#20 CK – You are confused about so much. Your parents get the care, because they were early enough in line, but many others are DYING, because of rationed care. Survival rates in this country are far higher than yours. Under the current medical system, yes, your family would go broke, but government created this problem, and now, present themselves as the solution.
An estimated 20+% of medical costs in this country are outright waste, fraud, and abuse. I don’t know about your country, but I imagine it is higher, as it is all government-run.
Another 2.2% goes to lawsuits, about twice the average of other countries. I don’t know if that number counts the cost of malpractice insurance. Knowing what portion of revenues doctors pay for it, I seriously doubt it.
Insurance abuse greatly adds to the cost of care. It is a third-party payer system. It is also tax-free, so the forfeited tax revenues must be made up for it in some way. The constant rise in prices result in reduced wages and many people being forced out of insurance, as it becomes unaffordable.
Having one’s insurance tied to one’s job exacerbates the problem of maintaining coverage. Lack of portability is a big problem. Non-employers cannot compete with the tax-free benes provided by employers. If all wages spent on healthcare were tax-free, you could join a large co-op and get better rates and a menu of plans. Portability would also cease to be a problem.
Socialized medicine in other countries add to our costs. We here in America subsidize those countries, because we pay for pharmaceutical development, then pay full-price, while others get it on the cheap. This is why we have re-importation of drugs. Even with mark-ups, we still pay less for re-imported drugs.
The AMA has a monopoly in this country. They are not interested in the cheap cures, which actually exist, by the way. We pay single-provider prices, as a result. The government created the single-ptovider monopoly, then come along and offer a single-payer solution.
Without all this crap, healthcare would cost so much less, that we would not need but catastrophic coverage. Treat the disease, not the problem.
Here are my solutions:
1) Break the monopoly. Allow competing healthcare organizations. If doctors can’t lose their licenses, they are free to provide solutions they know work, but that the AMA won’t allow.
2) Tort reform. Most of the tort lawyers are parasites. They add no value, except to keep some docs honest, but their role should be far more limited. It should not be a gigantic crapshoot. Limit damages to aactual loss, and only with gross negligence. Loser pays. (One could also “kill all the lawyers”. .45 caliber tort reform.) 
3) Make health costs 100% tax-free. Better, eliminate the 16th amendment (the income tax system). Then establish a national sales tax system (the Fair Tax). It is easy to do. Simply pass a Constitutional amendment banning income taxes. Congress will then find another tax system (unless they want no money for the government). This will have the added benefit of making manufacturing far more competitive in this country.
The moment you do this, people go out and join co-ops and get great rates. Places like the Elks, Kiwanis, etc… were all set up originally for the purpose of allowing their members to get group health discount rates.
Then, the government screwed them by making Employer-based insurance benes tax-free. Who uses taxed monies to buy insurance, when you can get it tax-free via your employer? Problem comes when your employer offers it not, or has a small group of employees, and so, gets a lousy rate. Ending the income tax system means these co-ops will become huge, maybe even millions strong. Great rates.
4) Force the Pharmaceutical companies to sell to other countries at the same rate as they charge their biggest customers here. They will then pay more, and we’ll pay less. Watch how quickly their glorious socialized medicine systems go broke, once we are no longer subsidizing them.
5) Fix SS/Medicare. Decree that those now under 50 will no longer be eligible for benefits upon disability or retirement. Move the retirement age back a couple years, since people are living far longer. Prosecute all the fraudulent disability claims (like faked bi-polar). Tack on a sales tax to pay for it. This will eventually end the Ponzi scheme, while honoring the obligations. We have to stop adding people to the roles.
The tax continues until the system ends (when all the beneficiaries pass on), but since the revenue is guaranteed, we can allow the SS/Medicare system to issue debt based on the revenue stream. The money must be kept separate from the General Fund, and must no longer be allowed to be lent to the government.
This is a complete solution, and COSTS NOTHING! It is merely changing the laws. Problem solved with a Constitutional Amendment and a one-page bill. This government stuff is actually really easy, except for, for the morons in the government. Congress should be a damned part-time job done by videoconference.
