By the way - none of this discussion is about Health-Care. We are discussing Sick-Care, if anything. Health-Care is what one does to take care of themselves to prevent the chronic diseases that I as a taxpayer am being asked to pay for on behalf of others.

And this is not to say modifications could not be made to our current system. But to claim that a country with the society of the United States (not to mention of 300 million+ citizens) would fare well under a socialized healthcare system...you're going to need to some pretty well supported arguments to make me feel positively about it.

Perhaps what you are failing to realise, is that you (and the rest of us) are already paying for it. What is not being said, is that the care is being delivered in about the MOST ineffecient way possible. Because there are so many uninsured, people who stand almost NO chance of ever being insured, either because previously existing conditions or incomes so low that affording coverage is simply out of the question, they wait until their health problems are acute, then go to a hospital emergency room for care. They have NO OTHER CHOICE. (Unless of course, you count what the self-absorbed ME Generation would have them do, that is, just go somewhere and die quietly like a good serf.)

Nor do you seem to see that a huge chunk of every "health care" dollar is skimmed off the top by insurance companies. (A recent article I read said 27%, I'll see if I can track down a link.) For that chunk, they provide skant little in the way of "service." As far as I can see, the only "service" they provide, is fattening their execs bank accounts.

So you'll believe it, I suggest you research what percentage of Medicare and Medicaid dollars go to administrative overhead and compare that with our current system of private insurance. It will surprise you.

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As to Matt L's post above citing Katrina as how government operates, I say bullshit, that's how corrupt administrations operate, especially when they are headed by incompetent boobs, with evil scumbags whispering in their ear.

Well, the subject of the post is how well socialized medicine would do in this country. It's not my job to research your position for you. If you want to do some convincing, then show me it would be more effecient, not just 'assure' me and point to other countries. Tell me how you think it would be run and how it would affect taxpayers differently and more effeciently. Why should we overhaul the system to do this rather than simply fix the obvious kinks it has right now? I'm seriously receptive to hearing supported arguments, yet none seem to have found their way into this thread.

Efficiency is an engineering term. Effectiveness is a human term.

__________________
"There were no D-Day Heroes in 1973" - Cold Chisel Khe Sanh

efficient - Definitions from Dictionary.com

Really? (reference to definition #1)...here it says it can be used both ways.
Anywho, about those supported points regarding the efficiency or effectiveness (either will work so long as they're supported)...? This is a subject I'd love to discuss the finer points of, but there seems to be some fixation on this/that word usage rather than the topic at hand.

EP, sorry guy, but I'm not really motivated to "show you" anything. I must not have nearly as much free time as most around here and spending it doing research for other people isn't in the budget. Now before you even say it, I really don't care if I "convince you" (or anyone else, for that matter) about this or any other subject. This is just an internet forum, with little to no impact on my world. I offered my opinion and something I had read in the past. I'm not here for "debate team." I'm not here to "convince." I'm not here to solve the world's problems. I'm here to offer my opinion, period.

That's fine. We all have things to do and jobs to go to. I'm just trying to let you know that if you find our healthcare system to be such a terrible setup, then you're going to need to have some good reasons to influence people for a socialized setup rather than just to tinker and fix what we have now. If not, you'll be dissapointed for a while because I doubt very much that this move will happen otherwise.

It´s very unlikely, but let`s assume, that it is possible to create a planed economy, which is more efficient as the existing private industry.
The consequence is, that the present may be for the people better, but in the long run, the private Industry is superior.
Why? Because progress depends on the principle of try and error.
The progress in a socialized ecoonomy is therefore much slower, because there is only one player wich could make experiemts. In a free market-economy are much more players which could discover improvements.

That`s the reason, why private insurance is in the long run better than socialized health-care.