Comments on: CA Residents: Call Your State Assembly http://wakingupnow.com/blog/ca-residents-call-your-state-assembly-rep Thu, 17 May 2012 01:49:40 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Tre http://wakingupnow.com/blog/ca-residents-call-your-state-assembly-rep/comment-page-1#comment-1918 Tre Thu, 25 Feb 2010 04:30:22 +0000 http://wakingupnow.com/blog/?p=1149#comment-1918 This is the reason we need to have a public option - if nothing more than to give the FOR PROFIT INSURANCE COMPANIES some healthy competition. What they are doing is exactly what a for profit corporation should be doing - making a shitload of money. However, this does nothing for the citizens of this country who need affordable health care. They've also dropped coverage on 2.7 million people this year. Dropped. "Republicans are wholly owned subsidiaries of the insurance industry" - Rep. Anthony Wiener This is the reason we need to have a public option – if nothing more than to give the FOR PROFIT INSURANCE COMPANIES some healthy competition. What they are doing is exactly what a for profit corporation should be doing – making a shitload of money. However, this does nothing for the citizens of this country who need affordable health care. They’ve also dropped coverage on 2.7 million people this year. Dropped.

“Republicans are wholly owned subsidiaries of the insurance industry” – Rep. Anthony Wiener

]]> By: tavdy79 http://wakingupnow.com/blog/ca-residents-call-your-state-assembly-rep/comment-page-1#comment-1915 tavdy79 Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:03:26 +0000 http://wakingupnow.com/blog/?p=1149#comment-1915 The cost of the US healthcare system has always been, to me, staggering - from a British perspective it verges on criminal negligence that it has been allowed to become so bloated. The UK's NHS is certainly not without its flaws, yet judging by many key markers (life expectancy, cancer survival, infant mortality) it manages to provide a service that's the equal and in some areas the better of the US healthcare system. The NHS costs 8% of UK GDP and serves the entire population; the US healthcare system costs 17% of US GDP, but only serves 85% of the population. US GDP is 31% higher per capita than UK GDP. So the UK's healthcare costs $2880 per patient, vs. $9487 per patient for the US - 230% more! So it's entirely possible to provide a high standard of healthcare to every citizen for much less than half the current cost. And if it's possible for a socialised healthcare system to do that, it should be possible for a free-market system to do so as well. Shouldn't it? The cost of the US healthcare system has always been, to me, staggering – from a British perspective it verges on criminal negligence that it has been allowed to become so bloated. The UK’s NHS is certainly not without its flaws, yet judging by many key markers (life expectancy, cancer survival, infant mortality) it manages to provide a service that’s the equal and in some areas the better of the US healthcare system.

The NHS costs 8% of UK GDP and serves the entire population; the US healthcare system costs 17% of US GDP, but only serves 85% of the population. US GDP is 31% higher per capita than UK GDP. So the UK’s healthcare costs $2880 per patient, vs. $9487 per patient for the US – 230% more!

So it’s entirely possible to provide a high standard of healthcare to every citizen for much less than half the current cost. And if it’s possible for a socialised healthcare system to do that, it should be possible for a free-market system to do so as well. Shouldn’t it?

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