"We still have the best health care in the world and that's a fact." Actually not a fact, we are well behind in many categories including infant mortality and adjusted life expectancy, ranking in the forties on each. Couple that with the fact that we spend more per capita than any other country in the world for those mediacore results as measured by internationally accepted standards and the insult worsens. It is about outcomes, not how many doc-the boxes or MRI machines we have. Your part of the healthcare system might not be grinding to a halt but it certainly is for millions. I see them in the e.r. because they cant afford the office visits and the medicines and the preventive care so they wait until they have the heart attack, stroke, or advanced cancer and have to be seen on an emergent basis to get care.
"Name one thing the government does well? Except spend money... In fact most things they totally screw up. The reason why our health care has been in decline is BECAUSE of the government, yet you still seek them out for the fix." Our healthcare is in decline for a number of reasons, some of which you address but make no mistake, one of the outstanding reasons we are in decline is the HMO's PPO's, every other O, and the greed that drives not only rationing of care but the out of control liability and lottery system. Obscene levels of profits and bonuses while procedures, medicines and hospital stays are routinely denied to maintain those profits in the norm now. Dropping thiose that have long held insurance as soon as they get HIV or cancer is the norm now. The visit you use as an example...from a mid level practitioner in most cases, is the begining, next comes the cost of the medicines, therapy, and/or procedures that have to be be done to complete the visit. Now you are easily up into the hundreds.
"The key is competition and TORT reform. Punish the lawyers, not our private health care system. The government talks about spending billions on modernizing electronic patient records (EMR) Well guess what? We have already been doing that in the private sector with no government help and we are far beyond them in that technology. Are we there yet? No, but we are getting there very quickly." I agree wholeheartedly with the idea of tort rform though I doubt it will occur in a meaningful way beacause the same legal lobby that rapes the system every day is the same one making the laws as they relate to medicine.. Where else can people make easy money with frivolous claims and essentially legaized extortion? The private sectors EMR?? Rudimentry at best. There is no gold standard, no standardization of systems so that they can communicate, and the notes and information generated by the cookbook templates is only good for maximizing billing potential at this point by making sure all the boxes are checked. Physicians dread getting the records from other offices for these reasons. As an aside, most people recognize that the VA of all places has probably one of the more useful and advanced systems as shown by improvements in patient outcomes.
"What does Obama want to do? Tax the crap out of the very companies that have already been moving forward in these areas of health care technology. If the government steps in we'll see nothing but lower standards, rationed care and a shortage of medical professionals." We have had low standards, rationed care, and a dramatic shortage of medical professionals for a while now that is getting precipitously worse. NO ONE wants to go into primary care anymore, a cursory examination of statistics for those entering residencies associated with primary care shows steady declines and projected shortages which, while not receiving the bulk of press right now are going to be catastrophic. I know, I live and work within the system every day.
"Talk to someone that lives with socialized medicine and ask them how long they have to wait for an MRI." The old "how long does it take to get (fill in the blank)" just doesn't address the issue anymore, its a tired argument based in fear of not getting what we feel we need right this minute. For every one of those people there is at least one other in the system that are well satisfied with their care as evidenced by those from Canada (for instance) that post on this board.
This is not some BS political argument about "the savior", it is about honestly recognizing the severe problems we as a nation have in healthcare and being willing to address them, and that will mean changing our perceptions about what we deliver, how we do it, and what is appropriate to deliver.