Another one o' them smoking ban threads....

[Strangelet]

Originally Posted by BeautifulBurnout

It is precisely this kind of "free market" philisophy that lead to higher insurance premiums for all. The reason is simple: you are not insured and play a game of football, to take Rog's example. You have possession of the ball, another player goes for it, you trip and break your leg. The other guy has insurance. So you sue him.

You're talking about ambulance chasers, not free market philosophy. Granted torts cases like this do contribute to high rates, but you can't say this side effect is an inherent quality to free market health insurance.

The answer to this problem is not going to found if you limit yourself to strictly corporate or government models, free market, or socialized medicine.

An injection of free market thinking in nationalized health insurance is the only way nationalized health insurance could even work. Here in Toronto, some of my friends are complaining that there are no available family doctors or general practicioners. Period. All booked up, sorry. I mean don't get in a tizzy, and continue paying your 15% sales tax and 40% income tax, and shame on your lack of altruism if you complain that the yanks have a better system.

In the meantime take a number and wait 6 hours for the walk in clinic staff to push you through like a widget, without any information regarding your prior health history or records.

Its also a full one to one correspondence between people I know who have had an operation in a canadian hospital and who have had to go back because of cross infections.

So my point is you can't just say "hooray! we're all insured and morally upright" and walk away from the problem, the way socialized medicine supporters would have you believe, and want you to continue to believe as they get more and more dehumanizing, lazy, and bloated.

Also, regarding smoking. France, the culture of existentialism and brooding cafes, banned smoking in public places and in doors because they don't want to pay for the health problems. And you're going to see more and more of that happening, as health insurance gets more and more centralized and government administered, people's behaviors are going to be more and more dictated by laws.