HMO's versus socialized medicine

I agree people here have been brainwashed into believing socialized med dosnt work they are so wrong i grew up in England in 1940 and as long as i can remember socialized med worked just fine for me!I came to the USA when I was 18 and getting care whilst it may be good is also unavailable here unless you are a complete charity case And even if your not the system is built to bankrupt the average citizen. I myself had to fore go one of my meds just before Christmas due to falling into the so called medicare gap when i was required to pay the total cost of my med and couldn't come up with the $94 at the time this was just one of the 6 i am supposed to take

Great Topic...

I'll be back to join in on this one... I have a lot to say about Health Care and Social Security...

I'm already working on my bit about 401K's...

It is all about money, as you say... Who likes paying more for less?

Well I live in a country that has socialised medicine and I would not have it any other way. There is still a private system for those who can afford to pay and want to but and healthy insurance to cover the gap between what the government pays and what the hospital and doctor's charge.

It may not be perfect and we do have waiting lists but at least everyone has access not just the wealthy. I cannot understand how it got so expensive in your country. It just seems like greed to me.

I do not think your hospitals are any better than our are but we certainly treat our citizens a lot better and we definitely treat the disadvantaged people much better than you do.

I Think the United States should have socialized medicine. I think it would be much better than medicare. I have a friend that lives in Canada, her father has Cancer and they have never seen a bill for any of the medical costs. There are a few things they expect from the family though. You are expected as family members when a person is in the hospital to assist the staff in taking care of the patient. Assist in changing sheets, bathing, and that kind of thing, helping make sure your family member is taken care of. And why shouldn't you help in your families care? We have become to pampered. I was in the Emergency room back in October and just that visit cost 917 dollars and I was only there 3 hours!!! And all I had was a dislocated shoulder. That was outrageous. But because I had medicare they could charge a higher cost then if I was on medicaid or state aide. Way over price.

Good morning, I live in Canada, and yes we do have a fairly good medical coverage, or fees are figured out by your previous years income, and it can fall any where from $75 per month per person up to $375 for a family of 5 or more.to $7 per month or for those that are on social assistance no charge. This gives us access to any doctor, hospital,in Canada. our provincial governments do have a say on which prescriptions are going to be on the forumlary, these drugs are given away at a lower cost or free again depending on income.As you can imagine a lot of our tax dollars are spent on medical. The province also caps the doctors earnings, by limiting the amount of patients they can see per day.They also cap the fees of the doctors, for instance medical may only pay $5000 per birth. I have no idea what the fee is that is a general idea of fees. Specialists of course get larger fees, etc.So there are some people that have lots of money will travel to some where where there is not a waiting list and pay cash for their medical service. But for the most part, it is wait and be put on a list.
In the place where I live we have very recently opened a new hospital, it is different that any thing in Canada, it is privately owned,provincially operated, and public used.I can see problems forthcoming as the owners have and are shareholders, which mean it is and will be profit driven. Could be interesting.

This is really a great discussion. HMOs coverage are incomplete in the philippines and can only be afforded by the middle class. When i was still affiliated with a government owned hospital, everything was free even the meds, if we had them. However, stocks would easily be depleted because of the demand and treatment would be difficult. Socialized medicine is a great way to address this problem. ( of course with those in the lower economic classes still receiving free service)I hope you guys in the States preserve this practice.