I think what your not understanding Sheep is the fact that the American people as a whole, are getting ripped off !! 16 % of the G.D.P. goes to healthcare... and 50 million Americans aren't covered.

Your paying for caviar and eating catfood... Where is the money going ?

Free country and 50 million people have the FREEDOM to choose not to have or EARN healthcare.

Here is the problem. Ive never seen a socialized government program make things better. I see so many problems with "hillarycare" that its a joke.
We may not have a perfect healthcare system, but Im very happy with it.
If someone can convince me that changing the way we do healthcare wont raise my taxes or lesson my great quality of my healthcare one bit, I would listen to it at least. But no politician proposing healthcare changes has been able to even come close to that. In fact the democrat congress is trying to pass a massive health care spending bill right now. Great that Bush will veto it.
Again, I will NOT budge one bit off my opinion on this. Every proposal ive seen on healthcare from any politician pretty much equates to lowering the quality of the healthcare I provide for me and my family so some person who wont EARN healthcare can have a little more free crap handed to him. THAT IS JUST NOT ACCEPTABLE TO ME.

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. -Thomas Jefferson

The measure of a country's greatness should be based on how well it cares for its most vulnerable populations - Mahatma Gandhi

Thomas Jefferson is a American. So I tend to side with him.
But since you brought it up.
Americans as a whole are most charitable. And we will always seem to find the compassion and the money to help those TRULLY in need.
But what we have today it seems, is a ever growing group that "work" the system, and never hit a lick in their lives. They feed from the trough of others labor. Their demands from the government (taxpayers) are ever increasing. But this is more a societal problem I believe.
I have traveled Eastern Europe some, to some of the former Communist countries. I have seen their healthcare system up close. "Socialized medicine." A friends father needed surgery on a arterial blockage in his leg. Simple, but brutal procedure compared to western standards, but most effective (99%.) There to receive the surgery, one must "pay upfront" for the supplies, medicines, and instruments necessary to do the surgery. The cost of this outdated surgery in the USA would be around $40,000 today. The cost there was $483.96. ( I still have the receipt) (If you wish I could post a photo of the typical ward room) Recovery time in the hospital was 2 weeks, another 2 weeks of physical therapy. In the USA today it is considered day procedure. So, which do you prefer?
On the other hand, one of my life long friends is a rep for a pharmacuetical company. They have meetings in some city all the time. The cost of the "reception" for maybe 30-75 reps, for the little finger sandwiches and cocktails exceeds your yearly earnings from working 70 hours a week. This is not counting the airfares, hotel rooms and other meetings, food, dinners, etc. His and other pharmacutical companies are scared to death of "healthcare" legislation. It will cost them BILLIONS in excess profits here in the USA. They could loose, really BILLIONS on just 1 drug! They along with the medical supply lobby, the insurance lobby,
will put up a huge fight to derail any legislation which will cut into profits.
I am here today probably because of a program designed for self employed people. I needed surgery. But had no health insurance and could not afford the cost when starting out. This was a program available to residents of my state. All the doctors, nurses, hospital etc., reduced their cost to make it more affordable to the state. This very program was going to be CUT by then Gov. Geo. W. Bush. He just gave the oil industry a massive tax cut, and since this state must run on a balanced budget, he needed to cut somewhere else. Why not cut out the small guy first. Geo. W. Bush doesn't know crap about healthcare, and couldn't care less. And don't think for a second that the Dems are going to do any better. They are totally beholden to the same lobbies. They don't care about you or your family. Only their re-election.
My doctor has a backroom, 12 people employed including the "office manager." Each has their own computer and workstation. Their sole purpose is to process INSURANCE forms, NEGOIATE payments, and just ATTEMPT to be paid buy the insurance companies in a reasonable length of time. Insurance companies will dispute a bill over a $10.00 charge, this delays everything 14-30 days, then come back and dispute another $1.00 charge, another delay. Some bills take up to 6 months to resolve. Who benefits most from this? The insurance companies of course. The extra costs the doctor incurs are passed on to the patient, the government, and back to the insurance companies themselves in the form of higher prices, which mean higher premiums. on and on and on. The final result is higher profits for the Insurance companies, less money for you.
So if you have any other suggestions on how to make it better, please let us know.

i make over 50K and i cant afford it

the last time i was able to afford insurance was when i worked for a fortune 500 company, because it was a payroll deduction

but now, no i cannot

and i guess you know why

because i CHOOSE not to insure my wife and kids

aint i such a good father and husband?

ps

i am far from a liberal

but maybe in the black and white world of rush limbaugh, if you arent with us you are with the terrorists, or was that sean hannity or george bush or john ashcroft or ronald dumsfeld?

Perhaps getting rid of things you dont need like internet, cable tv, beer and other crap and then buy insurance would be a good idea.
Or maybe you could just look for a better job that offers good health insurance.

As long as we are posting famous quotes, how about this one.

'We are going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good" Hillary Clinton

or how about this one?
J.B. Hunt offers some of
the best jobs in the transportation industry