TruBrit

mine to.....

another bloody yank

Sorry, I took your question as rhetorical. No, I would not scrap the Armed Forces. I believe they are needed, no matter how badly they are mismanaged. I think there have always been problems with gov't managed services and I think there always will be. I don't think they can be fixed, its a fact of life inherent to public programs. In the case of healthcare I think these inherent problems would result in poor service and poor quality. The recent problems uncovered at Walter Reed and the not so recent, but ongoing problems with the VA illustrate this.

I can't comment on France, I don't know the slightest thing about their system.

another bloody yank

A country divided cannot stand. IMHO, we may be the United States but we are no longer a United people. A different subject entirely though, and for a different thread and a different day.

nethead

It says a lot (morally) about a society that you have to think twice about taking a child to see a doctor because of finances. The NHS is not perfect but I never had to worry me or my family couldn't afford to be sick.

Giantaxe

Single payer != government managed services.

What I also find strange is that folks make comments like this about government services, but are blind to the total inefficiency of the administration and funding of the current insurance-based system. Not saying that applies to you, but clearly the vested-interest scare tactics have worked pretty darned well..

another bloody yank

I'm not blind to it, I know it exists believe me! Anyone whose ever tried to dispute a claim or get a billing problem resolved is probably all too aware of it. But I would rather fight a private entity than the government.

I really believe that the quality of care we would recieve in a health system that was run by the US Government would not be to the standards of what I and my family have recieved with our current provider. I am preparing myself to accept mediocre care for all instead of excellent care for some and none for the rest. Health insurance is very far from perfect but I don't want to be thrown out of the frying pan into the fire.

Giantaxe

You admit that you know nothing about France's single-payer system (and perhaps by extension, other countries') but are willing to dismiss the prospects of such a system doing anything other than provide mediocre care in the US And, again, single payer != government run healthcare aka socialized medicine.

another bloody yank

That's why I put the "US" in bold on my post. I don't know anything about France's system and very very little about England's, only what I've read on here. But I do know the US government. And nobody can screw up a good thing like they can.

Cape Blue

Someone mentioned the copays earlier, this is one of the few things from the US system that I would like to see introduced to the UK NHS system.

I can see (say) a 5 or 10 quid copay on GP and hospital visits being a sensible way of minimising frivolous visits - when a service is entirely free it is not sufficiently valued by those using it and they will not consider whether they actually really need the service. Poor little Timmy has a sniff and suddenly an expensive well-qualified GP is wasting his/her time telling the parent that it is just a cold.

Giantaxe

I am well aware of why you bolded "US". But to dismiss the possibilities of a single payer system without knowing the facts strikes me as somewhat closed-minded and indicative of why it's so difficult making progress in this debate in the US.

another bloody yank

I'm not dismissing it! I don't know enough about it to dismiss it, hell I didn't even know what the term meant until you told me! I suppose it's entirely possible that after screwing up the Armed Services, taxes, immigration, the Vetrans administration, Social Security, Homeland security and god knows what all else that they could jump into the healthcare business and do a bang up job. Maybe you have more faith in the US gov't than I do.

Elvira

Medicare seems to work fairly well, within the limitations of the coverage it provides.

Giantaxe

And yet you wrote:

Smells like a dismissal to me.

another bloody yank

I didn't know that, thank you for replying. Maybe it can be done...

lapin_windstar

But the Veterans' Administration is generally (one pisspoor hospital aside) very well managed, provides nationwide care and does it all while spending less per patient on supplies (buying in bulk etc).

"Poor little Timmy has a sniff and suddenly an expensive well-qualified GP is wasting his/her time telling the parent that it is just a cold."

Agree totally. One of the good things the NHS has been doing recently is a lot of "sod off if you're not really ill" public awareness campaigning. OTOH, a co-worker here regularly takes her daughter to the quack when she has a cold. :curse: