We can't afford it. Some people like Michael Moore say that we should just divert funding for the war toward Socialized Medicine, but the fact of the matter is is that we can't afford the war either. We are already borrowing money to finance a lot of the dumb programs already in place. Government spending is out of control, and we need to exercise budget restraint now, not consider new areas to increase spending.
Well, #88, wouldn't it be nice if Americans suddenly stopped demonizing socialized medicine (or at least stop tolerating how their media and leaders demonize it) and actually expressed interest in the broad quality of Human life for once? By "broad quality" I mean "not just defined by money".
There must be some sort of disconnect in our conversation since I have no doubt about the value of Human life as you repeatly point out. But it's not up to me. My political votes are worthless since all political choices are narrowed down to two anti-socialized-medicine candidates. My monetary votes are also and already corrupted. There are no "socialized medicine" hospitals that I could join, to underraise the revolution.
The environment of monetary and political force here is 99.9% monopolized by the Hypercapitalists who have big plans for the United States, but nowhere in those plans is there socialized medicine. I don't know why you're pretending that that's not only a force to be reckoned with, but it's the ONLY FORCE in American socio-economics today.
Even worse, these Big Plans involve FURTHER privatization of American healthcare. Note well from the Massachusetts model that they're doing the usual propaganda and distraction technique of making it look like they're implementing socialized medicine, but they're really only turning more and more of our wealth to the insurance companies (and other healthcare system elements) who own the politicians involved.
You continue to harp on what's going on in Europe, but that doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how some vagrant is treated in Britain after an auto accident. It doesn't matter if some Swiss citizen feels a pain in his abdomen, he goes to the local hospital immediately, finds he has an early-stage cancer node, and he's successfully treated within 30 days. NONE OF THAT MATTERS ... since in America, their lives are nothing compared to the profits to be had in the current system of healthcare. In America, it continues to be the truth that the vagrant is patched up and then turned back to the streets as soon as some profit-minded hospital administrator contrives some new excuse to do so. In America, the abdomen-pain citizen does nothing since he can't afford to miss work for a little pain, or he can't afford to go to a clinic due to the fees; hence, his cancer worsens until it becomes obvious there's a real problem, and by that time the cancer is late-stage and he just dies anyway regardless of treatment.
#88, I'm only REPORTING the bad news -- I didn't make the news, I didn't create the circumstances of profits-over-lives, and I certainly don't support them. But other than spend my time shooting insurance executives (which is an unworkable irony since I value Human life), what do you really expect me to do? Shall I pull a $100B healthcare system out of my ass? Shall I pull a floating nation out of my ass so I can finally enact sensible and Humanistic laws in that new society? I don't have anything like those in my ass!
Well, how about emigrating? Yes, that's what I'm personally planning on doing, for the long term. It'll be very tough, but I plan on dying a SWISS citizen, not an American one. (Becoming a Canadian is also an option, but Canucks obscenely don't like guns, and that's a huge problem for me.)
P.S. You should pay strict attention to #89's comment since THAT sentiment is a significant factor in American life. Lots of Whites don't want to pay for anything for Blacks since "nigger" is always just a breath away on their thin lips. Again, I don't make that news; I'm just reporting it. Learn the difference, willya?