Social drinking only , yes

No way in hell. This whole thing about socializing our medical system will destory it and we will be like Cuba. We need insurance reform amongst other issues with the industry, but stopping the privatization of the industry will destroy it.

Yes. We need healthcare. It's a need, not a want. Denying the public socialised healthcare is a form of elitism.

I can't afford anything now. Yes and this should have been done 100 years ago.

Yes, but not now (I'm reffering to the US now) with the economy so screwed up and our war dragging down on us, our economy can't afford social medicine right now. However it can work in a stable economy, and I think that I would rather wait a few days or weeks longer than in personal medicine, than have 45 million people without health insurance. I've known what its like to go without health insurance, its not a good thing, you can't afford to get sick. I'm willing to make sacrifices to help people.

No

No.

If by socialized medicine you actually mean socialized health INSURANCE (like the Democrats are promoting), then yes. I don't believe that all of the other industrialized nations can provide national health INSURANCE (not healthCARE) but our great nation is incapable of such a thing. That's just too pesimistic of a viewpoint for our great nation. We can do this and do it better than any other of the nations have. Right now, the insurance companies are able to "cherry pick" all of us healthy folks, by selling us insurance via our employers. That leaves the expensive insureds for the goverment to cover (Medicare and Medicaid). Those programs can't survive with an insured group that is sick and draws so heavily from the pool; those programs need healthy individuals who'll use less resources. Right now the private insurance companies are enjoying the benefits of insuring the healthy. Look at the financial prospectives/annual earnings reports of our health insurers who are complaining about the idea of national health insurance. When it comes to promoting their companies' value, they boast about their immense profits and "low claims history" to encourage us to invest, but on the other side of things, they say they can barely stay afloat. If the healthy weren't profitable to insure, the insurance companies would not be panicking about national health insurance, and trying to get folks to mistakenly think that what is being proposed is "socialized MEDICINE" instead of socialized INSURANCE. If our nation can move the insurance companies' favorite customers (healthy, premium payers, who rarely get sick) into the public insurance pool, then a national health INSURANCE (not healthCARE) system WILL pay for itself. Ask an insurance actuarial or economist. Our employers can stop diverting overpriced health insurance premiums away from our salaries and put it back into our paychecks, to help us pay for lower-cost public health insurance. Seriously, have a long (but admittedly boring) conversation with an actuarial (or do the homework on the numbers). You'll discover that if we include EVERYONE in the insurance pool, then lower premiums from all of us will cover the costs of the program and eliminate the problem of having millions of our neighbors completely uninsured. Most of us don't complain about our socialized roads, socialized public schools, socialized postal services, socialized police, socialized 911 services, etc. Why so many seem to fear socialized "insurance" is beyond me. I have heard lots of talk about a national health INSURANCE plan, but absolutely NO talk of socializing our medical/healthcare system (doctors and hospitals). And, just as there is room for private Federal Express and UPS businesses in the universe of socialized postal services, there will be room for private insurance companies to fill the gaps that will exist under a basic socialized health insurance program. The trick, in my view, is to get us all into a pool that will distribute our risks and insure us all. Then, those millions of uninsured, but typically hardworking Americans, can take their "socialized insurance" and see the doctor of their choice and get the healthcare they so desperately need. And you can be sure, that if all of the people in the nation belong to the national health insurance program, the majority of doctors won't be "refusing" that goverment insurance because the only other pool of "customers" will be independently wealthy people -- a pool that most of us don't fall into. If caring for my fellow Americans enough to support a national health insurance program (aka "socialized" health insurance) is a crime, then I'm guilty. I'm disappointed that the Democrats running now, aren't advocating a single-payer system like this, because it's not 100% clear that giving us all access to the insurance that Congress gets will pay for itself. They say it will, but I haven't seen the detailed data. Hopefully, it will be a great deal (Congress seems to be happy with it) and it'll be a good rate with so many of us jumping in. Under this plan, we can see any doctor or go to any hospital and the premium is much less than mine currently is! You can count me in! I look forward to not having such a huge chunk of my paychecks diverted to make the already profitable insurance companies MORE profitable.

No. Americans don't think the same way as Europeans or Canadians, so that kind of system will never work here.

yes please.

We already have government run healthcare. Take a look at the VA and see how well that's working out. Death lists for everyone !

not sure what that is

Yes if it means that everyone is covered for health insurance. That mental and physical health coverage is included. No caps for either mental or physical. Inclusion of pre-existing conditions. Children of every parent's income level and lastly medicare for seniors. Medical for everyone.

What's more important people's health or having a military? We accept that the military is funded in exactly the same manner socialized medicine is funded. I accept that a military is important enough to be paid for through socialistic means but healthcare is at least as important if not more so.