When will the USA offer free healthcare to all Americans?

[The_Lord_Of_The_Rings_Online]

I wish we can have the same health care as the Aussie and Canadians do. Anyone agree? And what year do you think the USA will start allowing Free Health Care? I believe the government should cover all costs, including presciption medications which are really, really expensive.

[Skooz]

Yeah, I can't wait to be put on year long waiting lists for basic healthcare, be unable to choose my doctor, be put on waiting lists for surgery, and have the vital healthcare for my family subject to the whims of some overbearing government bureaucracy.

There is a reason Canadians cross the border to see US doctors.

[Skooz]

Look at Australia and Canada for a minute. It can take up to a year to see a specialist for certain things. This is because of the bureucracy of their socialized healthcare. While our healthcare is more expensive, I can see a specialist in a matter of days instead. If people worked instead of depending on the government to keep giving them handouts like welfare and free healthcare, they could get decent insurance and this would be a moot point.

[Kaustaub]

What you are asking is not free but socialized medicine. Someone has to pay for the Dr.s and nurses and all the equipment.
So Everyone wil be paying ie.. more taxes.
I'm not sure in the US it will ever happen. Even in most countries with socialized medicine what you can have done for free is limited and anything beyond that you pay for yourself or in many cases you go to the US where the procedure is available. Non socialized medicine has it's upside! Many things simply are not done in socialized medicine because they are too expensive. Like Open-hearts and transplants on people over 60. Hundreds of these are done weekly in the US on older individuals fit for it and not fit for it.
Emergency medicine and proactive care will more than likely be socialized in the near future in the US but it will be limited care. It simply is to difficult to manage otherwise.
Barrack Obama had a decent start in his plan of reaching that point.
That might be in the next 5 years.

[SweetPea]

Really? You think waiting 3-4 months to get an MRI is acceptable? Where do you get free from? Your taxes will increase dramatically to pay for this um....free stuff as you like to refer to it. Try an additional 30%, and it will go up every year as does funding for ALL government run programs. People need to pull their heads out on this issue.

[RP McMurphy]

I agree 100%, but we shouldn't stop there. Free housing, free gasoline, free whatever. It's all good.

[Razr]

No such thing as free someone has to pay for it!

[xsesivelyso2]

Have you seen how well our government does any thing? do you really want congress calling the shots when it comes to health care? socialized medicine while it may improve the quantity of care will never replace the quality of care inspired by the free market system. If you want a status quo for every one then you want a socialist society and we have all seen how well that works out for those communities, personally I think a social "supplies bank " set up by the individual states to reduce the cost of medical supplies,and leaving the individuality of the free market system in place for Doctors would best suit us, my opinion of course. But pilot programs need to be set up in varying places across the nation to see what works best for a society as large as ours.

[Toddles45342]

really? because i don't know about you, but when my dr. tells me theres possibly something wrong and i need an MRI, I would want to get that right away, not waiting 3 months and possibly dying from whatever was wrong in the first place. and did you know that in order to be able to do universal healthcare, canadians pay anywhere from 15.5%-48-25% tax? i pay 6% and my work provides me with the ability to get insurance at a reaonable rate. oh, and i can call my dr and get in next day, same day in some cases. so yeah, if theres a way to do it and still get the medical attention i have come to know, then go for it. Otherwise, all you people that dont have insurance, get a job.