In Australia we have had quality public, universal healthcare for AGES.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicare_(Australia)#Funding_and_legal_framework

It only costs 1.5% of income tax, Only 1.5%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AND If you get private health coverage, YOU DONT HAVE TO PAY ANY TAXES TOWARDS IT. So its no cost to you at all.

So everybody wins!!! And no poor person has to die or go bankrupt due to healthcare costs.

Seriously, I cant believe how much of a better system it is. Everybody is happy.
I cant believe Im seeing comments that the Australian public healthcare system is terrible.

My mother got a cancerous stomach tumour last year, she only had to wait two days to get in to get treated, the hospital was beautiful, modern, LCD’s TV’s in every room. She had her own room.

http://static.worldarchitecturenews.com/news_images/11541_3_04%20Royal%20Womens%20Hospital.jpg
http://static.worldarchitecturenews.com/news_images/11541_2_03a%20Royal%20Womens%20Hospital.jpg
It was in that hospital (above)
France best, US worst in preventable death ranking
Tue Jan 8, 2008 12:15am ESTBy Will Dunham

WASHINGTON, Jan 8 (Reuters) – France, Japan and Australia rated best and the United States worst in new rankings focusing on preventable deaths due to treatable conditions in 19 leading industrialized nations, researchers said on Tuesday.

If the U.S. health care system performed as well as those of those top three countries, there would be 101,000 fewer deaths in the United States per year, according to researchers writing in the journal Health Affairs.

Researchers Ellen Nolte and Martin McKee of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine tracked deaths that they deemed could have been prevented by access to timely and effective health care, and ranked nations on how they did.

They called such deaths an important way to gauge the performance of a country’s health care system.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN07651650

Technorati Tags: effective health care, health care system, healthcare costs, healthcare system, journal health affairs, legal framework, london school of hygiene, london school of hygiene and tropical medicine, martin mckee, medicare australia, nolte, poor person, preventable deaths, private health coverage, public healthcare, quality public, reuters france, s tv, universal healthcare, wikipedia

then what’s the problem with starting up a gov’t funded alternative?

1.) People argue of dooms day scenarios regarding waiting lists to get teeth pulled, but never take into account all of the people who wait until the last minute to get medical treatment b/c they have no health insurance. THESE PEOPLE WHO WAIT ARE DRIVING UP THE COSTS of healthcare b/c by seeking no preventative care, they increase the amount of expensive surgeries and extended stays at hospitals. As it stands, Americans are already paying for that now.

2.) The people that state that the US can’t afford gov’t funded healthcare due to sky high taxes overlook the fact that healthcare costs are the leading cause of bankruptcy today among people that HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE.

3.) The people that state that if the gov’t provides healthcare, it will eventually have within it’s ability control to manage every aspect of our lives have obviously never heard of the military, CIA, FBI, NSA, Homeland Security, Federal Reserve, Treasury and Coast Guard, which at any point can control every aspect of our lives today.

What’s wrong with a gov’t funded alternative?

Technorati Tags: cia, cia fbi, coast guard, dooms day, extended stays, fbi, federal reserve, health insurance, healthcare costs, homeland security, hospitals, last minute, leading cause of bankruptcy, medical treatment, nsa, preventative care, scenarios, surgeries, treasury, waiting lists