Reply #26: Perhaps it's because so few can afford preventative care....

[DCKit]

and wait until they're in dire straits before going at all.

Too many people in this country are terrified of getting sick because they realize it's too often the first step toward poverty, if not homelessness.

On another note, what for-profit business is going to bother to maintain adequate staffing when their clientele is a captive audience with no recourse?

I too recently watched Sicko. While MM may have conflated a good bit, the interviews with them ferners who enjoy universal health care, as well as the expats and the doctors who work within the system, couldn't have been more genuine. Try taking it away and you'll get your arm bitten off at the shoulder.

As I see it, the argument boils down to a simple premise: Insurance companies make insane profit by denying the maximum number of procedures and running the clock until their customers either give up or die. Remove the profit and greed from the system by nationalizing the system and people get preventative care before they need catastrophic procedures. It's simple, but anathema to the for-profit health care industry and the politicians they buy to protect them.