Those Opposed to a Public Health Care Plan, Please Respond to this...?

Many of you think that health care should be paid for, not provided by the government. Well lets look at health care costs:

The average cost for a hospital stay is $9,398 in relatively high-cost Switzerland and $17,206 in the United States.

Who can pay that much for a hospital stay?!! Even with Insurance (which only the lucky few in our country have), hospital bills are the #1 reason in America that people declare bankruptcy.

This is from http://articles.sfgate.com/

"Holland and Switzerland rely exclusively on private insurance, and all three rely on private doctors. The three European nations deliver universal coverage and world-class quality at a fraction of what Americans spend.All of them require that everyone purchase insurance, make sure everyone can afford it and ban insurers from such practices as refusing to cover the sick that are common in the United States."

The United States spends more than any other country in the world on Health Care, yet we have the lowest number of people who have access to health care. We have, on average, NO paid maternity leave, as opposed to the 32 weeks of paid maternity leave in Sweden. WE HAVE ONE OF THE LOWEST LIFE EXPECTANCIES IN THE DEVELOPED WORLD AND THE HIGHEST RATE OF INFANT MORTALITY! We have one of the lowest percentages of people with normal body mass, and the highest percentage of people who believe their health care system needs fundamental change.

All that data is right here:

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-healthcare.htm

Also, about the quality of care in Europe; well, here's some data on that too:

"Europe has more doctors, more hospital beds and more patient visits than the United States. Take Switzerland: 4.9 doctors per thousand residents compared with 2.4 in the United States."

http://articles.sfgate.com/2009-11-29/news/1718023...

You say that Canadians regularly come to the United States for health care, yet only 2% of Canadians think that the US has a better health care system than they do.

Whoever the idiot was who said that the UK isn't a free society...the King and Queen are just figureheads, they hold no actual power. The UK has a representative, democratic parliamentary system. They elect their Prime Minister, just like we elect our President.

In Newsweek's list of the top 100 Countries in the World, the United States came in at #11, with every European Country (Canada and Japan are ahead of us too) ahead of it having the same freedom house ranking, but with higher political participation and political stability.

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/08/15/interactive-inf...

Here is a commentary on politics in Europe from http://www.cafebabel.co.uk/article/32207/europe-un...

"After centuries of kings and dictators, Europe’s political institutions and electoral methods have produced the most advanced representative democracies in the world, fostering inclusiveness, participation, consensus, multiparty representation and policy based on broad public support. Politics rule over economics, instead of the other way around."

Massachusetts has been learning from the European Union, and has already gone ahead with its own health care legislation:

The Massachusetts health care insurance reform law, enacted in 2006, mandates that nearly every resident of Massachusetts obtain a state-government-regulated minimum level of healthcare insurance coverage and provides free health care insurance for residents earning less than 150% of the federal poverty level (FPL)[1] who are not eligible for Mass Health (Medicaid).

The truth is, the United States has the best Emergency Care in the world. However:

"Advanced U.S. medical technology has not translated into better health statistics for its citizens; indeed, the U.S. ranks near the bottom in list after list of international comparisons. Part of the problem is that there is more profit in a pound of cure than an ounce of prevention. Another part of the problem is that America has the highest level of poverty and income inequality among all rich nations, and poverty affects one's health much more than the limited ministrations of a formal health care system."

According to, http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/

"The nation's poverty rate, about 17%, is third worst among the advanced nations tracked by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In that sample, only Turkey and Mexico are worse."

And regarding Taxes:

http://www.businesspundit.com/

The USA has one of the lowest tax rates in the world. Notice that Switzerland also has one of the lowest tax rates, but 98% of their population is covered by public health care, they have one of the highest life expectancies in the world, and one of the lowest infant mortality rates.

Please respond with FACT, not rumor.