[quote=livinincali][quote]
Nobody is saying universal (single payer) systems are without their faults, but no one is denied health care. Budgets are trimmed, waste is slashed, and taxes go up, but health care still remains a fundamental right. Under a free market system, you are at the mercy of a corporation. You have no guarantees so it is the policy holders who get pushed out of the system.
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In some cases you are denied health care in single payer system. See most elective surgeries in single payer countries. You could wait years to get a hip replacement and could die before received one. I suppose we can say you were in the queue so you weren’t denied but effectively you were. You didn’t get the surgery you wanted/needed for an improved quality of life before your life ended. The same is true under a capitalistic system if you don’t have the money for a hip replacement you don’t get one either.

Single payer is essentially a price control system. Since there is only one payer of services, the single payer sets the price for each service. You could implement price controls without single payer. We all know what tends to happen in price controlled systems. There usually ends up being shortages because the price is artificially lowered.[/quote]
In some cases, yes the system gets over-loaded and long waits are not unknown. As I said, national health care is not perfect. But the comparison is meaningless when you have 48 million without insurance. That is almost the whole population of single-payer country. Private healthcare is also the single biggest cause of personal bankruptcy. So it’s pretty clear where the biggest shortages are. Look, you can defend private health care, and berate public health care all you want, but the facts speak volumes. It is your choice whether to accept or reject them. I personally don’t care which system prevails as long as it provides a guarantee of affordable health care in times of need. That is what it is all about. Not who has the biggest dick.