[Ceili]

I have always thought that health care is one of those compromises we make... more salary and possibly no or pretty bad coverage or a big chunk less of salary and benefits that keep you working there. For a long time, this worked. I had friends that made a Lot more than I did, but, to me at least, they paid through the nose for stuff that was considered basic coverage where I work. It worked out in the end, again, to me.

I object to the way Medicaid is currently used in this country, where only the very very poor, children of illegals (which are citizens based on our outmoded laws) or the rich (or ones with laywers that don't mind bending laws) qualify. Should you have to sell your house or use your savings when you get old to pay for your eldercare.... I don't know, but I Don't think I should have to pay for it. We have people with laywers that set up trusts for the family (adults, not kids) where hundreds of thousands of dollars (or MORE) are diverted to the family, and the parent goes to a nursing home free of charge.... well, free of charge to Their family... the rest of us get to pay the $5k+ a month it generally runs.

Some of my thoughts on government provided healthcare have changed... partially as a way citizens in this country are treated and partially because Medicaid, in it's current setup, cannot continue to be allowed to run unchanged.

I think that the step we're trying to take is a step in the right direction except for one thing... as stated previously, I work in government, my benefits, namely my healthcare is one of the few reasons I've stayed as long as I did. If my employer will be given the ability to dissolve our healthcare and make us go national health, I'd be angry...and, the way it sounds, while the government won't "make" any employer disolve their healthcare package, they sure as hell won't stop them from doing so.

Based on my time here, my ability to read, and having watched or heard about politics from an early age, I have absolutely NO faith that any elected official in this country will have anyone other than their own benefit in mind when they make this thing up.

Plus, how would it be set up? There are already long waits for most physicians even when you Have coverage.... will it go to the UK thing, where you can wait for months? (if this is wrong, sorry, but it is the view the rest of us gets when we hear about it). NZ has a type of national health, but it seems to be working even less than the other nationalized systems... Canada I don't know enough about, nor the Aussie system, but maybe we'd be better off following in one of the better plans footsteps rather than trying to come up with our own plan... which of course will have to take care of certain companies and "friends".... pretty much like every government decision ever made.