On 3/2/2017 4:43 PM, Shawn K. Quinn wrote:

The "free market" is what is wrong with "health care" in the US. For-profit hospitals have to make money, so they charge outrageous prices.

Singapore has socialist health care and genuine free market health care. Most people use the free market healthcare, and pay for it out of their own pockets (not quite their own pockets - out of mandatory savings accounts) It is best healthcare system in the world. The prices are fairly similar to the free market health care sectors in India and Thailand. When government guarantees free healthcare for everyone, the hospitals get overrun by bums seeking a free bed and free meals, and by drug addicts seeking free drugs, as for example in Canada. And then the government starts bumping off old people to make room. The problem in America today is that lots of people get free healthcare, and these people go in by the same door, and see the same triage nurse as you do, so there is always a long queue of bums and drug addicts in front of you running up the cost of healthcare. If you are not prepared to let bums and drug addicts drop dead, you wind up bumping off retirees. Which is the Obamacare crisis. Ann Coulter cannot buy health insurance at any price, because bums and drug addicts are in front of her. She can buy what Obama calls health insurance, but it does not cover cancer, broken legs, etc, and has extremely high deductibles, so is effectively not health insurance. And that is the collapse of Obamacare.

On 03/01/2017 10:43 PM, Shawn K. Quinn wrote:

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Ann Coulter: How to Provide Universal Health Care Using This One Easy Trick http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/03/01/ann-coulter-provide-unive... The "free market" is what is wrong with "health care" in the US. For-profit hospitals have to make money, so they charge outrageous

On 03/02/2017 12:17 AM, #$%&#$ %&#$%&#$ wrote: prices. For-profit "health insurance" companies want to make money, so they negotiate the best deals with hospitals. If you don't have health insurance, you don't get the rate charged to the insurance companies, you get a much higher rate. There is no limit to what a for-profit hospital can charge, especially for ER (what we call A&E) visits.

I am not the first to say this: the US has among the best medical care in the world, if you can afford it. And the last five words in that statement are the problem.

I take issue 'pre-comma' in the first sentence. No. Not really... See below. We seek A LOT of 'medical attention' (neurotic narcissists who need 'hand-holding'). Americans are the most "pained" (as in feeling of pain) people on the planet https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-02/more-than-half-of-america..., but you DON'T GET 'medical care'. You get machines that diagnose and medications that are typically symptom suppression, not curatives. This medical device cost $113.20 to make. http://auntieimperial.tumblr.com/post/58159127876 Camera & assembly $9 Screen $12 Connecting wire $1 Probe $2 (x24, # of probes in a package) Battery $8 Housing $10 Stand $17.20 Total Part $105.20 Assembly/packaging $8 Total: $113.20 It 'retails' for $9,825.00 The REALLY funny thing though? We spend more time with devices and less time with doctors than anyone else on the planet and we aren't one bit healthier for it. As a matter of fact it looks like this way of proscribed 'medical care' actually shortens our lifespans.

The ACA (Obamacare) wasn't perfect, but it was the first step towards fixing a broken system: 80% of premiums had to go towards paying for care, and pre-existing condition exclusions were no longer allowed (since if you look hard enough, almost everyone has a pre-existing condition somewhere). If Mitt Romney was elected and they called it Romneycare, the Republicans would praise it and praise Mittens like he was the greatest president since George Washington. Is it any coincidence that they didn't? (Hint: look at pictures of Mittens and Obama.)

On 03/02/2017 12:46 PM, #$%& wrote:

On Thu, 2 Mar 2017 00:43:48 -0600 "Shawn K. Quinn" wrote:

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The "free market" is what is wrong with "health care" in the US. For-profit hospitals have to make money, so they charge outrageous prices.

The guy selling hotdogs in the street has to make money too. He doesn't charge outrageous prices*. OOPS - quinn doesn't have a fucking clue. Who would have thought it?

$500+ for six ounces of saline solution is outrageous by any reasonable standard. Compared to that, even $10 for a six-inch hotdog in some places might not be too bad of a deal, though personally I'm unlikely to pay more than about $5-6 on an actual street corner. (Sidenote: On my last visit to James Coney Island here in Houston, two Texas style hot dogs and a large Coke came out to $10.79, which I don't consider outrageous in the least.) The difference, though, is you usually can compare prices of hot dog street vendors before deciding where to have your lunch. If you have a heart attack, there's no shopping around for the cheapest ER. This is where the "free market" fails; under a "free market" that heart attack could easily bankrupt you if you are a self-pay customer. I believe medical care is a human right. We've failed at that in the US because even though there exists a nominal public-funded health care system, it's vastly lower quality compared to what even moderately well-off people get. -- Shawn K. Quinn http://www.rantroulette.com http://www.skqrecordquest.com

On Thu, Mar 02, 2017 at 07:28:06PM -0300, Juan wrote:

On Thu, 2 Mar 2017 16:04:28 -0600 "Shawn K. Quinn" wrote:

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I believe medical care is a human right.

So what? Well yes, your belief shows that your understanding of rights is limited or non existent..

Uhmerrika, where yuman rights == free stuff.