The answer is no

Dear GROSENF1, Thank you for reminding me of the horrendous relativity of "facts" and fuzzy figures in this health care debate. You are sorely misled if you think medicare, medicaid and the VA system are truly socialized medicine. They are not and if they were, I wouldn't be praising them if I were you.
I have been insured by medicare for twenty years and have found it sorely lacking. Many years ago, as a young divorced mother going to college with two kids at home, I was enrolled in medicaid for two and a half years. It was a sad excuse for medical coverage with the added burden of humiliation. I have, however, never been a veteran...so I can't tell you about that one, but I know many veterans, nurses and doctors who can bear witness to how pitifully funded and understaffed those facilities are. I don't know what world you live in but if you and people like you don't get real, we're all going to be swept into the morass of socialized control from which we may never recover and lose our freedoms of choice forever.

I don't understand Sue or the rest of the commentators who say that other nations have socialized medicine and we don't. What do you call Medicaid, Medicare, the VA system, etc. The West European nations you describe fund their systems via private insurance. These companies pay private hospitals who employ private doctors. All of these private entities compete with each other in the market albeit with regulation. These governments make sure that a basic plan is provided to all its citizens in a not-for-profit manner. By doing so, the companies need not pay for the middlemen who dominate our system looking for ways to deny your coverage if you get really sick. In fact their adminstrative costs are sometimes 1/10th of what we pay...think of that. 15-20 cents of every dollar your pay toward for-profit private insurance in this country goes to middlemen who try to find ways to deny your coverage. Meanwhile, medicaid and medicare have to pick up the disasters that our private system creates by not paying for preventative care. That's an example of socialized medicine in our country at its finest.

About the only example of fully socialized medicine is the system in Britain were the government employs the doctors and funds them completely. I don't agree with it nevertheless the results are much better in certain areas such as cost control, preventative medicine, among others. Let's not forget that about 45 million uninsured citizens exist in our country right now and around 22,000 will die this year from diseases with preventable treatments if only they had access to our system before they are entitled to it under law (when they end up in the emergency room dying and we end up paying the bill anyways). Another joy of our socialized medical system. Get your facts straight!!

TonieB, Good to hear from you. I agree with all you said. I really don't understand those individuals who are so anxious to fix our health care system they are willing to make it worse. This President doesn't have a clue and is, I suspect, just committed to fulfilling some promises he made before he was elected. We want substance not this polluted, immoral and degraded stew he keeps adding to. This slop should be thrown out as we start over. Sue

Ms Wood:
I applaude you once again ! th analogy of an unwanted suitor is so spot on ! In fact I already feel as if I have been violated by the unwanted attentions of this "so called" president. With all the other unwanted things he has added to our already hurting nation, he is so insistant that this horrible excuse for health care pass that he doesn't seem to care who it is going to hurt or how much it is going to cost. If it passes our country will go downhill and we will certainly become not a world power but just another broken down country that has been taken down by greedy politicians.
Cadam72, wow ! Yes we all want these kinds of things but have you looked around and thought about what it is going to cost us ? I would love to not have to pay the thousands of dollars I owe to the hospital for my recent surgery and my husbands heart surgery last year. But that is over and done, I thank God we had insurance and that it was mostly paid for. But if this man has his way, I will no longer have what I have ! I have a chronic illness that is not going to get any better without God's intervention. I am going to need more and more medical attention. I cannot afford to have to wait 6 months to see a Dr. I also have a special needs grandson. He will just be written off as unusable. I have elder brothers and a sister who also needs a lot of medical attention. Are they a waste because they are 70 and 68 ? Because that is what these people are trying to tell us. Get a grip and open you mind to what is going on.
Sue keep on posting Ma'am. Not only because I am of the same opnion, but because you obviously have something that is totally lacking in the White House these days.....COMMON SENSE !!

Dear Uncomfortable truths, Thanks for chiming in. With so much shocking and indeed, frightening examples in socialist countries, why aren't more of our fellow citizens afraid? They remind me of a small child trading a valued family heirloom for a cheap toy. They are so enthralled with the "give me" nature of this health care reform that it frightens me.
Thomas Jefferson said, "Never spend money before you have it. Take care of your change; dollars will take care of themselves. Never buy anything you don't want because it's cheap. When annoyed count 10, before you speak; if very annoyed, count 100." I'm counting to 100 an awful lot these days. We have to reclaim our own country before it is lost forever. Ronald Reagan said socialism would enter through health care and he was right. I can hear it knocking at the door. No, is still my answer. Sue

Cadam, So? Hate filled is it? I just see my position as an honest one based on my intense love of country. I guess we live in different America's and that's kind of frightening. When you've been in medicine as long as I have you've just about seen it all. Of course, we need health care reform but we need it done correctly by those who know what they're doing. This is not a time for one bill fits all when the framers of said bill don't even know what they're speaking about. No, is my answer and the answer of most of my fellow citizens. Guess there's a reason there are more doctors in Congress who are Republicans than Democrats. Wish someone would listen to them instead of being driven by political ambition alone with little substance. I fear for our loss of freedom under this misguided President. Sue

cadam72: An incredibly tone-deaf response. Your poll numbers are from questions divorced from the central driving factor of COST! When Americans have been offered a clear choice, including the cost of the cure being worse than the disease, polling runs more than 2-1 AGAINST the fustercluck that is Obamacare! Government healthcare has nearly completely eliminated innovation in the socialist nations (Yes, young one, that includes W. Euros & Canada in the post-war period) that have implemented same. This De-Evolution in health care in these nations has included rationing, warehousing of the ill in underfunded wards, and cost-benefit analyses of an individual's "contribution to society". Under that standard, ask yourself whether you, your friends or your family members will qualify for care in the next decade when ten years of taxes will have to pay for ten years of coverage, rather than the half-decade of coverage paid for by a full decade's taxes while the anti-American President reigns.

But really, keep reading those 'cooked' polls . . . if self-delusion is your middle name!

Wow, a lot of hate there. How about the American public that want reduced waste in insurance, that want portable insurance that is not driven by employer, that want a single payor where we ares supportive of one another, or want a system that is driven by prevention, not procedures that are 5-10 times more expensive. Perhaps budget hawks would like the idea of reducing overhead from 30% per helath plan to 3-5% as in medicare? Sue Wood, you are devout in your ideas, but YOU have not litened to america! Go back, re-write the article and include facts, not emotions! Even if you facts differ from mine, don't just write a diatribe. The WP should offer better.