Americans! - Answer this!

hmm, someone just saw Michael Moore's new movie for the first time tonight...

do you really care? or are you just bringing this up to sound smart, because those are basically Moore's exact words from his movie Sicko

Give me a break.

If we say American it's rude and ignorant since we don't encompass all of the Americas but if it's a bashing post then it's ok, flame on.

It's too bad socialism isn't vastly superior than capitalism. Greed motivates, what can you do?

I would consider myself in the middle when it comes to socialism and I am an American.

1) I would certainly not consider Russia to be very socialist at all anymore. After the fall of communism all of the industry in Russia was divided among 50 or so of the wealthiest families and remains in their hands. Cuba certainly is. UK, Canada, France, Sweden, while Im not an expert, I would consider them certainly more capitalist than Cuba and yea roughly in the same light as the U.S. I understand the health care is much different but it seems to me the countries have much much more in common with the US than different.

2)I havent seen Moore's movie. But I would say we have public libraries because there really is no money in libraries. Any oil tycoon could privatize a nationwide chain library. It wouldnt be illegal but he wouldnt make any money. Also Capitalism does not mean against the good of the people. To me capitalism is a way to ensure each person is fairly rewarded for their contribution to society. The distinction between cap and socialism today is in taxes. Everyone benefits from libraries, the rich too (and probably more so).

Its absurd to consider having a private police force. Private health care is not the same as private police because of specific responsibilities police have. I think you would agree on that.

Why not privatize fire departments? Because its impractical and has a very successful historical precedent already. There is no reason to disrupt the police dept and fire dept that work well now. Perhaps it is time to bring health care under the govt as well but not privatize these depts.

Hope that helped

Firefighting, police work, etc are not nearly as vast, varied, and complicated as the medical field is. Yes, they're a very important part, but if you look at the healthcare system, there is so much more infrastructure, knowledge, manpower that has to exist to have a successful health care system that is requires for successful police and firepower coverage. How many police are there in the US? How many healthcare workers, doctors, nurses, technicians, etc etc are there? If you took a cop from LA and put him into NYC, would he still be able to do his job? Probably. If you took a cardiologist and tried to train him to be a caretaker at a home for elderly people, would he be equally as effective? No.

The health care industry is immense, and the government trying to take it over and run it would cost so much f**king money it isn't even funny. Not to mantion the bureaucracy that would have to be created- that is a ton of money AND a huge ball fo red tape.

RFXCrunner wrote:

The health care industry is immense, and the government trying to take it over and run it would cost so much f**king money it isn't even funny. Not to mantion the bureaucracy that would have to be created- that is a ton of money AND a huge ball fo red tape.

no one is suggesting such a thing. in simplistic terms what happens in other developed nations is that tax dollars are used as insurance funds to pay for ones health care.

we have more than enough money in our current tax system to give each citizen the same health coverage as our elected officials (senators, house members) receive.

a single payer system replaces private insurance just as it does with medicare / medicaid (both of which run very well and more efficiently than private insurers).

Where exactly do you intend to get more money from? - Its not like America has the best record regarding its deficit.

Maybe you could borrow more money? Or maybe spend a little less on invading other countries?

I don't know who told you that Medicaid runs very well. It runs as well as it can considering that it is run by the federal government, but, compared to the people I helped get Medicaid, my health insurance through a private company has been much easier to use and navigate. It's there for the people who need it - that does not mean it's functioning well. And, cuts are constantly being made to it because the government can't afford to sustain the program!

Careful making assumptions wrote:

Where exactly do you intend to get more money from? - Its not like America has the best record regarding its deficit.

Maybe you could borrow more money? Or maybe spend a little less on invading other countries?

Go f*** yourself.

Medicaid Advocate wrote:

I don't know who told you that Medicaid runs very well. It runs as well as it can considering that it is run by the federal government, but, compared to the people I helped get Medicaid, my health insurance through a private company has been much easier to use and navigate. It's there for the people who need it - that does not mean it's functioning well. And, cuts are constantly being made to it because the government can't afford to sustain the program!

Medicaid and medicare pay very shitty for the doctors as well. Essentially, the less they pay for procedures, the more the insurance companies love it because it sets the standard for how much they have to pay for a given procedure. What a load of crap. If you socialize healthcare, you're going to lose a lot of very competent and knowledgeable physicians to other fields where they can simply make more money, because god knows they won't be reimbursed in the healthcare field if this new "socialized medicine" pays anything like medicare or medicaid.