Socialized Healthcare would be good for the United States.

As he readily agreed, I am correct. The system IS broken and needs to be fixed. To quote my opponent, in his recap he stated that, "all of the problems of the healthcare system are not a result of a failure of capitalism or of the free market. It is a failure of the socialist policies that have been adopted that prevent capitalism from working. " He is simply wrong. The problems are caused by the failure of capitalism and the free-market. And, the very source that my opponent used to resource his facts, state that exact thing. For instance, the article points out that physician wages in the US are double those of European doctors - because of the limited supply - which is a major reason for the more expensive health care. [1] According to the article, The U. S. Census Bureau reported that a record 50.7 million residents (which includes 9.9 million non-citizens) or 16.7% of the population were uninsured in 2009. More money per person is spent on health care in the USA than in any other nation in the world, and a greater percentage of total income in the nation is spent on health care in the USA than in any United Nations member state except for East Timor. Although not all people are insured, the USA has the third highest public healthcare expenditure per capita, because of the high cost of medical care in the country. A 2001 study in five states found that medical debt contributed to 46.2% of all personal bankruptcies and in 2007, 62.1% of filers for bankruptcies claimed high medical expenses. Since then, health costs and the numbers of uninsured and under-insured have increased. [1] In 2004, an Institute of Medicine report observed "lack of health insurance causes roughly 18,000 unnecessary deaths every year in the United States. " While a 2009 Harvard study estimated that 44,800 excess deaths occurred annually, in the US, due to lack of health insurance. [1] ABC news reported in a 2010 article, that in the midst of a deep economic recession, America's health insurance companies increased their profits by 56 percent in 2009, a year that saw 2.7 million people lose their private coverage. The nation's five largest for-profit insurers closed 2009 with a combined profit of $12.2 billion, according to a report by the advocacy group Health Care for American Now (HCAN). "The outsized earnings are a vivid reminder that without comprehensive national health care reform, the gatekeepers of our broken health insurance system always will put the short-term interests of Wall Street before the needs of millions of patients and a national economy plagued by joblessness," the report said. [2] It's obvious, this is, in fact, a "Failure of Capitalism"! ! In the U. S. , we spend more money on health care than any other industrialized country and yet we rank in the bottom half in the quality of service we receive. [1] Do you REALLY believe we should have a 'for-profit' health-care system? If so, do you think should have "for-profit" police protection, or fire protection too? I have personally witnessed patients dying after being denied life-saving procedures simply because their insurance didn't cover the procedure - is that really how we want our health care system to determine plan of care? I think it's atrocious! ! [1]. http://en.wikipedia.org... [2]. http://abcnews.go.com...