Also in Canada, they have a much better medical system than the US, you may not have known that too. I hope you find this a great point as well :-D.
Let me also add some other government run programs that have done well in the US. The NIST (Of course if you're often late to work, you may not think this works well, you can thank them for standardizing time across the nation, not to mention every weight and measurement we're used to.) NOAA, I'm glad for these guys, they play a key role in satellite development and placement that keeps an eye on the weather here in my tornado prone town, state, nation.
I also enjoy my steak quite rare. I'm glad the FDA has been around to ensure that my food is safe to eat. Also being diabetic, lucky for me they're around to ensure that the insulin I use as medical treatment is safe for human use, unlike some countries (china for example) where you will often find adulterated drugs.
One other thing I'm sure both you will agree on with me, I love the internet, perhaps you didn't know that a government program run by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration led to the implementation of the internet. Also you and I can both thank ICANN for making life much easier for us web users. Houseofpolitics.com is so much easier to type than http://208.43.115.222 , more memorable, easier to tell your friends about, of course, the government runs that too.
But what does any of this have to do with anything, we have to protect America from taxation, even if that taxation leads to the betterment of every person in our land. I mean seriously, it won't lead to the betterment, it leads to godless socialism, right?
I appreciate a decent response, instead of finger wagging and canned retort. However I sadly feel that even the ideas you suggest would not fulfill the needs of the American public. More options outside of the current system would have to be enforced by the government, you'd be surprised how many of your right leaning constituents would shy away even from that, unfortunately the right is made of a large population of MSM educated people. When Rush, O'Reilly, Beck, or anyone associated with Fox News speaks, they've learned for the day. Of course this isn't everyone, obviously yourself for example, but a vast majority cannot be denied. Just the other day I hear rush spouting off about how the government needs a COMPLETELY hands off approach to this. The current system is fine. And that was that. His 5 second quip, do you realize how much of America this small statement has corrupted into thinking that the current system is A-Okay? A lot of people won't even be happy if the government simply added more rules to the game for Insurers, because the government should be completely hands off. They're going so far now as to BLAME the government for the current situation BECAUSE they have laws regulating the insurance industry, this as I and everyone with half a loaf in their head ought know, is false.
Next, we come to tax write offs. Sounds good on paper, in execution not so much. I was in the ER about 4 or 5 days ago, spent 6 hours in there. I saw 3 doctors, a CAT scan, several blood and other tests. The total $8000+- does not go to a doctor, it goes to several doctors, several labs, and the hospital itself. I'll be billed by no less than 5 different agencies. Just because they can write off 100% of this doesn't mean that they'll do it. They still make more charging everyone and getting money from those who do pay. Remember, hospitals and constituants have already a lot of write offs. While the doctors themselves may appreciate that +-20% that they save on writing off 100% of their income (it'd never actually be that high, only would count for the individual cases, so we're looking at even less of a writ eoff than this) It is hardly worth ignoring billing a patient the 200$ it would bring you to charge them, when in the end you get paid when patients pay. If a doctor offered purely free treatment to every patient, even with write offs, he'd be bankrupt in a month.
More regulation in the insurance industry won't help the worst cases we have. The homeless are a huge health risk, not only to themselves, but the public at large. When I was an EMT I learned a lot about the distance that preventative care goes. The number of homeless cases of Tuberculosis is about 3/4th higher than the average persons here in the US. If treatment of initial symptoms was economically viable to those without income / jobs / homes, then we'd be able to cathc such things early before it spreads. Herd immunity via vaccines is nice, but some things have no vaccine so we require early detection and treatment to avoid a wider spread (and MUCH more expensive) cases. I test positive for TB (I don't' have it, but I've been exposed in my time working as an EMT), I go to the health department, since they offer free (tax paid) treatment / xray testing for TB. The last time I went was a month ago, in preparation for this upcoming semester. The number of active cases was over 150, each of them having a final XRay test and treatment. The treatment is VERY expensive, the Xrays are not cheap. Guess who pays for all this, you and me, with taxes. If the number of new TB cases was reduced, alone, by the availability of universal health care and preventative care, we could save around 3 billion dollars. The amount saved by early diagnosis and treatment of virulent disease that's spread could be halted by early diagnosis, could save tons of money, money which could then be used to pay for the healthcare offered.
A lot of this seems to be ignored by detractors. Your ideas are a step in the right direction, but I don't think they've quite reached the needed level of assistance that this country will require.
