there will never be a perfect system; ours is pretty darn good. Nationalized healthcare is not the answer.

There needs to be reform of the insurance industry.

Start with tort reform.

My answer is not to get very sick. It's about the only thing I can realistically hope for.

Vote for canidates that support a national healthcare plan. No American should die because some HMO penny-pincher deny's them treatment.

Tell them to get a better education, which will lead to a better job, which will lead to better benefits…..

The need for profit must be eliminated from the current system to make it work.

So insurance companies must become either privately owned or non-profit entities.

Either way, Wall Street needs to be removed from the mix.

there is no national health care crisis. it is a myth.

1.) Get rid of the idiotic law forcing hospitals to treat everyone, regardless of their ability to pay. That's like forcing McDonalds to give food to people that can't afford it. It's a bad idea and raises the prices for the rest of us.

2.) Get rid of the concept of punitive damages lawsuits. They don't punish anybody, they just raise the cost of insurance, which raises prices.

What is wrong is that you believe the hype from the left wing liberal loonies in government and in the main stream media. The US has the best health care service. What is at issue is how to pay for the service one receives.
The 45 million uninsured is a myth perpetrated by the US government. If a person does not have insurance for one day, he is counted as uninsured. That accounts for about 22 million. There are millions of citizens eligible for benefits who don't apply for them. The truly rich, worth over 2 million, don't need to buy health insurance. They can afford to pay cash for health care. There are millions of young people who work, have decent wages and don't want to buy insurance because they don't think they need it.
The actual number of people who want to buy health insurance and who truly cannot afford it might by 7 or 8 million. My source is Roger Hedgecock, radio talk show host from San Diego.
My personal rule of thumb: the US government does not do any thing right. It would screw up the health care service we have.

Small business Health Plans that are actually affordable.

What crisis. Sure rates are going up but Ive never had a problem with not having coverage my whole adult life. I for one dont want to be footing the bill as a taxpayer because there are people in this country that cant figure out how to make a living in this Great country of ours. I never went to college and barely graduated high school. Every thing I have I worked for. Im sick of people crying about how tough times are. Maybe people should study the great depression or move to China if they want to complain.

Better competition in both the healthcare and insurance areas, better openness/ratings of doctors/healthcare providers (for example: in a survey of doctor X's patients the doctor was rated be below average on general communication, scored bad on bedside manner, but rated excellent on curative treatment).

What is wrong is that we have a hybrid system taking the worst of all possible systems. We also have juries who award moronic amounts to 'victims. We have lawyers like John Edwards who work the system to make millions and take billions of dollars out of the economy.

What to do:
1. Reform the legal system eliminating ridiculous awards.
Eliminate legal awards and millions of dollars currently wasted will be re-channeled into useful ways.
2. Reform the medical system where doctors can be rated for skill and mistakes. Eliminating bad doctors will bring the over all skill level up.
3. Move to a free market system and get the government completely out of the payment side of the medical system. No government payments will be paid to any company or to any person. There will continue to be controlling entries like the Disease Control Center. But controls of who pays what and what a health care company can charge is completely market driven.

The medical community will re-align their costs because they will go out of business if they try to over charge their patients.

Right now there is no way for consumers to "rate" their health or other insurance.

You can see new illnesses pop onto your TV screen , because until there is a drug to treat it, the disease is all in your head. This is especially true of women's medicine. Look at the restless legs circumstances.

Many of today's illnesses can be prevented or lessened through diet, exercise and other lifestyle changes. In our system, we act submissive to medical authorities and let go of control of our own health.

I always thought it was bizarre that our friends, who had a super insurance policy, took their kids to the ER or doctor for every little thing. Since we had to pay our own money, our kids only went when they absolutely needed to. Our children had one or two treatments of antibiotics each ever, the friends' kids were on them all the time.
Overuse of drugs causes a lifetime of
problems.

If we had a reasonable choice in insurance
coverage the cost of insurance ought to be be more reasonable too. I think that if we all invest in insurance companies stock, we would be able to afford what medical care we need very quickly.

Who decided that healthcare, medication in particular is the responsibility of the govenment? We are not a tribe with a witch doctor to take care of our sick. Patients who work and have insurance do not buy expensive medication because they cannot afford it. People on medicaid get all of the expensive stuff free, yet they are not compliant and waste it.

What happened to personal responsibility? There are not that many life saving medications out there. If you are sick enough for a life saving med, go to the hospital, they do not refuse you on ability to pay. And if it is a lifesaving medication, isn't it worth everything you have? It's your life. Otherwise, if a med is too expensive, don't buy it. What would you have done 50 years ago when that drug didn't exist? Sure we live longer with these long term therapy drugs, but are they quality years, and what is the financial cost. Maybe each person should analyze that for themselves and not be a mindless robot feeling they have to take any med thrown at them.

Nationalize healthcare and you wont have to worry about affording drugs, but there won't be any new ones either.

I'm not sure that letting the government run anything other than their mouths is a good thing. They can't even get that right!!! Give me an example of anything the government has done that turned out great! You trust a group of people voting themselves a raise every year AND they won't listen to what we the people want?! What did they do to deserve a raise?! If anyone deserves a raise it is the military!
-Stop treating everyone who darkens a hospital doorstep.
-Stop frivolous lawsuits. They only help raise costs.
-Need health insurance, join the military. You get health care, dental care, a steady job/paycheck AND you can go to school.

Take the insurance company's out of the Dr's office and let the one who went to college for yrs call the orders not a person who probably made it through high school and is only trying to cover his @$$ and keep his minimum wage job.