Terry Blanton wrote:
On Mon, Apr 21, 2008 at 8:59 AM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
She is going to cut taxes. provide universal heath care,
Mutually exclusive.
Given the state of the economy, and the fact that Hillary isn't
promising an "instant withdrawal" from Iraq (as far as I know), just the
"cut taxes" part is mutually exclusive all by itself. ;-) The next
president isn't going to be able to cut taxes, period, at least not in
the first few years of their term.
Universal health care, on the other hand, can be provided for free by
using the "Romney plan": You pass a law requiring everyone to obtain
(private) health insurance. Voila: Overnight, everybody's covered!
It's sort of like how the government "provides" universal liability
insurance for all automobile drivers.
Since Romney's "weasel" approach to "universal" health care became
popular (among politicians), the key term in the health insurance debate
has become "single payer" rather than "universal". And as far as I know,
no current candidate is proposing a single-payer system. For nearly all
of us, the plans of Clinton, Obama, and (if he's got one) McCain will
make no perceptible difference.
****
BTW the thing universal single-payer health care is most in conflict
with is most likely the strong military. If you look at other (poorer)
countries where, strangely, they seem to be able to afford single-payer
health care even though the (far richer) United States can't, the
biggest difference seems to be size of the military. Difference in the
tax take as fraction of GNP looks to me to be a secondary issue.
Granted, universal health care tends to be something you find in
relatively wealthy countries, but certainly not *just* the top tier.
Canada, England, France, and Cuba have it, just to name a few, and in
France they also have mandatory 5-week vacations, as well as constant
strikes which give everybody even more time off from work. There's a
lot of grousing about the medical system in Canada, France, and England
(not legal to grouse in Cuba, of course) but none the less their systems
seem to be working pretty well in spite of everything. Better than the
one in the U.S., at any rate, and maybe even cheaper if you can believe
the complaints from major U.S. companies who must provide health
benefits for all their employees.
Incidentally the scariest thing about being in the Canadian health care
system is .... ready for this? .... vacations in the United States.
What if you get in an accident, or get too sick to travel, while in the
States? It can be a disaster. A 3 hour tour over the border which ends
in an emergency room visit and a hospital stay could cost your life savings.
Terry
