Of course they can. How do schools afford teachers? Is your local school making a profit?
Personally, I wouldn't use American public education as a shining example of how socialist systems provide the best quality. I think our teachers are probably among the most incompetent compared to the rest of the world. In fact, schools are a prime example of a system being run by government, (in the very socialist way you want to run medical care), which would be markedly better off in a capitalist system where competition would be introduced and would ensure improvement in quality of education.
I suppose Henry Ford should have been prevented from starting an assembly line/mass production. Just imagine all the people who designed and built buggies. And horse whips And the wooden wheels. And then there were the horse people. And all the stuff that goes with horses. And the horse food.
All those people out of work because of Mr. Ford. Shocking!
Now you are attempting to use an example of capitalism vs. capitalism with advanced technology. We've not discovered some new way to medically care for patients here. What you are advocating, is the government take over of an entire capitalist enterprise, at the displacement of the people who work in that field. There's really no precedent for this in American history.
Exactly! That's why the English and the French and the Australians and the Canadians and the Norwegians and the Swiss and the Swedes and....as I asked before show me any country that reverted back to the "pay or suffer" system. Surely there must be one.
*sigh* You keep running back to this tired old argument to support your point. I have already agreed with you, and thanked you for reminding us all of the finality involved in this. Yes, it's true, once socialist policy is entrenched, it is almost impossible to ever change it! You keep assuming, since no one has "gone back" it means they must prefer the socialist system! That's bullshit, because the fact is, you can't go back! You have destroyed the infrastructure which supported the capitalist system, it's gone! After hospitals close and doctors decide on different careers, it's too late to "change back" to what you had, you must live with the consequences of what you established. That's why these places never go back, not because they wouldn't LOVE to... hell, they are selling everything they own to come here for medical care, instead of using the systems in their own country, what does that tell you? I already posted the report about the Brits, and how they suffered through decades of socialized medicine, before finally introducing some capitalist initiatives, out of desperation to improve their deplorable medical conditions.
What the hell do Hitler and Chamberlain have to do with medicare?
Pardon me for asking but are you on drugs, Dixie?
They spewed the same socialist propaganda to people, and played on their emotions, duping them into believing there was a better way. Hitler was a great speaker, and he simply mesmerized his country into supporting his socialist ideas, even while he was incinerating other human beings. Chamberlain was a pinhead like you, who wanted to suck up to socialism, in the false hope it would lead to a better life for all.
No, the problem some people, like yourself, have with it is greed. Just pay the tax for medicare and never go to a hospital. No one will force you to go to a hospital. Just chip in the pot and get lost. Go about your life any way you want. You don't have to have anything to do with any government program. Problem solved.
I already pay medicare tax, and a host of other taxes to fund socialist programs, for that matter. I don't think it is greed, so much as a fundamental disagreement in principle. I don't want to chip in the pot and get lost, that sounds a little like common robbery to me. I don't agree with the idea you have, that I am somehow obligated to take care of your medical needs, and if I don't want to, it's because I am greedy. I think it is your obligation to take care of your own needs, not mine. When I see you out in my yard mowing my lawn, because you just felt the need to help me out, I may start feeling that way toward you, but as it stands now, go fuck yourself.
I hate to keep repeating myself but it's not sinking in. If what you say happens all the countries that now have universal medicare would be changing back to the "pay or suffer" system.
Why aren't they? Because what you say is nonsense. Complete and utter nonsense.
And you keep failing to miss my rebuttal to that, socialism is very difficult to dislodge, once it has been established. People don't change back, because there is nothing to change back to! You've destroyed that! It's GONE! What part of that are you not comprehending, because this makes the fourth time I've posted it, and you continue to act like a retard who can't read.
I admit the poor will have better access to medicare. So will the average, middle class family. Hmmm, who is left?...............Oh, I know! The rich. Those who don't want the riff-raff sitting on the leather sofas in the doctor's offices; people wearing cheap shoes walking all over the Italian marble floors; rough, chapped hands thumbing the latest edition of The American Spectator.
What will people do?
Virtually everything in the Socialist playbook, depends on envy of the rich. You illustrate this very nicely. You admit we are basically turning medical care into the local free clinic, and that's fine with you, as long as we stick it to the rich. As long as that rich sick person has to sit in the waiting room next to a homeless person, you're fine with it. Yeah... bring it on baby!
But here's the catch... and it's something that plagues socialism, really... no matter what you do, there are always the 'haves' and 'have nots' and those who control power in a socialist model, are the ones who have the most. Ultimately, rich people will still receive exceptional care, they can afford to hire the doctors who don't want to work for the government.
Of course, just as we all can't afford to have a butler, a maid, and a private doctor, some of us will be relegated to sitting in the crowded waiting rooms to see a doctor, if we can find one who will see us before we die.
Now really, Apple, we can go back and forth about it all day, the bottom line is, we will probably live to see the consequences of socialized medicine, it's the Democrats baby, and this time they are keeping it. Republicans have already pretty much given up on trying to stop it, we'll get some form of socialized medicine, like you are advocating, like you want. We will get to see how well it works, and who was right. Of course, when it all falls apart, and we have 3rd world health care, you will have changed your pinhead name, or moved on to stir shit elsewhere, you won't be around to admit you were wrong.
That will be the day.
Before they reach the surgeon they will be screened by other doctors, X-rays taken, etc. 
