United States v. Other Dominate Countries

An argument made by Arizona's senator Jon Kyl states that if President Obama get their way healthcare in America will start to look like healthcare over seas. Is this really such a bad thing? They say that everyone will be insured however people will have to wait in long lines to receive care and when they are finally seen the care they receive won't be very good. What we would we rather have happen, wait in lines to receive care or avoid the lines and not receive the care at all. The question sounds simple and completely irrational. Of course people would rather wait in the line if they are sick to receive care then not receive it all. Many republicans fear that we will turn our health care system into one much like Canada or the British. The British have socialized medicine and the doctors are government employed, the citizens receive universal healthcare and yes there may be a few lines they wait in but everyone has the right to wait in them. In canada the government insures everybody directly and private insurance has virtually no role. These countries hold the healthcare that American's say that they want. Timely, quality care. Physicians feel free to practice medicine the way they want; companies get to concentrate on their lines of business, rather than develop expertise in managing health benefits. And of course everybody has insurance.

Nearly 45 million American's are uninsured. Healthcare is one of the top social and economic problems facing Americans today. The rising cost of medical care and health insurance is impacting the livelihood of many Americans in one way or another. The inability to pay for necessary medical care is no longer a problem affecting only the uninsured, but is increasingly becoming a problem for those with health insurance as well. Some statistics include:

-In 2007, nearly 50 million Americans did not have health insurance, while another 25 million were underinsured. (Source: Commonwealth Fund Biennial Health Insurance Survey 2007)

-The amount people pay for health insurance increased 30 percent from 2001 to 2005, while income for the same period of time only increased 3 percent. (Source: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)

-The total annual premium for a typical family health insurance plan offered by employers was $12,680 in 2008. (Source: Kaiser/HRET Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Benefits, 2008)

-Healthcare expenditures in the United States exceed $2 trillion a year. (SOURCE: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Office of the Actuary, National Health Statistics Group;) In comparison, the federal budget is $3 trillion a year.

An individual who is underinsured is a somewhat general concept which can vary depending on individual circumstances. The researchers at the Commonwealth Fund, however, define the underinsured as “people who spent 10 percent or more of their income on medical expenses (or 5 percent if they were low income), or people who had deductibles that equaled at least 5 percent of the family annual income. Research show that the underinsured act much like those that are uninsured. Not visiting the doctors for routine checkups, don't fill perceptions. How do other countries handle this problem? Whether one looks at infant mortality, life expectancy, the number of physicians, hospital beds, medical errors or high out-of-pocket expenses, America underperforms to a shocking degree. Consequently, the World Health Organization (WHO) has ranked the United States 72nd of 191 countries for "level of health."
And it ranks 37th for "overall health system performance" -- just behind Costa Rica and Dominica and just ahead of Slovenia and Cuba, countries with a fraction of the economic wealth of the United States.
France and Italy, which have universal health care coverage for all their residents, even recent immigrants, were ranked first and second in the WHO listing. Most other European nations, who also have universal coverage for all, also were ranked near the top.
Yet despite this difference in performance between U.S. and European systems, somehow Europe manages to spend only a fraction of what the United States spends on health care.According to the WHO, the United States spends 16.5% of its GDP on health care, or about $6,100 per person. This compares to an average of 8.6% in European countries. France does it for far less, spending just $3,500 per person, or 10.7% of its economy.
The first overriding difference between U.S. and European healthcare systems is one of philosophy. The various European healthcare systems put people and their health before profits -- la santé d'abord, "health comes first," as the French are fond of saying.
It is the difference between health care run mostly as a non-profit venture with the goal of keeping people healthy and productive -- or running it as a for-profit commercial enterprise. It's no coincidence that, as the United States tries to grapple with soaring healthcare costs and lack of universal coverage, UnitedHealth Group CEO William McGuire received a staggering $124.8 million in compensation in 2005. He is just one of many grossly overcompensated kingpins of the U.S. healthcare industry.
U.S. healthcare corporations will spout platitudes about wanting to provide good service for their customers, but there's no escaping the bottom line that the CEOs of giant health corporations ultimately are accountable to one small group -- their stockholders.

1 - Many Americans are uninsured because they are too "rich" for Medicaid and too poor for insurance, right? So does that create a situation where there are people who would be better off not working, and getting welfare and medicaid?
2. If the United States does try to give universal healthcare to all its citizens what would the country suffer before the reform actually begins to help people?