Universal health care will not work. period.

If you think it will, go to England or ask a Brit how the UK system works

universal health care means:
1) Poorer Quality of Doctors because the schooling required/Money paid ratio drastically drops if we socialize medicine. Why be a doctor if your going to only make 50K a year?

2) You think it takes a long time now to see a doctor? In other SOCIALIZED places there are waits of 3-4 months. The system will become like welfare, the people that REALLY need it will be trumped by the people that abuse the system.

3) Specialized Surgeons will be harder to come by because again, the job will be very unattractive.

4) It will cost more than you can possibly fathom at this point to provide free healthcare to everyone.

5) Drug companies go under, because why invent new medicine if you cant justify the costs.

The list goes on and on.

Bottom line is the system right now is not really that bad. If you want healthcare, and you work for a decent company you can get it for as little as $10 a week.

If your like me, and work for a small business (who its VERY hard to get coverage under) you can get your own insurance for $100 a month (i recently inquired about getting insurance and that was the quote i was given for FULL COVERAGE. $5000 and under costs me $50 co pay, $5000+ i would have a $1000 deductible.)

Furthermore, if you NEED to see a doctor without insurance, you can stil lsee one, we dont REFUSE care here in the US. You just have to pay for it, eventually.

We have free child care IIRC in this state called PEACH CARE.

Whats really screwed us is the HMO and fraud. That has driven prices up along with the inconsistencies of what hospitals charge.

Socializing medicine is NOT the answer, it will create more problems.

I keep hearing about all this "change, and hope" from Obama and Clinton, but they have ZERO policy. Apart from pulling out of IRaq completely, i have heard no real plans from ANY of them.

my .02