Talk to me about universal health care

[Anonymous]

http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/07/12/how-i-lost-my-fear-universal-health-care

What's the down side to universal health care? That article only spoke of the benefits. Enlighten me.

[Anonymous]

Opponents generally cite a number of downsides:

-- Long waits to get elective services
-- Lack of innovation (since there is no incentive to profit)
-- Expense for the fisc (although this is misleading since people get sick no matter what, so the expense will be borne by someone, regardless.

[jsteele]

You need to distinguish between "universal health care" which simply means healthcare for everyone without regard for how that healthcare is delivered and "single payer" which is a system in which the government pays for -- and often delivers -- healthcare. Canada has single payer. Obamacare is an attempt to achieve universal healthcare using the existing industry players (insurance companies, hospitals of all types, etc.).

[Anonymous]

typical 1000 bed hospital in NYC will employ ~ 100 idevoted 100% to billing / negotiating with/ securing procedural approval from insuance companies. Billed vs actual revenue collected 62%
Same size hospital in Canada has 3 in billing collection 100%

Here uninsured go to ER mandatory treatment rendered, uninsured billed - uncollectible fund are eventually paid by the insured. Make sense???

[Anonymous]

Hospitals do load balancing with their accounts, the insured pay the cost of the uninsured
Uninsured wait for their condition to be life threatening before seeking help, because that is the only time they can get help

Can someone tell me more about the long waits to get elective services? Right now the waits can be long, depending on how long it takes to find a doctor in your network.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hospitals do load balancing with their accounts, the insured pay the cost of the uninsured
Uninsured wait for their condition to be life threatening before seeking help, because that is the only time they can get help

Can someone tell me more about the long waits to get elective services? Right now the waits can be long, depending on how long it takes to find a doctor in your network.

Exactly. There should be "long waits" for elective procedures. They're ELECTIVE. Health care is supposed to focus on sick people, not people who need flat foreheads and bigger boobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hospitals do load balancing with their accounts, the insured pay the cost of the uninsured
Uninsured wait for their condition to be life threatening before seeking help, because that is the only time they can get help

Can someone tell me more about the long waits to get elective services? Right now the waits can be long, depending on how long it takes to find a doctor in your network.

Exactly. There should be "long waits" for elective procedures. They're ELECTIVE. Health care is supposed to focus on sick people, not people who need flat foreheads and bigger boobs.

It is easy to fix this by allowing supplemental insurance for those who want more than the national system provides. You'll pay a premium but today we pay double the cost anyway. So everybody is already paying a premium.