The biomedical model of health is used to bring down the number of morbidity and premature mortality. This model is where we look at the parts of the body that might work together to make sure we have good health. We look at what is wrong and fix that part of the individual. If a person isn't well they visit the doctor to be examined. If they are ill the doctor will make a diagnosis and the individual is them offered a treatment to make them better. We view the body as a machine and when a part in it goes wrong it must be fixed in order for it to work again.

This approach to health is used mostly in the western world. Its popular because it uses scientific methods, the treatment and care of people is cheaper, expert knowledge is used to achieve the results and public health has been improved.

It has one focus; the actual person (biological process), rather then the social and emotional process of the individual. The aim of it is to identify people who are at risk from a disease. It focuses on the treatment rather then the prevention.

The idea sounds great. Free healthcare seems like a great idea until you have actually tried it. People who live under the system often complain about the waiting period and the doctors who are not responsive to their patients. A nationalized system almost guarantees that the quality of health care will be diminished. In my opinion, health care should never be nationalized, but there are those with opposite opinions that are just as persuasive.

Another View

As a Canadian with Crohns Disease who has both used and been involved with a National health care system for over 50 years I have yet to experience a wait longer than 2 hours for any treatment. Triage, priority to the sickest patient is not a foreign concept even in American Hospitals. Canada has had universal health care for 25 years (since 1984) and while it has some problems, usually from cost cutting politicians, the basis of universal coverage means that any citizen, regardless of income, can walk into any hospital or doctor's office and be treated, free of charge. The admitting nurse of every hospital in Canada checks your pulse, not your credit.

Current statistics in the United States show 47 million Americans are unable to afford coverage of any kind and are uninsured, many others with coverage are denied treatment due to pre-existing conditions and worse, the sick can be thrown off plans because they became sick. What could be worse than that? It is not just those with no health insurance at all who are affected in America but also those who pay hundreds of dollars a month they cannot afford for private coverage. There are people who have to sell their cars and household items just to pay premiums, others who consider dangerous and high-risk alternatives in order to treat themselves and many on fixed incomes who - all too often - have to choose between groceries or a visit to the doctor. That does not even count those Americans who manage to get some form of care only to lose everything they've worked a lifetime to achieve, and who in the end have to just go home and wait for their life to end, because they can no longer afford the treatment they need in order to sustain their life or the lives of their loved one's.

As observers to this wonderful effort to bring about a national health care system in America, it makes it clear for us to see that inciting fear and distrust only serves the people of a certain economic stature and provides a distinct harm to the rest of the population, pitting citizen against other citizens for nothing more than ideological perspectives and greed on behalf of the insurers, these same people feeding the fear of even trying to introduce a MADE IN AMERICA plan. Who is telling Americans they must use a health care plan exactly the same as Canada or the United Kingdom? Perhaps the same people who sell you those health care insurance policies? Make your plan work for you. As far as I have read about the proposal, the plan is basic and would not exclude extra coverage to those who want it and can afford it.

Health care should never be an option but a basic right.

As an RN with over 30 years experience as a patient caregiver, patient advocate, peer reviewer for quality of care and necessity of care, medical claim auditor, coverage adjudicator, appeal adjudicator and managed care executive who has worked with the problems of health care insurance from the side of Medicare, Private Insurance plans, HMOs, Hospital Providers, Nursing Long Term Care Facilities, and from the patient perspective while insured and under-insured, I could not agree with the immediately prior answer more. I wish more Americans understood as well as the Canadian above does the extent of our country's health care crisis and the necessary and affordable solutions that could be put in place.

Sadly, there are many Americans being misled and frightened by rumors and misinformation while Americans die due to lack of basic healthcare coverage. Currently, 45,000 people die each yearin the US due to a lack of health care insurance.

See the link below to a Reuters news report from Sept. 2009 about a Harvard study that links one death every twelve minutes directly to the lack of health care insurance and quality health care. According to Reuters:

The Harvard study, funded by a federal research grant, was published in the online edition of the American Journal of Public Health. It was released by Physicians for a National Health Program, which favors government-backed or "single-payer" health insurance.

"We're losing more Americans every day because of inaction ... than drunk driving and homicide combined," Dr. David Himmelstein, a co-author of the study and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard, said in an interview with Reuters.

