I'm a conservative but I am coming around to the liberal idea of national health care.?

We have the best health care in the world.Why mess it up with Government Red Tape????

1 - Waaaayyyyyy too late for that one, I'm afraid. We already have unfunded liabilities (read: promises made by politicians with no $ to back 'em up) that far outstrip our ability to pay for them. Adding more of them, like the Medicare prescription bill that Bush forced through and Dems said "wasn't enough", doesn't mean that the checks will ever go out in the amounts promised.

2 - Not wrong. Perhaps unaware of how much has been promised with the present and certain knowledge that the bills cannot and will not be paid. Once the baby boomers are retiring in substantial numbers you'll begin to hear a shift in the political conversation from "What more can we promise 'em?" to "I need to retire as I don't want to be here when the voters figure it out for themselves!"

If I sound cynical I say wait five to ten years and watch what happens. Oh, and by the way, don't forget that the nation's core infrastructure is approaching the point where it MUST be rebuilt. Another minor multi-trillion dollar problem that will have to be faced squarely.

As I've suggested, a LOT of the present crop of politicians will be fleeing for the exits when the bills come due. Who knows? Maybe then we'll get some competent politicians working on real problems instead of the oddballs that are offered up to us now.

You are NOT wrong to be questioning what is the best plan for health care in the U.S. I think if everyone, regardless of political affiliation, would be as open-minded as you are, we'd have more successes in areas of public policy.

There are solid reasons to go the way of national health care. When 31 cents of every health care dollar goes to administraton, 24 cents of which goes just for billing for the services, we may be seeing an example of how the free market runs into trouble in the health care arena. I think we have people smart enough to figure out ways to avoid the pitfalls of those European national health care systems.

I used to do medical billing for a non-profit agency for my living, and I can't tell you how frustrating it was to have dozens of different health insurers, each with their own rules and codes, which changed so frequently that we could hardly keep our IT going. At the same time, I couldn't afford to buy insurance coverage beyond the basic managed care, and some services I really needed I couldn't get. So rationing care doesn't only happen in national health care plans in Canada and the UK. Are you a "person of means"? How would you feel about higher taxes to pay for it? Have you heard of any other funding ideas?

Anyway, I support your exploration of where you stand. That's intelligent.

I don't know why everyone is so excited about our government passing a national health care law. I can tell you right now what is going to happen. Our Congress and Senate will pass a law making healthcare insurance mandatory for every citizen and they will put a another mandatory deduction on your pay stub. The health insurance companies will collect the money from the government after the government deducts for administration costs and everyone will think how wonderful it was they passed a law...and when you get your paycheck at the end of the week that 5 or 6 hundred dollars you got used to living on will be reduced to 2 or 3 hundred dollars. They will simply treat it as another tax like Social Security and Medicaid/Medicare. And they will name it Health and Welfare tax.

I'm not sure that either Democrats or Republicans actually want "national health care". It's hard to believe that so many citizens have NO health insurance in a country like ours. It's great that you are open minded and actually study both sides of the issue.

Many of us are now where you are.... and if we are lucky, alas, we will never have another Republican in the White House in the next 30 years. The party of Lincoln, is no longer the party of the people.... and Bush will surely go down as the absolute worst president this country has ever had.... it is just tooo scary when the guy is talking to god, and god told him to invade a sovereign country. Why didn't he also tell us that god said there were no weapons of mass destruction..or is he just lying again????..... scary, just tooooo scary.

The NHS is one of the best things about Britain. It isn't something that should be based on ability to pay at the point of need.

Your politics don't matter - British Conservatives have always defended the NHS the same as anyone else.

You must be a pretty healthy person...

I'm not, and it took me more than FIFTEEN YEARS to get a diagnosis - with excellent health coverage. I can't imagine what would happen to me if I had to wait for the government to "take care" of me. Gads.

I certainly would like to see everyone covered, but the goverment? Absolutely not - they screw up everything they touch.

national health care is such a simple solution that its got people scared. how could something be so obvious? but sometimes an answer is just as plain as the nose on our faces.

Yea, your wrong. Simply because it would be inefficient, like Britain's health care system. Anything government run is by it's very nature inefficient.