[Informer Article] Healthcare At a Glance

I do not believe the founding fathers even had healthcare insurance anyway besides the occasion amputation and blood letting.

Would it not have been better to work with what we have, rather than start with a so called blank sheet which basically means "we're going to stall this until 2012 when you're booted out"?

Oh dear me! I read the reactions of what I must assume are young Americans with despair.

I live in the UK and our system has many flaws but in general healthcare is free at the point of delivery. We pay in other ways, through our taxes. Now late in life I don't know if I am a Christian or not, but I try to follow the best of Christian principles in my attitude towards people in general and those in need in particular. NEED is the operative word.

It seems to us outside the USA, if you (generic US person) have a good job, had a good education, have a family to help you you are OK, but heaven (if there is one) help you if you do not have these. So going back to the 'they should help themselves' idea why should you benefit from all that help? why not set you out on your own at 15 or 18 to make your own way in the world? I thought not? You are sitting very comfortably thank you, and you are not about to give it up; and of course none of this will ever happen to you?

To say the Constitution does not give people the right to healthcare, well you are right. Back to the previous paragraph, when it was set up, most peole were self-sufficient, lived by the work of their own hand and by bartering. We have moved on from there, at least I would hope. Just as you could not live today literally by the Bible or Koran (though some people do still try ) the interpretation of the original Constitution has to move on to encompass the living conditions of today.

You don't have the vision to see what could happen, what does happen to people who have been managing, who did have a job but lost it through no fault of their own, who have long term health conditions that prevent them getting insurance if they could afford it. And from where I stand you do not have compassion for your fellow man.

A country is judged by how it treats its sick and its poor and its elderly. Most 'civilised' countries don't rate the US very high on that scale. Don't jump on how we do it in the UK, we haven't got it right either, but the basic principle is there.

TBH I think I would prefer the continental system with funding based on income, provision based on need. (Hm - goes off to investigate moving to France)

I think the biggest issue in trying to make universal healthcare in the US work is the population. The US has more than 300 million people, almost ten times that of Canada and five times that of the UK (oh god I knew you guys were crammed but not that much on that tiny island).