Reply #41: Life-long medical care for veterans [View All]

I agree that veterans should be given life-long free, or at least very low-cost, medical care. That policy would improve the health of a large part of the population and encourage more people to apply to join the military. Even those that spend only two years in the military make a tremendous contribution to our country at great personal cost. They lose two to four years of their youth. Other young people are using those years to get a head start on finishing their education or starting a career. People in the military earn lower wages than they would in other jobs with comparable responsibility.

We lived in several European countries for a number of years and raised our children there. I loved the single-payer systems. My prenatal care and my children's medical care was wonderful. I could choose any doctor I wanted. Here, you have to choose a doctor that is on your plan. I never had to wait too long for medical care. If you have ever been enrolled in an HMO, you probably know that your doctor may have incentives to refuse to refer you to a specialist. I have had great difficulty getting a referral to a specialist.

My only criticism of European medicine is that the doctors are not as well-trained as American doctors. That has to do with the university system, not with the single-payer system.