There is no secret that the President wants a single payer national healthcare system similar to Canada. Granted, it'll cost millions of jobs and the ramifications (bankruptcies, losing homes, becoming homeless... in a crappy economy with no real light at the end of the tunnel), but transitions are often painful. Now, not to argue the merits of eliminating the current system and moving fully to one single plan, but here is my question... As an example, I know that a typical dental crown costs about $1,200. The lab fee to make the crown is about $500. Dentists tell me Medicare pays about $200 for a crown. In other words, they lose $300 of their hard costs and do the rest of the work (crown prep, temp crown, seating...) for free. Obamacare cuts the Medicare payouts by 50%, or, the dentist now gets about $100 per crown. My PCP (primary care physician) treats me for diabetes. I go in for an injection every two weeks. The office visit is $160 and the injection costs $60. He tells me Obamacare will pay $10 for the office visit and $3 for the injection (which is less than the actual medicine costs, let alone his overhead...). If we go to Obamacre as the sole insurance plan for Americans, how will dentists and doctors stay in business? Will it become federally run clinics & hospitals and will all doctors, nurses... be employees of the federal government?
Well, maybe the same way they stay in business in Canada. That's not the Canadian system, so if your hypothesis is that we are going to use Canada as a model, the answer is no. barfo
No, they are in the private sector. Canada has socialized insurance, not socialized healthcare. Single payer, private delivery. barfo
You mean by raising taxes constantly and offering less service? http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-204_162-681801.html He described a means by which government can actually provide health CARE without one iota of INSURANCE involved.
No, I'm pretty sure doctors in Canada have no ability to raise taxes. They could of course offer less service, not sure how that would help them stay in business. Yes, he did. And that would be a fine solution, probably the best solution, but it isn't Canada's current plan. barfo
The doctors are getting paid. The government is just out of money from paying for everything that they have to raise taxes or put people on long waiting lists for care.
Canada's healthcare system, (which provides by all legitimate accounts- better outcomes and involves the SAME PERCENTAGE OF GDP as ours does, yet provides healthcare for all citizens) is far superior to ours. In fact, conservatives should LOVE Canada's policy; until the recent recession (which most economists agree was caused primarily by de-regulation in the banking sector by republicans as well as corporate-purchased democrats) the government had run a budget surplus since the '90s. The US spends the same percentage of GDP on healthcare as Canada does. Waiting a bit for a non-emergency procedure is no big deal to me; I'd trade our ridiculously overpriced system for theirs in a second, and our economy would be far better off for it. In Canada, no one goes bankrupt due to health problems. Weird, caring about your fellow humans.
The Canadian government is not out of money. They're in far better shape than ours is and so is their economy. Socialized healthcare is the main reason for their rise during our decline. My Canadian cousins think Americans are gullible sheep for believing all the lies about waiting lists and have never experienced any significant delay for care in their 6+ decades.
There is a lot of misinformation put out there by you know who regarding Canada's system. Thankfully you have dozens of others to compare to.
I didn't look at your link, I'm speaking generally from what I've heard from politicians and insurance and pharma companies for years.
