What Can We Do To Get Congress To Pass A Single Payer Health Plan!?

The population may not want it as much as you think. Many of us don't want it because we would have more rationed care and don't think the government does a better job at most things.

Right now I get my medical paid by my company so I have never in my life paid for medical insurance. I was dead set against it because it will cost too much and I don't like the idea of government controlling if I live or die.

Now I am thinking it might not be as bad since so many lose a job when they have serious problems and can't afford treatment or COBRA. We already help the handicapped and elderly with Medicaid and Medicare so if we could do something easier like supplementing medical for the unemployed I would prefer that to national health care for everyone.

Well, that's the LAST thing I want - the current "single payer" health programs STINK.

MOST of the population doesn't want that system. That's because they know how it works in the real world - long waiting lines (my uncle in Canada needed surgery for a bleeding stomach ulcer - the wait was six months - they said, either he'd live long enough for the surgery, or he wouldn't) and severe rationing of services (sorry, no lap band or infertility treatments!).

If we get a single-payer plan like Canada and Europe have, more people will die, because they won't be able to get the care they need at the time they need it.

True Example:

I am currently being treated for stage 4 metastatic colon cancer. I have lived already nearly two years beyond my original prognosis.

My oncologist is Canadian. She told me that she came to the US so she could give her patients the treatments and medications they need, not what the government will allow them to have. She said that if I was in Canada, I would have already died.

My doctor's sister, who lives in Canada had a large tumor on her uterus. She went to her doctor and he told her that it needed to come out. She wanted to set a date for surgery. Her doc said that it would be about 18 months before they could schedule her for surgery.

She called my doc, her sister, and wanted some advice. My doc was going to ask her to come to the US for surgery, but instead, told her to go to the emergency room and exaggerate the pain. She did, and emergency surgery was performed. (They will take emergencies.)

I don't want any part of a Canadian or European-style government run national healthcare plan. I don't think you do either.

Answer this question: Why do people from other countries, who have government-run healthcare, come to the US for medical treatment?

You are presumptuous to conclude that a single-payer system is "what the population wants." Got facts to support that claim?

I'm part fo the "population" and pay a huge premium out of pocket monthly ($536) and I do not want tax-funded, socialist medicine! England's health care system is going bankrupt; Canada has huge problems with theirs. If you have a life-threatening heart problem in Canada you are put on a waiting list and most likely will die before you get the care you need. Is this what you want? Many Canadians come to the US and pay out-of-pocket for heart/cancer care so they don't die waiting on it in their own country.

We live in a REPUBLIC, which means a constitution-based government system which does not allow for the government ot pass Universal Health Care. (If you think we live in a democracy~you are wrong. Please recite your Pledge Of Allegiance before you argue with me...."And to the republic, for which it stands...")

We are in the mess we are in because of the government! Health care was basically affordable 25 years ago and then the government started getting involved and the prices went sky-high.

Learn to become more responsible for your own care by eating properly, getting rest and exercise, and looking into alternative medicine for the small issues. You can heal yourself of so many common ailments and do not need a doctor for them (UTI, most kidney stones, do gall bladder cleanses to keep from having gallstones and gall bladder issues, pink eye, poison ivy/oak, and many other common ailments, including cholesterol).

You can find this info on the web, in books, from friends, and even taking classes. I have a family of 10 (we have 8 kids, most of them now grown) and we rarely ever went to the doctor as I doctored them. Poison ivy? Rub with juice from a fresh-squeezed lemon. Pink eye? Use a tea bag. Cholesterol too high? Eat raw garlic and take hawthorn berries. All this info can be found on the web.

I am a not a doctor and I am not diagnosing or healing, I am merely giving you information so you can educate yourself and take more responsiblity for your health.

If you did have a major illness and could not pay for it there are programs out there that would help (I prefer not from the gov't, but from pivate funds, but irregardless, they are both out there), so why are you crying about all of this?

The government's sole purpose in existng is two-fold: to keep us safe from enemies (military) and for infrastructure (building and maintaining of roads and bridges), that's it. That is all the constitution allows for. Politicians have been perverting our constitution for their own personal gain for well over a century.

Do you want to live like Sweden where they have "free" health care, "free" day care, "free" almost everything, but where both spouses must work as they are taxed 80% of their pay? This is NOT free!!! It is monetary bondage, slavery to the government. Don't you think you can spend your money better than the government? I know I can! The government wastes money and never has enough.

You cannot be so "poor" that you need the government to pay for your health care. Do you live on the streets? Eat out of a dumpster? Wear rags for clothes? If not, then you are not as poor as you think you are. Are you posting from your own computer that you pay internet for? If so, then you are not poor. If you were truly poor, then you'd be posting from the library or maybe would not have access to a computer.

And, even if you are truly poor, that does not entitle you to other people's money for your health care. If you don't work for and earn your own money, then my money does not belong to you. And no, we are not rich, either!!! We are like most everyone else, we work for our money, pay our bills, and try to tuck a few bucks away here and there for any emergencies (like tires for car), but we are far from rich.

You need a new mind set. One like JFK had. He asked, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country". We need more people who think like this! I don't want to live in a Nanny State where the government pays for everything and tells us how to live because we are incapable of doing things for ourselves! That is not what made America great! What made America great were men and women who worked and paid their own way and did not rely on the government for handouts.