The time has come for "Socialized Medicine" in these United States of America. Healthcare is all about society and its ability to withstand health related invasions, whether they are natural or artificially generated. Our country is headed for the bottom of the list of countries whom are un-prepared for any kind of germ related disasters. We rank quite a way down the list of best healthcare provided to citizens and that is ridiculous for a country that was supposed to be the greatest country on this planet. Instead of bolstering the Insurance industry and making them even richer we should be removing them from healthcare altogether. Insurance is actually just someone betting that we will not get sick and that is not something we should be gambling on. As far as all of the employees that would be laid off/fired they would be easily re-employed by the social medicine system that replaces the insurance companies. Also being replaced would be the Medicare/Medicaid mess that really is not working except for the greedy controllers of it.
We have a chance to build the best "Socialized Medicine" system in the world. There are many examples available to pick and choose from and also expand upon. We need to protect the medical professionals incomes(to an extent) to insure people will want to continue practicing the medical arts. This is where some existing "Socialized Medicine" systems fail. Ask any doctor how bad the insurance industry and our government have fouled up the quality and quantity of our medical abilities. Our current system is set up to assure that the insurance companies are able to make exorbitant profits and that our health issues do not interfere with that profit.
I am sure that I will hear how this will take away our freedoms. I would assume those freedoms are the freedom to get sick, to infect others with our illnesses, to die from easily cured diseases, to help foster epidemics of enormous proportions, to keep watching billions of dollars wasted on CEO's and not curing anyone, and to watch as our country forcefully marches back to a third world country (with the exception of the greedy rich). There is no excuse for any citizen of these United States to be unhealthy, unclothed, or unsheltered. How can we call ourselves the greatest country in the world when we are ranking higher and higher in these three categories? Now that is what I call un-American.
There are areas of this government and country that must be treated as Social needs and provided as such. There are also areas that should be treated Conservatively such as wars, "special interests", lobbying, and most other financial matters. Any government that uses just one philosophy(conservative, liberal, socialism, communism, etc.) is bound to fail just as these philosophies due when they try to cover all of the needs of societies. We need to have open minds to approach all of our problems if we are to succeed at really having a Democratic Republic and "freedom for all".