nutritional habits that contribute to poor health. Yet those individuals feel that someone should pick of the tab for their poor choices. The need ti sot provide catastrophic coverage for all, encourage more healthy lifestyles. Also get private insurers out fo the equation. In 55 years they have done nothing to improve health care.

There are many in the US, as noted in a few of these comments, that quickly exceed the one million dollar lifetime cap which then means large bills that are due from personal funds. I watched an otherwise healthy man die after getting an infection post a hip replacement surgery simply because he had exhausted the million dollar cap, gone through half of his and his wife's million dollar lifetime savings in a 401k, only to decide he did not want to further endanger his wife would live in poverty and he would die anyway since they had yet to cure his infection. I agree with the reader who said we are all just one major illness away from bankruptcy [or choice of death if we do not want to leave our families with nothing but bills]. A two night stay with one major procedure these days cost almost a quarter million dollars. A couple of these events and you are on your own with no coverage.

So what are we supposed to conclude? That because other countries have problems with their health care too we should simply indulge and endure our own messed up system?

That seems to be the thrust of this article.

We can pay for the universal health care system for each of us by redirecting our taxes from the lifetime guaranteed health care benefits of the politicians to an account for ourselves. Why should one's taxes pay for another's lifetime healthcare when we are not guaranteed the same as private citizens? If Social Security is a pay program, so is the current health care system for polititians. Who would not want guaranteed health care for life after working only a few years? We all want it.

just another gimmick to further impoverish the Anglo-Americans of this nation, so they can fund the free healthcare of all the third worlders pouring in...don't bother contacting congress, since they only represent the billionaire bankers and corporate tycoons...

www.cfr.org
www.trilateral.org

Yeh, our health care system is a shambles. Only 95% of Americans have health care. Nobody comes here for treatment. America isn't developing new drugs and therapies that the world is using. Innovation and advancement in medicine have come to a grinding halt in America. Germany and France and Britain and Venezuela are developing all the latest in care and giving it away. Yep, our system is sure screwed up. I hope the Prez opens up travel to Cuba so I can get that bypass surgery I need to have done. And soon so I can get in line.

Here's how to tell if the Demos plan for public health care is any good. Just require that all elected officials and federal employees have to sign up for the government option. If it's such a great deal, even though 95% of Americans already have health care, then it should be great for the government. Right?