In reply to Evan, Jim Durbin, Curley Smith, Ken Budge, Jordan, and others:
Ah yes, from the land of the living dead, the ever lingering bête noire, socialized medicine. Funny, it is always thrown on the table, or lingers in the background like a malignant ghost. Ignored is the fact that this dreaded beast is corrupting members of our Armed Forces and their dependents, but there it is a recruitment tool, or a retention tool or a benefit, or whatever… But when you define its evil consequences, they do not seem to occur in single pay, government sponsored health care (ref in my original post, pick your country).
If you introduce single pay universal health insurance than the only inequality is that younger will pay more than older over the their life span until the younger cohort ages out. This true even if the “younger” is 21, and the “older” is 22. But, their total health care cost over their life span might well decreasse…
Medicare/Medicaid is a pay roll tax, in place since about 1964. If you started working at age 20, on that year, well, etc. etc. Most Medicare recipients have been paying into the system since their 20′s. I think we can put that Zombie to rest…
The most successful companies cut out the middle man (Insurance companies) or work decrease their over head costs. Enough stuff out there to satisfy the most assiduous data hound. But the basic question remains, who has your best interest at heart?
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B02E4D8173FF93BA15751C0A96E9C8B63&scp=5&sq=robert+pear&st=nyt
Ah yes, Wikepedia as the arbitrator of Infant Mortality, which in turn invalidates all metrics used in health care comparisons. Next time Jordan, go for some real Center Right publications with know credentials:
http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/3/9/184540.shtml
Alternatively, you could explore the effect if health care coverage on infant mortality in the US:
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/gsaresults/search?q=infant+mortality&hl=es&site=%28KFForg%29&filter=0&output=xml_no_dtd&client=kff&getfields=*&sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&stylesheet=kff_middle.xslt&search_pdf=1&sp=kff
No matter how you spin it, you really need health insurance, not for your well being, but for the health of your wallet.
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/nov2007/db20071120_397008.htm
