I guess you don t believe in insurance then, right?

Everyone in the insurance plan pays into the fund, and those who pose higher risks and raise costs typically pay more. Does everyone pay into the government sponsored/paid medical care? The point being challenged was about fairness. Insurance is much more fair than taxation when it comes to paying for your needs.

I actually favor helping people pay for necessities such as medical care, but I wouldn’t declare that forced assistance through taxation and price controls is more fair than someone paying for what they individually need.

Porphyria is a group of different disorders caused by abnormalities in the chemical steps leading to the production of heme. King George III, King of England during the American revolution, was afflicted by acute intermittent porphyria, a hereditary metabolic disorder. The symptoms of this rare hereditary disease include paralysis, high blood pressure agonizing abdominal pain, manic overactivity, skin rash, red urine, delirium and psychosis. King George s porphyria also most likely exacerbated his metabolic disorders, accentuating his hostilities towards the colonies. The king played a part in the complex political maneuverings that resulted in the arrival of William Pitt the Younger as prime minister in 1783. Political stability continued until autumn 1788, when George III fell ill with acute intermittent porphyria… {Does that year ring a bell, q – w?}

The best thing that can happen to a guy in an argument with a friggin’ smartass, is when he makes a simple point and the “smart guy” (that’s yo, q – w) totally misses it.

Nimrod, who is from Great Britain, q – w (starting to make sense yet?), said he thought it was fairer to have medicine paid for by taxation than it was to have it paid by the people who need the care.

So I said, “Thank God for King George III s porphyria.” You see, King George’s porphyia contributed to the arrival of William Pitt the Younger as prime minister in 1783 (how about that year, q – w, does that ring a bell? Like, maybe, a “Liberty Bell”?) Pitt was sympathetic towards the American colonists, making the end of the American Revolution favorable from our point of view.

So, to complete the thread, I was merely saying, “If Nimrod, a British citizen, thought it was fairer for taxation to pay everyone’s medical expenses, than for them to pay their own, then thank God for King George’s madness.”

Not bad for a guy who never actually answers an argument, or will always, in every case, pull the political discussion of  I m rubber and you re glue, whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you! BING! FWIP!

Eh, dumbass?

Which is, of course, about what we have now. So…George III = George Bush, big surprise.

And Bill, I’m all about single payer health care. But not about Hilary style single payer.

Hillary has a really, really bad habit of addressing effects, rather than root causes. Take pharmacy costs. The solution is not to set price caps. Price caps do no one any good, they’re stupid, and they’re artificial. If you really want to fix medical prices, you need to strip all the extra protections out of the patents for medicine, and return them to the 7 year mark. 7 years, and then every drug is patent free and any generic maker that waants to come in and make it can.

THAT will solve the price problem.

And neo-con business men shills…don’t come crying with that tired old argument that the poor pharmie companies are just going to fold up and die of lack of profit if someone shares their grand discoveries. Its been shown that the state of patent and copyright law in this country (and world wide) is hurting research, because no one is willing to share any information. And on top of that its not like the government doesn’t pay out a bunch of money in grants for a lot of that research anyway.

So, in summary: Single payer health care = good, single payer health care + fixed patent law = great.

When my daughter was 9 or so, she asked me what the difference was between a Democrat and a Republican. I told her “A Democrat asks ‘what can I do for you?’” while a Republican asks ‘What can you do for me?’”

Which is obviously fairer than actually charging for operations.

It’s more fair to charge others for your needs? Wow…you can’t get more Left than that!

Nothing is free. Who do you think is paying?

The people who use it, via taxation, obviously. Which is obviously fairer than actually charging for operations.

Re – read the challenge:”call your local County Health Department, ask where the nearest Public medical clinic is, and head on over there… ”

Go see for yourself& ”

Anywhere. Anywhere.

I will never leave this country while the NHS is nationalised.

Thank God.

I won t have to pay for it

Nothing is free. Who do you think is paying?

It boggles the mind, it really does. Your access to health treatment depending on your income (to say nothing of the bullishit the insurers pull on you if you’ve so much as had the flu in the past) is practically a continuation of the feudal system, and here you are treating the NHS like some dystopian nightmare.

I will never leave this country while the NHS is nationalised. It might not be perfect, but if my kidney explodes I won’t have to pay for it not to kill me.

Get there real early. Watch sick people, including people with bad legs, feet and backs, standing on line to “Sign In.” (Appointments First, Walk – Ins last). Watch them sit there for something like 2 hours, until the Residents have completed their Grand rounds, before ANYTHING happens.

Then the Residents come out with a medical folder — if you’ve been there before, and take you in the back. If you have an ailment you are reporting to them for the first time — a rash, a pain, trouble breathing — they will timidly offer you a low dose of something, and tell you to come back in one or two weeks.

When you return, and tell them how things have gone since your last visit, they may change what they give you, or increase what they were giving you — return in one or two weeks — blood test, maybe; X – Ray, maybe; Sonogram, maybe.

When you return, and tell them how things have gone since your last visit, if nothing has changed, you will be seen by an experienced Doctor, and back to step 2, above — return in one or two weeks.

If that doesn’t work, you will be seen by another experienced Doctor. Repeat Step 2 above — elapsed time 3 – 6 weeks, and you may not know what’s wrong yet.

There you are — Medical Paradise!

Don’t believe me?

Go see for yourself…

What s more, it would put price caps in place to control skyrocketing costs….

this is the biggest fallacy in the whole discussion. It doesn’t control COST it controls PRICE. This is exactly why every single-payer system in the world limits care, and eventually leads to longer waits and less coverage.

His good intentions are what’s important here.