The Free Market Sucks For Health Care

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I am sick and tired of the politicians out there on the right continually commenting about how the health care system needs to be addressed but while keeping it in the free market. The free market will balance it. Well, it’s been in the free market its entire existence and if this example shows us one thing it’s that the free market is not the cure to every problem in this country.

Companies are in business to make as much money as possible and sick people have no choice put to shell out whatever it costs and figure it out later even if later means declaring bankruptcy. Just as long as the HMO and pharmaceuticals get their take, what do they care?

The free market shows us that it is incapable of providing a truly competitive health care solution. Yet we have all these Republican politicians continuing to talk about the mighty free market and how it’ll save this industry. Why would it save an industry its never been able to help before?

Here’s hoping California gets universal health care, as they plan, and they do it right so that they can show the rest of the nation what’s actually possible.

I’ve worked for a Canadian company and received Canadian health care when I broke my leg in Canada in 2006. The FUD the Right kicks out about their system is a complete joke. Most companies in Canada pay a small fee per employee that gets them excellent health care above and beyond the basic package that covers everyone. The doctors I dealt with cared about only one thing—treating me well in my time of need. I didn’t spend hours in a waiting room, like I would have here in the land of free market health care. I didn’t spend a fortune getting help either.

The ironic part is that the bill came to only about $400 US (it would have been a few thousand easily here) and, to this day, my US healthcare provider, Blue Cross, has refused to pay me back the money I spent. They’ve given me every excuse under the sun including trying to get me to get the French-speaking doctors to re-write the report in English as if Blue Cross never sees a non-English document.

It is not everyone else’s system that’s broken. It’s our health care that’s in shambles and it’s time the Right got their heads out of the sand and pulled their fingers out of their ears long enough to actually find this out for themselves. Stop listening to talking heads that want nothing but to see their stocks in these companies continue to rise—at YOUR expense.

Some things the government does well. Do you see anyone suggesting that the military should be farmed-out to private industry? Of course not! Why do you think the government is only good at killing our kids but not good at curing them?

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4 Comments

  1. I love these people that post insults anonymously. Very brave.

    What’s interesting is that he calls me a communist while our very own Congress has universal health care. I guess they’re all communists too.

  2. The US government spends $300 to buy a hammer. What would make any one think that they could effectively manage a health care system for millions of people?!?!? The US government knows that, and the Talking heads know that too. And hence the reason the the US doesn’t have socialized medical care. It is called common sense.

    Now the canadian government tells you where, when, and who you must go to for care. The canadian government now knows your medical history, so much for the right to privacy. how much longer until the government tells you what you can and can’t eat, drink, or smoke. There goes the pursuit of happieness. I’ll take my health care private. And keep health care decisions to my self.

    Interesting that the canadian government only covers legal residents and not illegal aliens. I agree with it, but the US would get shredded by the international media if we too implemented that same policy.

  3. The US government spends countless funds on many things, like wars. We’re supposed to ignore those figures as that’s supposedly part of a greater good. Health (or lack thereof) is more of an issue for people than terrorism. If we’re willing to accept the government spending trillions on wars and defense then fine, I think it’s just as fair to ask them to spend on something we can all benefit from.

    Socialized medical care is coming. Mark my words. The baby boomers are not going to go quietly and poorly into old age without it. The AARP is about to become the most powerful lobby in the world.

    As far as the Canadian system, you’re misinformed. I worked under that system for a period and broke my leg in Canada and was treated there after that. HMO’s tell you where you can go more than in Canada. HMO’s require you to get approval from the doctors they send you to in order to go to other doctors. You often wait weeks to see some of them as well.

    And if you think your health care decisions are private, you’re fooling yourself. I was in a car accident a few years ago and my lawyer pulled up all of our medical histories in short order.

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