In countries with working national health plans, doctors get salaries, not fee for service pay. They get raises and bonuses based on how many of their patients quit smoking and improve their serum cholesterol at the lowest cost. THAT would control costs nicely.

YES!!!

Yes, but many view that as socialized medicine and they envision long waiting lists and people dying while waiting to be seen. Personally, I think the current system isn't working. People who don't have health care are dying too, so where's the difference? I think we should look at other countries health care systems and find out what's working and how it's working and totally change the way our systems is set up.

The current system is not designed to serve the actual needs of the patient. Doctors would rather treat patients as diseases rather than human beings. So long as this continues to be the model of medicine, these problems will continue.

Native Americans have the closest thing to socialized medicine in this country. Yet, they have the worst health care outcomes of any population. Why is this? It is in part because of an extremely critical shortage of professionals willing to work for less pay in remote areas. It is also in part due to the medical community's failure to address the real needs of the communities they are supposed to serve. Cultural differences create many barriers for some populations. Rather than trying to examine what forces are at work within this communities, they blame the people themselves for not properly assimilating into modern American society.

I don't understand why "socialized medicine" is supposed to be some kind of ultimate horror. For crying out loud, the Cold War is OVER, people. That never-getting-medical-help-when-you-need-it malarkey is a feature of OUR system, not socialized medicine!

My experience of tribal healthcare plans is that they have guaranteed lifetime Blue Cross coverage with tiny co-pays. Maybe not all tribes handle it that well, but I for one would be happy to have tribal membership.