Quote:
Originally Posted by ADL Colin
I'd like to pay less for both. I like the idea in the "old days" when the family took care of their elderly and not the state.
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And if the family can't afford it? Or the patient has no family? Let them suffer and die because they are not a profitable customer?
Quote:
Originally Posted by IllTestYourGirls
Then you should donate to free clinics and hospitals  Do not make everyone else pay taxes because you are failing to donate on your own. |
I donate significantly to the animal shelter where I volunteer, because animals don't get to vote. But people do have a voice if they have enough motivation to use it. I believe that donating to most charities simply supports the status quo. If people think charities are taking care of everything, that they can relieve their conscience with what amounts to spare change, providing a feel-good but ultimately so-impotent-as-to-be-almost-imaginary safety net, then that only puts us further away from the goal of universal health care for everybody unconditionally. Such charities can never achieve what a government can, because they can't rely on a well funded budget, a donation-based system that leaves doctors begging for resources is unacceptable, because they don't have any power to regulate an industry which seems to have more sympathy for shareholders than sick people.
My default political leanings are toward libertarianism and capitalism. Capitalism works great, except in life-and-death decisions. I have absolutely no sympathy for people who who fear they might contribute more than they get out for a public health care system; even though it would cost less to cover everybody in a not-for-profit system than what americans are all paying insurance companies now to cover less. And the government cannot deny anyone coverage for preexisting conditions. If you end up putting more in than you need out, congrats, you got lucky and won the genetic lottery. Be thankful.
Unless you're such an ideologue that you believe that the fire department should only put out a house if the owner has paid his fire insurance, that the justice department should only lock up your daughters rapist if you've paid your crime insurance, then we're at no more risk of becoming a communist nightmare if we treat health care the same way. And if you're rich, and don't like the system for whatever reason, you can continue to pay for private insurance and private hospitals.