Originally Posted by Ycaza

keep in mind that in our current sytem, 70% of the total cost is due to lawyers and administrators. socialized medicine will rid us of most of the legal issuues, because you can't sue the federal govenment. this will also rid us of at least half of the billers and administrators.
Add to this a little regulation on the exorbitant fees some medical practitioners charge and we could easily reduce the costs 50-60%. That's a bargain, and with the doing away of the bs system where insurance companies refuse pre existing conditions, where people can then actually pay for insurance instead of entering the hospital without insurance and we can have everyone insured for half the cost of what people currently pay to have half the people insured.

Lastly we make the insurance companies covering medical non-profit, service companies and therefore no longer answerable to the stock market. thats how you do it. trouble is the lawyers and the insurers have a vested interest in the status quo, their lobbies are huge and this will be a tough sell. We need to do it, I was in the hospital for a week just 3 weeks ago, without insurance I might be dead today. I am thankful I could qualify for and afford insurance, but at 45 my costs go up every year, I for one am frightened about what might happen when thats no longer true.