CMV: Universal health insurance in the United States is an ideal system, however it is not feasible or reasonable to try and implement.

I will give my answers from an Australian universal health perspective.

One reason is that the current "health insurance" system run by the government (VA, Medicare, Medicaid) appears to be poorly run. There are constantly horror stories about people having to wait to see a doctor, billing errors, and delays in receiving benefits.

Nope. not that Ive heard of - If i get an appointment with a local GP, it'll probably be same day or tomorrow. Walk-in centres also exist in some areas. Hospitals are largely free to the end user. The billing system is integrated with GPs and Hospitals - Some GPs work off the government rebate alone, others you pay and it'll be direct deposited into your acount the next working day. i do hear all kinds of nightmare stories about the US system, mainly debt, and technical insurance limitations (like pre-existing conditions, or limts on whats payable).

If the US can't cope with insurance and health care for this very small portion of the population, how can they be expected to competently handle the ENTIRE population?

Having a single system covering the entire population is far less complex and benefits from economies of scale, compared to many smaller systems.

Secondly, there is the issue of finances. My impression is that there are fewer and fewer people becoming doctors because the cost of becoming one is going up (via school bills and increasing malpractice insurance requirements for doctors) while compensation is going down (especially for doctors who accept Medicare/Medicaid/HMOs). If we switch to a universal system, I would expect compensation to decrease since more names on the rolls = more bargaining power for insurance companies and that a shortage in doctors is inevitable. This, in my understanding, would result in more difficulty in seeing a doctor and less competent treatment due to a heavy case load.

If you switch to a universal system the insurance companies wouldnt cover that, it'd be part of the government's purview. Insurance would be limited to areas that arent included in, or supplement the universal health system. Needless to say, everywhere else in the world still has plenty of doctors.

/r/changemyview Thread