FLEMTP,
Thank you for your counter argument. The only problem with it is you are simply re-stating the old republican playbook.
First of all canadians are very happy with their healthcare system. This standard statement of pointing to the canadian system as an example of how bad "socialized medicine" is bogus. See the article below:
http://new-canadian.blogspot.com/2009/07/shocking-poll-canadians-happy-with.html
Secondly, you indicate that salaries will be reduced. This is pure speculation on your part. You have no idea what will happen with salaries. You are simply stating your opinion as a fear tactic. Lets again look at some factual information. Here are what paramedics are making in the UK.
http://www.prospects.ac.uk/p/types_of_job/paramedic_salary.jsp
Roughly they are making 30-50 thousand per year with better benefits than us. So certainly not 40% less than what we are making now.
Your third ascertion is that 55% oppose Obamacare. This statistic may actually be correct. Because if you listen to either side of the argument through the media you are inclined to just vote party lines. Which the country is politically split right down the middle right now. Secondly, many who originally were in favor of the early proposals were for the bill and after changes have decided to now oppose it. Unfortunately the bill has been so compromised many have just decided to vote against it.
And finally you believe that the advanced practice paramedic will still evolve in our system of healthcare. Well I have to tell you. When I first became a paramedic back in 1990, we would frequently talk about this subject and we would often point to the future when PA's would be riding the ambulances so that we could make emergency ambulance efficient so we could run real emergencies. Well that day is still coming. Again this day will never come in our current system of transport re-imbursement.
ok.. I used to work in detroit.. which shares a very large and very active border with Windsor, Ontario. If the canadian healthcare system is so great.. then why are people in Canada having STEMI's, then signing out AMA from the ER's in canada, and driving across the border into detroit, and calling 911 to get treatment? Oh.. wait.. its because they dont have immediate access to the same type of emergency treatments we do here. They have literally been told by their doctors that they will be put on a waiting list for their "emergency" angioplasty.
Cancer patients come to the US in droves because they know they'll die before they get the treatment they need in Canada, if at all.
I mean even the former Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa avoided his country's own "free" health care and sought treatment in Cleavland for his cancer!
If a small minority of people want socialized medicine here so bad.. why not pack up and move to Canada, or England or one of the other countries that offer it? I mean, even you admitted that over half of americans are opposed to Obamacare, why are democrats willing to ignore what people want to further their own socialist agenda?
As far as the salaries being government controlled, it IS only a matter of time if this bill is passed. One of the BIG points of Obamacare is cost control. They have already started by decreasing medicare and medicaid payouts... Hell Walgreens wont even take new medicaid patients because of the reduced payouts. If a prescription costs 100 dollars, and medicaid will only give you 75 dollars, and not let you bill the patient for the remaining 25 bucks, then WHY would you want to continue to lose money and accept those patients? Decreasing reimbursement is the FIRST step.. controlling the cost of medical supplies is the second.. and then when costs are still sky high, the governement WILL start mandating how much people in medical professions are "allowed" to make. They may not do it with a flat out mandate, but if they decide that a paramedic is not supposed to make more than 40k a year, they will just impose ungodly high income taxes on incomes over 40k a year, calling it a "salary adjustment" tax. It IS a matter of time before that happens, and that is NOT speculation, it is looking at what democrats do on a historical basis and applying it in this situation!
Plain and simple, our government cannot even run the post office efficiently.... let alone health care. You want the perfect example? Talk to anyone that's a veteran and relies on the VA health system for medical care. Red tape, many treatments denied, and people not getting the healthcare they need.
Yeah, thats exactly what I want.
Folks, this has nothing to do with a "republican playbook" it has to do with what the majority of the American people want... and it has to do with a select few people with an overwhelming sense of entitlement want to take from those who worked hard.
Oh and btw.. You gave me a story that tells how happy Canadians are with their health care?
Well here is one with the exact opposite view.
Socialized Medicine Leaves a Bad Taste in Patients' Mouths
Im sorry, but if you want health insurance, you are not entitled to it just by living here. You must get off your butt, and work hard like everyone else here. If an immigrant can come here with nothing, and work hard for what they have, so can you. If I can work hard for everything I have, so can you.
America is no longer the "land of opportunity" its quickly becoming the land of " come here, and complain because you dont have anything. Your government will take it from those who earned it and give it to those who didn't"
Social security and welfare and free health care is NOT what the founding fathers wanted for this country. It says NO WHERE in the constitution that it is the government's job to give you money when you have none. It IS the governments job to protect our nation from all enemies, foreign and domestic, not to play Robin Hood.
