[speaker001:] [Music] Uh, I guess my feelings are that, uh, we almost have a universal health care system, uh, to a great degree, except that now I read where we've left out about thirty-four million people.
[speaker002:] [Noise] [talking] Oh.
[speaker001:] And, uh, I don't know exactly how we're going to cover many of these people, because I'm sure that some of them don't, uh, don't have the wherewithal to do it themselves, so, uh, I, I have a feeling, since I have just about as good a health care coverage that anybody can get, that this, uh, then becomes an obligation of the government, because it's going to become an obligation of either state, local or federal government, anyway.
[speaker002:] Yeah, because when people can't pay, they end up going to clinics or, you know, to public hospitals, and that kind of thing, and, you know,
[speaker001:] Well, it seems to me that, that I'm paying anyway, because when I go, or my insurance carrier, anyway, when I pay something, the bills seem inordinately high.
[speaker002:] Oh, definitely.
[speaker001:] And the reason that they're inordinately high is because that has,
[speaker002:] [Talking].
[speaker001:] to cover the costs for the indigent people who apparently
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] don't have the money or the wherewithal to do that.
[speaker002:] Yeah, yeah.
[speaker001:] It would seem to spread it out a little better if the employers who, uh, employ these people, and pay them, uh, you know, subminimum wages or whatever,
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] were asked to sh-, share their fair burden of this too, just as my employer is.
[speaker002:] Yeah, yeah.
[speaker001:] [Talking] And myself, I guess.
[speaker002:] Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. My only concern is what happens when you turn things over to the government, I don't know [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] Well
[speaker002:] Do they wind up with more red tape, and more problems then?
[speaker001:] well, who, who else is going to do this, then?
[speaker002:] Yeah, yeah.
[speaker001:] I mean, it's worked successfully in Europe.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] I've heard all these stories about, I travel extensively and spend, uh, maybe half a year in Europe every year,
[speaker002:] Oh.
[speaker001:] and I find that the health care programs there, uh, are administered with, uh, at least people I talk to, with, uh, a great deal of integrity, and, uh, people don't seem to be reluctant to use them to any degree.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] As a matter of fact, if I'm injured or have an emergency when I'm, say in Germany or France, uh, that, I'm automatically taken care of,
[speaker002:] Wow.
[speaker001:] I mean I don't even have to pay. A-,
[speaker002:] Yeah. Well, I think part of the, the tremendous benefit of that is that there's so many people who wait now because they don't have the money, until, you know, they have no preventative measures [LAUGHTER]. People, um, you know, just go on and on and on. I mean, so many people don't even get prenatal care or, and it just extends with i-, if it, w-, what would be a minor problem to deal with if they had a help available early on becomes just this horrendous, you know, burden on the taxpayers. They're saying now that one out of every ten child born i-, in public hospitals is addicted to crack.
[speaker001:] Well I,
[speaker002:] Well, you know [LAUGHTER]?
[speaker001:] uh, uh, I know it. I have a solution, you see. M-, my solution, even though I'm rapidly approaching the, uh, the age when I'll qualify for Medicare and Medicaid, I, I, my mother and father both, uh, uh, well, my father's not living but my mother is,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] and they are, um, of an advanced years, and when I see the money that's poured down the, down the drain on Medicare and Medicaid, I mean, the,
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] absolute uncontrollable situation that we find ourselves in, and the extraordinary amounts, I know that, because those people vote, I mean, they're the ones who get out and vote, that's what's robbing a poor mother of the p-, prenatal care. The young people aren't getting the proper care that they need, and nutrition, I think,
[speaker002:] Yeah, yeah.
[speaker001:] and we're spending on these useless, many times useless and inordinately complex unnecessary tests in hospitals for older people.
[speaker002:] Oh, it's unbelievable how much you go through. When I just had a problem with my neck and they ended up doing a seven hundred dollar CAT scan, and, I mean, a chiropractor got it in one time [LAUGHTER],
[speaker001:] That's right, I mean, it does,
[speaker002:] it was just strange.
[speaker001:] seem like we're, th-, th-, th-, now I noticed just the other day in the paper that, that Medicare will be based, payments will be based not, uh, just on cost, but on cost effectiveness. So I gue-,
[speaker002:] Oh, well, that should help.
[speaker001:] Well, I don't know, uh, we'll see how that goes.
[speaker002:] Yeah [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] I think that was just a regulation that was up for comment, but we'll see what happens.
[speaker002:] Oh I see [LAUGHTER]. Oh, gosh.
[speaker001:] Well, listen, uh, I think I've, I've exhausted my, uh, self on, at least I've blown off steam of the way I feel about it.
[speaker002:] Okay, well [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] Okay?
[speaker002:] Okay, thank you. Bye-bye [NOISE] [talking].
[speaker001:] See you next time. Bye. [music].