That's a humorous quote…I do believe lots of folks from around the world come to the US for various kinds of treatment. Not sure that folks would come here if we had a Third World health system…
I have read that one of the cost drivers for prescription drugs is that our drug costs are variable/free market, whereas a country like Canada keeps them capped. For example, the costs to R&D Lipitor are mostly borne by us, whereas Canada will cap what the drug companies can charge for Lipitor to their health care system. This ends up forcing the US to bear the R&D costs for the world.
Anyways, I'm not quite buying that socialized medicine is better at promoting a healthy lifestyle. I think it has more to do with our culture and lifestyle. We've become too much of a fast food, eating in a rush, cost concious society. Basically, we have become detached from our food and where it comes from. It is great to see healthier stores such as Whole Foods growing by leaps and bounds, but we've got a long ways to go. And not just here…just google 'Diabetes epidemic'. It's a worldwide problem.
I'm Canadian and I would agree with joemanc's comment that a universal health care system doesn't seem to influence the population to adopt healthier lifestyles. I don't see it that way anyway.Except there may be a sort of cultural infuence, or difference here in that our universal healthcare system is a reflection of less of a dog eat dog mentality than in the US. I don't know as I have never lived in the US. But I think that a universal system may help to reduce the stress, fear and worry about the costs of possible injury or illness. I know that am very thankful for what we have here and I hope that we can maintain our system. But with our current neo-conservative ( Ok, in my view they are approaching a more neo-facist type power here ) government and petro state economy I'm concerned that we are going the way of the Republican Party in the US.
But I sometimes try and imagine what it would be like to have to worry about getting sick and having the additional stress and worry of financial hardship. Or to see that happen to someone else here. No thanks! And I am also comforted by the fact that everyone here irregardless of their financial means, social status or background is able to access our universal health care system. J.
While I am not a fan of socialized medicine, there is some truth to this statement.
One more thing I wanted to add about the culture/lifestyle/socialized medicince - what incentive does a person have to eat and live a healthy lifestyle knowing that socialized medicine will take care of every expense if/when he/she gets sick? There is none. Perhaps the only way for the unhealthy masses to live a healthy lifestyle is for them to experience a shock, say, a heart attack.
[quote]One more thing I wanted to add about the culture/lifestyle/socialized medicince - what incentive does a person have to eat and live a healthy lifestyle knowing that socialized medicine will take care of every expense if/when he/she gets sick? There is none. Perhaps the only way for the unhealthy masses to live a healthy lifestyle is for them to experience a shock, say, a heart attack.[/quote]Without commenting on cause and effect, the numbers seem to suggest that people in countries with socialized medicine are healthier that those of us in the US. Is it only Americans who live unhealthy lifestyles? I'm curious to know what kind of system Russia has. Given their rampant alcoholism, smoking and diets (the last I'm speculating a bit) I wonder what their general health and life expectancy are like.
ANNNDDDD!,… You joemanc are the 100Th posting on this thread!!! Maybe the first ever here at PP!!!. As this gets you no free gifts or gentle applause let me just congratulate you and have a great day.Levity has its place and I hope you Folks somewhat enjoyed this.
BOB
I don't believe that having a socialized health care system has any significant effect on Canadians lifestlye choices. I mean who would choose to purposely lead an unhealthy lifestyle thinking that it will be paid for by taxpayers? Certainly not me or anyone else I know. And everyone knows that there is no health system that is going to necessarily cure you if you get sick anyway.I think it is things like ones level of education, attitude, gender, family background and culture that have the largest influence on our lifestlye choices. I live where there is a socialized health care system but I certainly believe in the proven tremendous physical, mental and even social benifits of following a healthy diet and getting regular exercise.
One downside universal health care that I can think of is that the well off sometimes don't like having to settle for what a socialized system offers. So they currently go to another country to obtain the best treaments money can buy. But speaking for myself I have a positive veiw of our health care system here in Canada. And I think that the quality of health care is generally very good. Although our aging population and serious shortage of family doctors in many regions of the country are just two of the many big problems we are facing here.
Hmm, but you don't think the socialized medicine might just have something to do with your shortage of doctors? Socialized health care is just manipulation like we see with money, housing, etc. It all sounds good until you discover things like rationed care, one size fits all policies, and shortages of doctors/medicines, etc start occurring. It's all because the stakeholders are not making the cost/benefit analysis by voting with their dollars.
rhare,You sir not only appear to me to be extreme and overly ridged in your chosen idealogical beliefs, but you are now coming across as paranoid as well. And besides calling me Vanity Fox is ridiculous as he is a far more articulate and eloquent than I could ever hope to be.
