I can understand the defense concept, although I could see strong militias (if the ATF wasnt constantly harassing them), independently and heavily armed, not acting on behalf of insurance companies(Always the bankers...). This would at least insure we never headed into a needless war overseas.
My main fear of socialized medicine is that everyone will be taxed to save the cig smokers, mcdonalds eaters, fluoridated water drinkers, hardcore drug addicts rather than just let them die or make a life changing decision to finally help themselves. I don't know how to fit that in to your analogy about defense, but you see where im coming from right? Its that simple, thats my whole issue with this deal, other than the fact that it is unconstitutional - but im used to that.
I don't see any possible way to remedy this problem, unless everyone else, unlike me, wants to save EVERYONE from themselves. Privatization is tricky, especially when certain variables raise the price of med so high you NEED to be in the banks(insurance co) pocket. Something needs to change, but I sincerely doubt socialized medical is the way, especially with the lack of preventative healthcare. Especially with the American view of healthcare, popping pills and eating salad laced with chemicals that disable your thyroid, drinking water that can cause skeletal fluorosis, dental fluorosis, retardation and cancer. It's hard enough to avoid the obvious shit, try avoiding the stuff nobody tells you about, or everyone is in denial about. I still have a hard time avoiding stuff like MSG. I even had to switch chicken cause they pump them with phosphates?! I don't even know what that is, or how its completely unstudied and will one day be found to cause cancer or some other shit, but I know it isnt right and what reason do I have to trust someones wonder-chemical propaganda. Poison/Chem seems to be everywhere, and even if you're trying to avoid it, you will eat or drink some. I can see socialized healthcare, or even a total socialist dictatorship working, just not in this country.
The point I was trying to bring home with the defense analogy was that we will willingly pay for military protection for society as a whole, even though we rarely need it, having it there as a security blanket, knowing that in the event of a disaster we would have our bases covered, seems well worth the more than half of all taxes we pay on past and current military. But, we won't apply that same sound thinking to health care, which, as defense has, would benefit overall from public control, as far as coverage, advances in technique, and prevention are concerned.
It is quite threatening, taking into account all the people that can't, won't, or don't know how to take care of themselves. To take responsibility for all those people seems like an endeavor that is doomed to failure, because no matter how much there is, there will never be enough. And providing for them will take precious resources away from those of us who may or may not need it, but have earned the peace of mind that accrued wealth brings.
The question is; do the benefits outweigh the consequences? The benifits being; if we can successfully fund and manage socialized medicine, ideally, better than any previous country has before, American society as a whole will never know the horror of losing their entire lives to an untimely sickness. If we succeed in that respect we are guaranteed that if you get extremely, expensively sick, the illness will not bankrupt you and funds will be available to cover your treatment. The consequences are that you will be paying for medical coverage you may never need or use, at insurance rates or higher and that coverage will be used to pay for other peoples' health and prosperity, they will probably abuse it, they will most likely use if frivolously, and they won't care that your hard earned dollars went to fund it. It will force American tax payers to make hard decisions about what their tax dollars will go to, a reassesment of priorities will be neccessary. (Personally, I would go with dropping the "wars on" drugs, terrorism abroad, etc. And legalizing/taxing vices for additional income.)
I really don't know how social medicine would play out in the US. But I seriously think your fears of providing for addicts and obese Mc D's customers are unfounded.
Drug addicts already have the option of state care when it comes to rehabilitation, the overwhelming majority of them are not interested. Those that are genuinely interested in fixing their lives should receive care, the burden they bring to the table is marginal if they do indeed clean up their act and start contributing to society. As for the obese masses; the number one prevention of obesity is regular visits to the doctor, someone to help them understand that they are going to die a disgusting early death, and to provide options for them to stay healthy. Keeping the masses informed is half the fight to a cheaper health care platform. And of course, those that do die young and fat or face down in the gutter of an overdose are not going to be using their "end of life" or elderly health care, one of the most expensive as far as time and resource consumption goes.
Socialized medicine offers longer life expectancies, less infant mortality and better care than our system. And while those outcomes can't, and shouldn't, be chalked up solely to the health care, it's foolish to deny that health care plays a part. Indeed, there's just about no disagreement over which side achieves better health care outcomes. Outcomes, remember, are not simply who saves more folks from heart disease. Americans do more in the area of cardiac bypass, but then, we need it. We do more in the way of cancer treatment, but both France and the UK have significantly lower death rates from cancer, heart disease too, most of this comes because preventive care due to the low disincentives for visiting the doctor, is far more advanced compared to America. Much more is caught much earlier and lifestyle changes, medications, and small-bore surgeries used to keep folks healthy. And, indeed, life expectancies across the ocean and to the North are much better than they are here.
