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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (3898)	1/16/2008 8:44:05 AM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

Where does 5% come from? When you take out the illegals, self-insurers, and eligible but unclaimed Medicaids from the 47 million, it's five percent or so of the population, very roughly calculated as I typed. Remember a lot of the health insurance policies that are a part of benefits these days ARE essentially catastrophic because the deductibles are so high. I didn't know that. Where did that come from. I remember my dad fussing about $15 co-pays and not wanting to spend it. Surely you're not talking about that. No, it's basic economics... if something costs twice as much fewer people will "buy" it. You've said as much when you talk about "free" medical care... more people will use it. Indeed. But more of a small base is still smallish. Diabetes isn't life threatening unless it goes undiagnosed. Even many cancers are not life threatening unless there is a late diagnosis. Diabetes can be detected with a simple blood test. There aren't a lot of policies around that don't cover blood tests. If you want to be tested for diabetes, you can find a clinic or you can ask a neighbor who has a home tester and buy him lunch or run an errand in return. Every neighborhood has a few diabetics. You don't need a doctor for that. It need not cost much. As for cancers, only a few have effective screenings. You can have the best medical care and still not have cancer detected until you have symptoms, when it's usually too late. I don't question that there are some insured people who don't get care due to cost. What I'm questioning is whether there's enough of that to make it a "key" variable. [Re "free," I thought of you the other day when I saw a TV bit about famous athletes and swag. They just love to get free stuff, even when they don't need it and could easily pay for it if they did. There's something about "free" that intoxicates people. Demand pops out of the woodwork.]