I now realise that it is a waste of time thinking that someone with your ridged kind of mindset would even consider anothers veiwpoint that differs from your own. But nevertheless, I'll say that as far as the doctor shortage goes there could be a whole lot of reasons for that such as retirements, greater workload as cases are more complex as the patients get older, more tests and proceedures being done on each individual patient and I'm sure there are more.
The truth is that I don't know all the reasons why. But I thought that it was safe to voice my opinion here and to participate in discussions as long as I am civil and avoid religion and other controversial topics. The fact is that I have lived in Canada all my life. And I and everyone else I know are supportive of our health care system although I'll admit that like most everything else in life it isn't perfect.
…that's a lot Dogs.
Dogs, I just traded my Colt for a Kimber and Man!, what a SWEET piece. I am getting back to how I shot back in the day. I put stickers at different spots on my silhouette target and start that Tick, Tick,Tick rhythm in my head before I shoot so that I have a nice sight , shoot, sight shoot…I think I am there. My (grown) son is just incredible with his rhythm and skills, amazing really.
NO Hockey! Arrrrggghhh!!!
Be Good
BOB
John, your approach and contributions, as well as involvement are appreciated. All of us have our stuff so read past the stuff and hear the other stuff.rhare can appear to be biting (he makes learning points though) but he did ask a good question. That being, socialized medicine may have something to do with shortages of Doctors. If Doctors could go elsewhere to make MORE cash, I believe they would, so YES socialized medicine has its effects where options that are more beneficial for Doctors/Nurses exist. I believe socialized medicine can create shortages. Supply and Demand thing. My wife hired a couple of Canadian nurses to work on here staff as we are very near the border. The pay is better and benefits. Many Canadian patients come to her hospital for elective surgeries for personal reason's, and I believe, well, it was a choice because…?
Be Good John
BOB
That's a good question - I remember quite a few Russians died during the heat wave 2 summers ago - they were drunk from drinking vodka, surprise, surprise, then jumped into water to keep cool, only to drown. And this is a country we had a Cold War with…
Not to mention the last name Lemieux is about as Canadien as one can be, eh!
<style type="text/css">
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }
Jobs, taxes, the deficit, the rescission, a balanced budget, health care, climate change and SOPA;
Please tell me if I'm wrong.
There are too many jobs in this country. We work too many hours for too little pay. Our retirement age is too high and we have too little time off.
Taxes are way too low. Reagan and Bush have slashed them to next to nothing. We could probably double our revenue by simply returning to a pre-Reagan tax rate. We could probably double it again by simply closing a few loopholes.
If you don't like the deficit start charging the federal reserve interest on the money we let them print.
The rescission is caused by too little government spending and large companies stashing tax free cash offshore.
All U.S. paper currency is born out of debt. If we pay it all back the dollar will cease to exist. Besides we pay interest on it so it literally can never be paid back. Which means the budget can never be balanced and attempting to do so only worsens the rescission.
If you legalize fresh foods you can replace medical care with health care. If you have good food you don't need bad medicine.
Climate change is called cap an trade(the next stock market) please look it up. It has nothing to do with weather.
Disinformation is already a major problem on the net but SOPA(Stop Online Piracy) (government censorship) will end the Internet as an information source.
Has anyone checked out Ann Barnhardt's Youtube video "The economy is going to implode."?
If you can get past her extraordinarily long pink tie and her reference to being a martyr at the end it's an interesting 2h 30min broadcast. Her information about GS, BAC, Citi and the other banks regarding CDS exposure is pretty awesome.
It's worth watching if you want to understand the risks that are inherent in this computer driven market.
Lnorris,
I'll look it up but just in case do you have a link?
Thanks
BOB
The link is barnhardt.biz then click on her you tube link on the left hand side of the page. I can’t post the link directly using my cell phone.
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }
The first twenty five minutes were fabulous then she went crazy. She does an in depth explanation of money but than starts talking about interest with no discussion about what interest is. As a matter of fact she even interchanges the two as though interest and money are the same thing. Then she suggests that all bankers are Jewish and that Islam is evil. She started out by saying she wasn't going to get specific then boom after twenty five minutes she gets very specific and totally loses perspective.
I just listen to some more, man she's hilarious.
<style type="text/css">
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }
I'm not saying she's wrong. It's just her reasons I have a problem with.