Expense to quality ratio is the main problem. I doubt anyone not on the healthcare industry's payroll would disagree. The United States does not enjoy as beneficial a ratio of expense to quality as all of our Western industrialized peers. Countries with GDP smaller than California enjoy higher quality care than anywhere in the US, and yet we by far pay the most money on average in the entire world for care.
If this is the main problem, then why tear down the whole system? Why not just give Medicare a public option. The insurance companies would have to compete or go under.
It's also a lot easier to administer a few million than 300 million. So yeah, it is probably better in countries with a smaller GDP than California. So why not do this on a state level with interstate cooperation?
What accountability do you require? What of Medicare is so hidden?
It might be faster to list countries that have not yet jumped into universal-style healthcare. Just in Europe alone, there's Austria, Andorra, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.
What's wrong is much, but mainly it's a for profit system which benefits from covering the healthy and is hindered by covering the unhealthy. The unhealthy, which could be either of us at a moment's notice, are not served by the market option, thus another option is necessary for a free society's stability in part depends on wealth. Our peers don't have this problem.
I can't speak for everyone, but if I spend 10 years in school, I expect to get paid. SO it's not the system but the insurers that need to be addressed. Unfortunately, this bill will kill the doctors as well.
The majority of insurance issues that have arisen in the past 20 years are due to frivolous law suits. Every time an insurer gets whacked with a multi-million dollar law suit, it gets tougher for the rest of us. Tort reform could address this easily.
This bill is just insane. And it bears repeating, the government does NOTHING efficiently. If it did, our taxes would remain steady or decrease, but they don't. Now this bill suggests we entrust our health and lives to the same people who bankrupted a whore house? Dude, really??
Everyone seems to want the same thing. Good, affordable health care. There is absolutely nothing in history showing that over blow bureaucracy can achieve anything good or affordable. These idiots pay a thousand dollars for a hammer. What do think it's gonna cost to get a medical procedure done? Nothing? Bullshit.
If you want better preventative medicine: Clamp down on the FDA and all the bullshit they allow into our foods. Open public exercise centers. Educate our children about diet and nutrition -not a one week class in elementary school- but a real course. Bring physical education back into schools-whoever that idiot is should be kicked in the nuts-. Adopt a more Eastern philosophy toward medicine. Put down the Twinky and eat a carrot.
This can all be solved with minimal government intervention. Which is how it should be. The government isn't daycare for the inept and lazy.