[katytibbs]

Originally Posted by billig The high price of groceries is the reason they have government provided healthcare. And it ain't "free". Rationed healthcare is NEVER as good as ours. I'm not saying it's not clean, everything in europe is just as professional as it is here, but there's waiting lists for certain surgeries. They wouldn't call it waiting lists..it would be "the next available" appointment for that type of surgery would be further out in the future than here. I'd rather take our stupid defunct system than have to wait for a surgery that's 'free'.

In the US we have choice, others don't. Choice is expensive, but it doesn't always provide better outcomes. The argument for rationed healthcare focuses on the high mortaility rate in the US: that in the US we have a lower life expectancy than many countries with rationed healthcare. But one analysis I read blamed the high US mortality rate on two behaviors that us US citizens have that increase mortiality - higher rates of teenage pregnancy (which means lower birth weight babies, which leads to increased death rate for the babies) and overeating (leading to obesity, with higher rates of heart disease and diabetes). Supposedly, when you take out those two factors, the death rates in the US are not higher than socialized medicine countries.

So, I agree, I like choice, but I do think something needs to be done about the high cost of health care in the country. I wish I had a solution that would work, but I think that we are likely to end up with some form of socialized medicine in the future.