Hybrid Healthcare Insurance May Be the Answer for the US

Did any of you see the Michael Moore movie Sicko? Really sheds a new light on health insurance doesn't it? It does not paint a pretty picture of the things that are going on here. Some people say some things in that movie were not true. I think it seems pretty true and real to me. It was a bit hard to swallow though when they took those people to Cuba for treatment. It's bad though, when American people are slipping across the Canadian border to get free health care. I think the United States can and should make sure all of our citizen's have affordable health care. If Canada, the UK and Sweden can do it the United States should be able to. I think it makes the US look like it does not care about its citizens. There should be caps put on how much any company can charge for any and all types of insurance. Health care costs are way too high. I had 5 stitches put in my foot and the bill was around $1,500.00! That is ridiculous and the nurses did everything except put in the stitches. The whole thing must have taken about twenty minutes! When you go to pay, the hospital will deduct a percentage of their bill if you pay right then. If they can do that then why not charge that to begin with?

Many western countries have a "hybrid" system of health care. For example in Sweden and Finland they have a pretty reasonable public healthcare system, which by the way is not totally free for the patient, but very cheap. In addition they also have private clinics, if you want even faster service and are willing to pay extra. You can also get insurance from private companies, which provides extra financial support and service in the private clinics in case of illness. Also some workplaces have free doctors. A portion of the cost of medicines is subsidized by the government in either case, and there is an annual limit after which they are entirely subsidized.

I think it would be easier to establish this kind of system in the US than going to socialized medicine. There is no need to socialize healthcare totally. There is no need for the insurance company to "go" as Moore put it, they just need to step aside a little and stop being the only authority. Also, if insurance companies have to compete with free health care, they'll have to offer much better service and actually respond to their customer's needs. What a pleasant switch that would be!