I also agree

As a person with Crohn's I find it impossible to get health insurance and I can barely afford to continue to pay for doctor visits and medications. I am uninsurable since my Crohn's is very active, insurance companies will insure me if I pay exorbitant premiums and wait for at least a year before submitting anything related to Crohn's. I personally think a lot of Americans are afraid of government backed health care and health insurance because they see it as "Big brother" telling them what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. A lot of people also equate any government backed program as a step closer to socialism and it scares them. Unfortunately, Americans have a tendency to believe almost anything the media tells them and it is a fact that the media puts their own slant on things. The lobbyists are doing all they can to keep the big insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and wealthy medical centers in control, they don't care what we, the people, want. People are scared from all the misinformation out there, both of the two previous answers are right on the mark. We as intelligent people should do our own research and stop relying on the media to tell us what we should believe. I am 100% in favor of government backed health care and health insurance.

I am In favor

It is very funny the way Americans cry foul when it comes to providing for its citizens. How much does it cost Americans to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan? In excess of 10 billion US dollars a month since we started the war, right? How much in taxes does the US government collect from Iraq and Afghanistan? None. OK, how about that additional 800 billion US dollars that we give to countries who do not even like America very much? Now Americans are opposing a government run healthcare plan which will guarantee healthcare to all citizens, and we have private sector robbers and thieves opposing it? You gotta be kidding me. How much will it cost to have a government run healthcare plan any way? More than Iraq and Afghanistan combined? NO. What country allows the deaths its own children due to inadequate or absent healthcare while on the other hand spending that kind of money to improve the lives of the children of others? Why won't you ask the US government to get the money we have spent in Iraq and Afghanistan to finance healthcare to benefit Americans who pay taxes to start with? The government runs Medicaid and Medicare, and why can't the government run its own additional healthcare public option? The current economic situation was caused by greedy wall Street and other greedy private companies, including banks and the run away health care costs caused by greedy private insurance companies and some greedy health care providers. They rob and steal from poor people in America and call it a success in private industry. Private sector regulation, oversight, and management has been the worse since WWII, so get your facts right.

And yet, so much of the world's advances in medical technology has come from that very medical system that everyone finds so offensive and greedy?

Although governments often fund some areas of medical research, how often does that research result in progress? Real medical innovation comes from companies that have the freedom to see where their research leads them. Medical discoveries are often accidental, as in the case of a well known product, Rogain. Rogain was developed when researchers were trying to develop a new blood pressure lowering product. Instead, they discovered that it grew hair. As they were not "government funded", the researchers were able to follow where their investigations led them.

How often do you hear of people running to Canada for their superior health care? Do you see many "Yanks" flying to England for dental care?

The stories are common about people who cross the border from Canada in search of life saving health care that is available to us if they only agree to pay for it, while their own health care system often requires that they wait on a list for an allotted time for their turn, and hope that they are still alive when that turn comes.

I know of a woman who had chest pains and was waiting for her appointment... several months in the future. I never did find out if she survived long enough to receive the necessary angioplasty. But HERE, if you show up at a doctors office with chest pains and the doctor finds that you have blockage, you'll be in a hospital in less than an hour, and the procedure will be complete before the people at work find out you didn't make it back from lunch.

The proposed system of "nationalized medicine" in the United States includes provisions for terminating services when an individual reaches the point where he/she is no longer a productive, contributing member of society. Hillary's proposed system also eliminates the option to seek private medical care... and the nationalized system of inferior medicine is there for everyone except politicians. For the unwashed masses, we will be constantly reminded that we are nothing but the pawns of big government.

Are there disadvantages to the current medical system in this country? No doubt, there are. We need to make some changes, we need to cut costs and reduce the need for doctors to practice medicine through the insurance company filters.

But we don't need "Change for the sake of change"; we need useful, productive and intelligent change. All government agencies are inefficient. Imagine what it will be like when the same people who require MONTHS to give you your passport are put in charge of saving your life.

The answerer above states "And yet, so much of the world's advances in medical technology has come from that very medical system that everyone finds so offensive and greedy?"

It should be noted that medical research is already government funded and has been for over a century. For more information check the National Institutes of Health website linked below.

It should be noted that Newfoundlands Premier Danny Williams came to the United States for open heart surgery this week.

There was no health care for the poor as they could not afford it. conversely, the rich could afford decent health care

More:

There were a number of charitable organizations that provided poor people with health care and other assistance, and these included many monasteries, convents, and churches.

In many parts of Europe, the health care rich people could afford was probably no better than what the poor could get. The best health care was available in Muslim lands, and a lot of rich people went to Cordoba for health care.