what kind of farm?

 

Walnuts.

 

i was gonna say almonds comming from winters

 

I can't imagine being willing to pay 50% of my income taken every year for health care.............FOR MY ENTIRE LIFE. Are you kidding me? Think of the most expensive surgery you could possibly undergo, probably $500,000. That's completely insane to pay half your check to a possibility. I'd rather keep my insurance with reform in certain areas (i.e. prescription drug inflation, rediculous fees and the out-right immoral cost of surgery fees) and live my life. Universal health care will do nothing but waste a ton of tax payer dollars. We need to reform the cost of specific aspects before we go taking half our countries income for the sake of health care. Furthermore, I'm in good health, have a good diet, don't smoke and exercise regularly. I get sick maybe once a year with a simple flu, if that. Is that worth half my income..........HELL NO!!!

 

No almonds in Winters, they're more up towards Esparto.

 

+1.

 

only reason i say that is cause my sisters roommate from Chico lived near Winters and she had a almond farm.

Dont they have huge tree shakers that harvest everything for you now?

 

and if your run over by a truck tomorrow or injured on the job and are unable to work for the rest of your life, and have to live of of insurance money believe me when I say not a day will go by that they dont try and **** you up the *** until thier dick comes out of your mouth. Trust me my Mother has been dealing with this since she was electricuted on the job and has been living with RSD for 13 yrs. Also my Aunt who was turned away from the ER at Valley Care in Pleasanton because they thought she was just a cry baby with food poisoning, turns out she had a Kidney stone and severe bladder infection, and with the negligance of the hospital got a spinal infection which caused her to be permanantly paralized from the waist down, and she was perfectly healthy with no coverage and noone took a second glance. Just let it go and acted as if she didn't deserve any assistance and now she and my Mother have been suffering ever since. So coming from personal experience something needs to be done, maybe not what he suggests but definatley something.
Sorry guys healthcare is a sore subject in my life and that of my families life. /rant

 

You are way out on "the most expensive surgery you could possibly undergo" A half mil goes pretty fast on any sort of extended hospitalization, a month or two in an ICU is all it would take, never mind if you need to go under the knife a few times.

A bad car accident or rounds of cancer treatment are just a couple of very common situations where the expenses can easily run up into 7 figures, and if you are amongst the millions who have no insurance, guess what- you lose everything when that happens.

"Half their income" -or more actually is what a lot of people in this country already do have to pay for insurance, which still might deny them coverage in a lot of cases.

Simple fact is that the pharmaceutical and insurance companies have the entire business by the *****, Doctors have to charge silly rates to cover their insurance premiums, more and more hospitals are being bought out by HMO's loads of crap like that are going to make it impossible for any of the reforms you so optimistically suggest we need.
In the end the people who suffer the most are people who think that they have good coverage, but find out otherwise when something happens to them.

And the example eveyone here is running with- this claim that Canada has a 50% tax just for health insurance is total BS, their tax structure for middle class people is not that far from ours, the difference is that they don't have to pay any insurance premiums for their dependents or family. If you actually do a fair comparison, far more people in Canada are better off because of their health care system than are put out by it when compared to the same ratio in the states.

 

All it does it gets the nuts off the trees, but that's just during harvest, which is 3-4 weeks out of the year.

 

gotcha

 

So in your example.....lets say you get hit by a car (hit and run) tomorrow. No fault of your own. You become quadraplegic and can no longer do any useful work. You have no income and your health insurance drops you (which they can do). Whats going ot happen to you? Your medical bills will send you and your family into bankruptcy. You will never lead a functional, normal life again.

Whats my point? THE POINT IS THAT YOU AREN'T JUST PAYING FOR YOURSELF. You are paying for UNIVERSAL healthcare. You pay for everyone else, and they pay for you.

And the tax rate isn't 50% for anyone - where the hell did this number come from? Even if you make $100 million a year (yes, really, I calculated it out), your tax rate in Newfoundland (highest tax rate) is 48% in total tax. Its 38% in Alberta. Cut the income down to a more reasonable middle class figure of $75,000 and the rate is is between 22 and 32% (average around 25%). To compare, I make somewhat above average for the nation (because I live in SF) and I pay 35% in taxes (total, with CA and Federal & Medicare). That doesn't even include what me and my company pay for medical coverage. My tax rate in Canada (with my income adjusted for exchange rates) would be 28% - 35% (depending on province) , and that INCLUDES medical coverage. So, I ask, how is more coverage for less taxes bad?

In some countries, rich people dont want to wait at all for any services (like the UK). There, everyone has a base level of coverage, and the rich can buy even more insurance coverage privately.

I have yet to hear a compelling argument against universal healthcare that wasn't specious. The 'high taxes' argument is simply false and the 'long wait' argument can be dealt with your choice of addl private insurance or paying attention to facts:

 

Rosie Odonnell!

Not sure which douchebag I dislike more.

 

Well said.

 

Greg, I'd like you to meet some people I know who had health insurance and still had to file bankruptcy over medical bills. One of the couples lost their home.

And I've hear that 51% number about canada thrown around before, but it was as the highest income tax rate they could charge for the highest income and for the ENTIRE government, meaning defense, education, everything. Im not sure who told you 51% percent of your entire income went to health care in Canada but didnt common sense tell you that had to be wrong? You think the rest of the government/army/schools just volunteer on their days off??

Anyways, paying higher taxes aside, you can still have universal healthcare without becoming a socialist state, as a matter of fact the difference in taxes would probably be LESS than what most of us pay monthly for coverage, I pay $200 for mediocre coverage, I know people that pay way more.