What hope do we really have for our country if we can't provide health care for its citizens?

We have no hope because everyone would be vulnerable to the insurance companies raising rates & not paying much & it costing everyone so much that even the people against it now would lose everything they work for with a hospitalization. They thing we have everyone covered. Wow, they have never met a person who has lost their house to pay hospital bills or the many people who used the equity in their house to pay off bills & now own credit card co. more than they can afford to pay back.

This is where the gray area begins. UHC for everybody? Why? When 80% of America's citizens already have health care coverage and are reasonably happy with it. Why destroy what 80% already have, to cover the other 20%? That's bad business.

That's reinventing the wheel. It's a power grab and most of us know it. There isn't one thing that the federal government does on a grand scale like this would be, where they can call it an actual success. Most of the past big programs such as SSI are started with good intentions, but are soon dealt a death blow when the government gets greedy and starts shaving funds from one area to supply another. Rest assured that would happen with UHC. One big difference though. Our health care system is 1/6th of our total economy. Given their track record, why in the world would you trust the Feds to carry this out honorably?

The Republican plan targets specific areas where problems exist. That's how to take care of problems. Not a broad sweeping bill that changes everything.

I look at it this way. The Dem plan is akin to carpet bombing an area and starting over. Destroying everything in it's wake. The Rep plan is a surgical strike with minimal collateral damage yet taking out the cancer of the problem.

"What is that saying for our nation, for our system of government, and for our economic policies?"

America has NEVER beat the drum that others beat. She has always been the inventor, the entrepreneur, the leader in new ways of doing things. UHC has already been done elsewhere, and it doesn't work any better than what we have now. Many that live under a UHC may want to defend it, however, these are the very ones that have never had what we have so they are defending the indefensible. The same goes for us. We haven't had UHC before, so we're defending the indefensible, however, we do see where in countries that have UHC, they have total tax rates exceeding 70%, effectively lowering their life style standards because of costs.

One thing that Reps and Dems do agree on. The largest part of the problem is costs. The most popular way to bring them down in our economic system is competition. It's how to provide this competition where they differ.

Reps believe that there are certain things that need to happen to do this. Tort reform, access across state lines, tax free medical savings etc.

The Dems want the government to provide this competition. The only problem is if that happens, there isn't any "real" competition. The government will dictate what they will pay for services, falsely lowering costs, until it bites us in the rears.

When I was a kid in the 60's, we had constant access to health care. The only big difference was that there wasn't any type of HMO's etc. We all had insurance for catastrophic care, surgeries and hospital stays. But for regular tests, checkups, dental, vision, etc. My parents paid for those, BUT, these costs were ALL tax deductible. Hence the need tax free medical savings accounts. It worked well. For those that couldn't work and get these benefits, that's where SSI, Medicare and Medicaid came in. It all worked. Until, Ted Kennedy became the torch bearer of HMO's, the lead up to and implementation of the beginning of socialized health care. The very system that Dems are saying is broken today.

Thank you for asking a real question without injecting a lot of partisan garbage into it. This is a great question too.

For one, dont believe the common lie that Republicans arent willing to work toward TRUE reform. We can THANK the democrats for trying to take over the system, because if they hadnt- the Republicans may never have acknowledged that we have a problem. So thanks, but no thanks.

That said, I am not saying that the Republican idea of reform will magically fix everything overnight- but lets face it, Democrats would have you wait at least 4 years for you to have coverage under their plan anyway- while paying for it from day one! So whats the hurry? The Republican proposal actually goes directly to the problems we ALL apparently agree exist, such as;

High prices, amount of coverage, and eligibility for coverage. These are the three main issues that people see with our current system.

The Republican bill would end the limitations that insurance companies have to compete with each other. This would fix the problem with high prices, because if the insurance companies have to compete nationally with each other, they would lower prices and offer more goodies. You can see evidence of this by looking at auto insurance. AAA and all the big dogs have lowered their rates and offer more coverage because of national competition from companies like Progressive and Geico. Competition always drives down prices and improves quality (more and better coverage = better quality).

As for eligibility of coverage and eliminating pre-existing risk issues, many insurance companies would start lowering their restrictions as part of their competition initiatives. Also, the Republican bill proposes raising the Medicare eligibility 150% of what it is already, which will make more people eligible to enroll. Right now, Medicare turns away a lot of people who cant afford insurance, but apparently make more than they allow. This bill would fill the gap, and close the "doughnut hole" as they call it, by allowing people who cant afford private insurance to get Medicare.

There will still be some kinks to work out, but it dont take 2000 pages or a complete takeover to reform the system. By the way, these simple resolutions will end up covering more people than the Democrats bill that is currently being debated.

We can. All we need do is make it legal AGAIN, like it was before Democrats spent decades ending it.

Let's not forget the Republicans simply agree with the AUTHORS of the Democrats' legislation; health care reform will put us trillions of dollars in debt, and strain the medical system to the point of breaking. Democrats said so on TV (CSPAN) and that their "solution" was simply to lie about it.

If you don't earn enough money, or can't convince an employer or insurance company to spend money on you, then you don't get medical care because THAT'S HOW DEMOCRATS DEMANDED IT BE!

What is that saying about people who expect the SAME people to "fix it?"

People can not be turned away at the hospital illegal or not, so your straw man argument is null!

Those that can't afford insurance have multiple avenues in which to get coverage! Those that choose to buy other things, instead of insurance should be held responsible for their bills.

Now do we need insurance reform, yes! How to make it affordable should be the question, not how can the government take over more tan one fifth of our economy and force their will on the people...

We DO provide health care for our citizens in the US.

Hospitals treat patients in NEED of care when they walk thru the door, regardless of the capacity to pay. Your broken arm will be set courtesy of the rest of us who have insurance...you're on your own to pay for your nose-job or other ELECTIVE procedure.

Anyone who thinks that the current legislation is about improving overall health care in this country is delusional...it's just another "big government policy" that takes our tax dollars and our liberty.

Without tort reform, health care will continue to be too expensive but at least it will be available. With the current legislation, health care will be harder to obtain as doctors leave the system and more patients are added via the public dole.

NOTHING is free...and when it's perceived to be so, it's abused and taken for granted. We need to fix our health care system...but the current legislation isn't the way to go.

"What hope do we really have for our country if we can't provide health care for its citizens?"

We've been doing alright for over 200 years.

"If that's true, and we cannot provide medical coverage, then how much is this country really worth? Without some kind of universal health care coverage, aren't we really saying that if you don't earn enough money, or can't convince an employer or insurance company to spend money on you, then you don't deserve medical care?"

This is baloney. People who dont have health insurance do not necessarilly go without medical care in this country. Its countries that have universal health care in which people go without medical care. A canadian judge recently said: "access to a waiting list is not access to health care"

Funny, we've been doing excellent for over 200 years!

This is a manufactured crisis...there are 83% of people with adequate health coverage...we DO NOT need to take over the entire industry to provide for the remainder of those who don't have it.

This is a power grab, and you should be ashamed for trying to make people think it is a moral issue.

You could say the same thing about jobs, or homes, or cars...etc

This healthcare bill still leaves millions without coverage and just increases cost for everybody else. It's a bad bill!

We've never provided health care for our citizens.

I think we've done pretty well, no?