If it wouldn't cut into my audio habit (i.e. cut my wages) too much, then I'm all for universal health care. As a psychiatrist, so much of my day (and even more of my nurse's day) is spent haggling with pain-in-the-ass insurance companies that one payer (the gub-ment) with one set of rules sounds really good to me. Every insurance company does things its own way, and each one has an endless variety of policies that vary in their details.
With managed care/HMOs, I have to write off about 35% of my charges because they will only pay me what they want to. Makes me want to only pay them a like percentage of my health insurance premium every month.
The U.S. already has some small systems of universal health care, such as the Indian Health Service and the VA (Veterans Affairs) health system. When I trained at the VA, they already had electronic medical records, ahead of the curve, and the hospitals were just as efficient as the others in town.
However, I just don't see how we are ever going to get any real reform on health care. I foresee more of the same old Band Aids being applied, when the "patient" really needs a transplant. Or, in another depressing analogy, effecting any kind of system overhaul would be like trying to change a flat tire while you are still doing 55 mph.
To get real change, we're going to have to have a heck of a plan as well as leaders that can get it into law despite the outcry of various providers, clinics, insurance companies, and Big Pharma. I'm not holding my breath.
