Universal Healthcare--It's an Election Year. We Must Need a Universal Health Care Plan

Paul Zannucci--I am not heartless. I think that people who are sick need treatment regardless of their ability to pay. I don't know a single conservative who would encourage the sick to be kicked out of the CCU. My only hope for the "Universal Health Care Plan to Come" is that it be fiscally responsible, as much as is possible, and that it not hinder what is quite possibly the greatest medical system today (for those who have insurance or can afford it).

Our health care in the U.S. is almost certain to change in the coming years. Members of both parties are now talking about their proposed solutions. As is typically the case, the Democrats want a bigger solution while the Republicans want a smaller one. Borrowed from the New York Times, here is each of the three remaining candidates positions on health care reform:

Hillary Clinton: "Require everyone to get health insurance, subsidized by employers and the government; pay for it by rolling back tax cuts for households earning over $250,000 and savings in the existing system." http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/issues/index.html#/context=detail/issue=health/candidateA=clinton/candidateB=allDem

Barrack Obama: "Require that all children have health insurance; pay for it by rolling back President Bush's tax cuts for households earning over $250,000; aims for universal coverage." http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/issues/index.html#/context=detail/issue=health/candidateA=obama/candidateB=allDem

John McCain: "For free-market, consumer-based system; has pledged affordable health care for every American without a mandate; says universal health care is possible without a tax increase." http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/issues/index.html#/context=detail/issue=health/candidateA=mccain/candidateB=allRep

In all honesty, most of these plans seem fairly tame compared to what I had been expecting prior to this election. The only difficulty, to me, comes that when people are just given something, like insurance, they are prone to abuse it. Go to any emergency room in any decent sized city, and you'll find it crammed full of people with sinus infections and mild flu symptoms. We don't need just to give "free" and open access to all. There must be strict guidelines and penalties for abuse.

We'll end this conversation with a cautionary tale from Canada, where Sylvia de Vries, ovarian cancer survivor, survived her ordeal with the Canadian health care system by heading to Michigan. It's a story of unbelievable frustration and an inattentiveness that would have been fatal had she not taken matters into her own hands.

Okay, lets insure people and manage the process, but let's leave it at that. Socialized medicine is not the way to go:

http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/story.html?id=3ccdf1b2-7409-40d2-8b80-55f3cdc441d0&k=82139


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