Do you think we will ever have a free national heath care plan in America? Would it be good for the economy?

Excellent question, I am going to answer your second question first. Yes it would be good for the economy and here is why. The C.E.O. of G.M. has said that for every new car sold $1500 of the price goes into insuring its employee's and retiree's. I would assume that this is true in many industry's that a portion of the cost of doing business is dedicated to health care. We are in a competition on a world wide basis and it is hard to compete with country's that have U.H.C., that is one of the reasons that many company's are moving over sea's and to Mexico.
Now for your first question, national health care is not free, we pay for it through our taxes, but what most people are not considering is that we already pay for it. We pay through lost wages because our benefit package is part of our wages. I think that there is way to much misinformation passed around to get U.H.C at this time but through education I think at some time in the future we will have it in this country. Health care has become a big problem with 47 million people that do not have access to affordable health care. .

I sure hope not. I can barely afford to support myself right now as it is. I ant imagine my taxes skyrocketing to support everyone else.

First of all NOTHING is free...it is paid for with taxes...do you think Doctors would work for free? I hope not...I pay for my families health care...so should everyone else...

nothing is ever free, you'll pay for it one way or another. if you don't pay for the services in fees, you'll pay for them in taxes, and that will be far more expensive in the long run

i doubt you ever will but then you would end up with all the taxes we get in Britain as well .which would not be so nice *

I doubt it. We really should though because health care and health insurance are killing people. If people thin their taxes would be too high if we had national health care think about to having to pay all the damn health insurance! Imagine how much less your bills would be even with the added taxes. It would also help because there wouldn't need to be as much help from the government for other programs. Nearly every civilized country on the planet provides health care so why don't we? It's outrageous that in this day and age there are so many people who can' t afford to take care of themselves or their children. How can we think we're a great country if that's true?

Honey, nothing is free. Where do you think the funds would come from for "national healthcare". Any ideas?

From your and my pockets. Extremely high taxes that our salaries will not keep up with. Then, the Dems wet dream, we'll all be dependent on the government for everything!!!!

Nothing is free. It would be paid for by your taxes, which would have to increase by the same amount as the insurance you WERE paying.

Then, the taxes would have to increase to pay for the extra level of government that would be needed to manage that free health care system.

Then your health decisions would be made by the people with the same commitment to customer service as can be found at your local DMV.

Oh, and if you want to see how US government run health care would be, just look at Walter Reed.

God I hope not.

Please describe exactly what you mean by free? Do you think all of the services, people, product and materials and buildings will be donated to us? When you say free, you are walking around with a sign on your forward that says "Stupid"

If you mean do I want government healthcare, hell NO, I would not trust the government with anything more meaningful than garbage pickup much less making decisions for me about my healthcare.

Look I am an adult, hope you are as well, I can make my own decisions and would hope you can as well. I do not want the government to make any decisions for me, DO YOU?

BTW, socialistic medical care provides substandard care at a much higher cost than a free market approach. Economics 101

It seems to be going that way. Most politicians, even conservatives like Bush have committed to expand health care spending in the long term. Bear in mind that most company health care schemes are ALREADY subsidized by government by up to 50%. Expanding that subsidy to the minority of people who have no health insurance would only be a minor step anyhow.

Would it be good for the economy? Hard to say. You could compare the US to the UK, where health care is nationalised.
The UK spends 8% of its GPD on health care, while the US spends 15%. In other words , the average US citizen spends TWICE as high a proportion of their pre-tax income on health insurance. But doesn;t that mean service in the US is better?
Not necessarily.

The US offers the best healthcare in the world, for those who can afford it. In the UK, by contrast, service can often be mediocre (though it's adequate most of the time). However, most US workers are on managed schemes, meaning that their insurance only pays for a limited choice of (often mediocre) treatments. The AVERAGE worker in the US probably does not receive better quality of cover than the AVERAGE worker in the UK. Yet he pays more than twice as much. Studies by the WHO seem to confirm this. Americans are also less healthy than Brits, despite the higher spending.

So heath care in the UK seems to be better value for money than in the US. I think that part of the reason for that is that administration costs are lower in the UK and that doctor's wages are artificially low. Since the government has a near-monopoly on health care, most doctors have little choice but to work for the government, where they earn less than half as much as in the private sector. But since medicine is a glamorous career, it still attracts plenty of talented people despite the low wages, and the system just about manages to scrape by.

What works in the UK might not work in the US though. Nationalised health care was introduced in the 1950s, when most people were experiencing real hardship. This is no longer the case, and certainly not in the US. I think it's more likely that we will see compulsory private insurace rather than a true national health care system.

FREE? Yes, if we can get galactic aliens to voluntarily pay for our health care, let's do it! That would indeed be a fantastic boost for our economy.

No. The government does not have money. They simply take money from those of us who work. We do not need socialized medicine.

We all get old. So we all need health care sooner or later. Some sooner! The first 100 billion dollar spent on Iraq war could have paid for the best national health care in the world! People wouldn't have to work for a employer. They could work for them self and hire others if need be. The jobs and tax revenue from this would be off the scales. They would be really free then. Most employers don't give employees pensions only 401ks. But big business makes sure that you stay working for them. I recently found out that my health care insurance company pays about 450.00 (to the Surgeons) for any operation. My health care provider is one of the biggest in the country! Well that's probably why me and my wife only get pain pills instead of the needed operations! Political decisions should be to benefit the people not big business Friends! If it doesn't benefit the people then its the wrong decision!

Nothing is free...as previous answerers have stated. My take on this is: I would much rather see an increase in my taxes (it will be minimal for each individual because to fund the bulk of a national health care plan, the lion's share of the taxes will have to fall on large corporations...use your heads, people!) and see all our citizens cared for than to see uninsured and underinsured people use the highly expensive Emergency Room as primary care.