Economic Scene: A Health Care Plan So Simple, Even Stephen Colbert Couldnât Simplify It
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If the single-payer system embraced by virtually all other developed countries is clearly the best solution, why doesnât the United States adopt it?
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I hope the Republicans come prepared to debate health care this year, and they leave the platitudes and slogans home.  Enough of us have been seriously sick, or know someone who has, or have family members who have been or are now. The way the Republicans describe health care, it's as if they've never been through it or don't know anyone who has. I got some pushback, not much, from a casual mention of universal health care a few days ago. Some think the problem can be solved through the "private sector" but that's nonsense. There is no such thing in health care. It's not a free market, as anyone who's been through it can tell you. There's nothing free about it. (Free as in freedom, not as in free beer.) When you check into a hospital you turn over your whole being to the health care system. I can't imagine anything changing that, nor do I think it should. When you're dangerously ill, decisions must be made about you. To people who have never relinquished control, it's a big trip, because that's what you have to do. You spend huge amounts of time waiting. You can't sleep because hospitals are 24-by-7. You're much more likely to get an infection in a hospital, and infection on top of other disease can kill. Even so, people are treated and some even are cured by the system. Lives are definitely prolonged, pain is eased.  Whether we have universal health care or not, it won't change the basics of how health care works, and how unfair it is to be sick and fighting for your life. But there are some things we can change, and if you have a heart, and think about it, I don't see how anyone could be against universal health care and still sleep at night. One commenter said that no one is ever turned away from an emergency room, as if that's all there was to health care.  First, emergency rooms do turn people away, and some of them die. But most disease is not treated in emergency rooms. If you need drugs to treat cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's, AIDS, heart disease, depression, arthritis, emphysema, to name a few common chronic diseases -- you're out of luck if you don't have insurance. You could die years before you would with treatment, or might suffer, where if you had good insurance, you wouldn't.  I'm lucky I have good health insurance. It's lucky that I lived in Massachusetts when my COBRA policy expired, it's the one state in the US that has liberalized health insurance. I'm lucky that I can afford the monthly payments. I'm lucky. But why should getting the care and treatment you need depend on luck? We can do so much better. And I think our country would do better with a healthy population that knows if they, or someone they love, got sick they'll the help they need. It'll be interesting to see if we can get McCain to talk about this, if he turns out to be the Republcan nominee. The Republicans have never been responslble about this issue. It's of huge importance to Americans, and McCain presents himself as an honest person. He must understand how the health care system actually works. He's been through it himself, probably many times.  BTW, Hillary's passion for computerizing medical records is a good thing. She's right, a lot of money could be saved, the system could be made much more efficient, people would get better treatment, and lives would be saved. The sooner we get busy doing this, the better it will be for all of us.
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We have seen what a Republican administration has done with health insurance in the commonwealth. They have managed to take a reasonably good plan and replace it with a terribly poor plan for their own employees.
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Though candidates suggest adapting the health care program that covers Congress and offering it to millions of unisured Americans, such a plan would unlikely cut costs.
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This past week&#39;s summit on the future of health care in Ottawa wasn&#39;t so much a gong show, as I predicted in the days leading up to it.
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It&#39;s time Gray Matters put up or shut up, instead of merely complaining about what passes for the American health care system.
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Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton, whose first attempt at a health care overhaul fell flat 13 years ago, unveiled a broad proposal on Monday to require health insurance for all Americans and make it more affordable.
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Newt Gingrich is probably the most visible spokesman for a set of ideas about health care that is gaining support in the Bush administration and in business.
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Sen. John Kerry trumpeted his health care program Tuesday as a recipe to bring down soaring medical costs, rejecting Republican contentions that a Democratic plan would mean a government takeover.
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As insurers, employers and average Americans grapple with skyrocketing health care bills, a study being published today has found that a small number of illnesses -- many of them preventable
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Viewpoint: Joe Klein takes a look at Clinton's health care plan, and finds  -  lo and behold  -  that it has a chance to work
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I believe every American citizen has a basic right to health- care benefits. Outrageous bills stemming from unplanned injuries have left families homeless. More preventative health care would prevent diseases and unnecessary rehabilitations. This would result in more capable, productive taxpayers.
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The United States spends far more on   health care than any other country but gets only mediocre care   in return for its investment, according to a report released on   Wednesday.
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Our position is: Expansion of government control isn&#39;t the answer to US health-care problems. Soaring health care costs are taking an ever-larger share out of employee paychecks and eating into employer profits.
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It&#39;s beginning to look a lot like Canada as far as Americans&#39; opinions about health-care reform and their prescription shopping habits.
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The senatorâs plan aims to cover uninsured Americans and to reduce premium costs for everyone else.
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The goal was as audacious as it was simple: Plug the holes in Massachusetts' health care network without resorting to the politically nuclear option of a single government-funded program.