Posted on 09/04/2009 8:27:12 AM PDT by CMoran325
Edited on 09/04/2009 8:48:23 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
For many people (and yes I’m jumping to conclusions and making sweeping generalizations here) “No one should die because they can’t afford health care” is the weasel way of saying “I want someone else to pay for it” without sounding like a panhandler. So, take what follows with a grain of salt, OK?
On that note, someone’s Facebook status said:
No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick. If you agree, please post this as your status for the rest of the day.
No one should die just because they were born in sub-Saharan Africa, either. But they do. Doesn’t make it fair, but it happens. For every “poor” or underprivileged Westerner complaining about their lack of “health care” (NB: even the poorest Americans have access to better health care than, I would venture to guess, 85% of the earth’s population has ever had), there are a million people living on $1 and a cup of rice each day — so cry me a fucking river.
Every one of us will die at the crossroads of some particular circumstances, time, and place.
Some of us die in our sleep. Some of us are merely in “the wrong place at the wrong time.” Some of us will die because the technology to cure what ails us has not yet been invented. Some of us will die because we made poor choices that presently impact our ability to care for ourselves. And some of us will die unfortunately through no direct fault of our own, because we can’t afford to pay for the technology that does exist.
To lament the fact that some people die under seemingly inopportune circumstances is folly; it ignores the lion’s share of the equation. Financial circumstances are a scapegoat, because at nearly any time and place where the individual isn’t DOA, a change in financial circumstances might forestall death for a few hours, days, weeks, or months.
You’ll get no arguments from me, if you say that “health care is too expensive”: blame the AMA cartel, the FDA, blame “Big Insurance”, etc. But National Healthcare is healthcare fascism, the insurers want guaranteed profits, guaranteed customers for life, and Uncle Sam to pay the bills. They want to sell you your own welfare.
You’ll get no arguments from me, if you say that “the system” needs to be reformed: specifically it needs to not be a system at all. People aren’t permitted under the law to care for themselves or to arrange for the care of others. Or because the consumer is not the customer, and the customer enjoys certain tax privileges that the consumer does not, etc. Or because people have been conditioned to believe that “insurance” should pay for an annual check-up and dental exams and all sorts of other routine maintenance instead of just providing for accidents and serious illnesses.
The problem is that health care, medicine, long term care, etc., is damned expensive. Government is the problem in health care, which keeps it unaffordable.
Asking or forcing others to pay the costs which you can’t afford will do nothing to actually solve that problem, it just shifts the burden, [expletive deleted] up someone else’s life circumstances, exacerbating the problem for the future.
Can I walk into an ER and get free chemotherapy if I have cancer?
And who pays for that ER care?
If you really need treatment, by law you get it.
Most people I know that have died because they don’t have insurance do so because they can’t afford preventive tests like colonoscopy, etc. But under socialized medicine, the wait for these things are so long it is almost as bad.
No one should die because their doctor was sued by an ambulance-chasing attorney. No doctor should go broke paying for blood sucking trial lawyers.
All of us should not have to die early for PelosiObamaCare.
All of us should not be subject to the tyranny of government for the “promise”, nay, the outright FANTASY that “one person won’t die” bs.
We are all going to die!
Let’s die FREE!
As others have pointed out, emergency departments must stabilize and treat all comers, regardless of ability to pay. The law is called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act or EMTALA.
In the US it is law that no one can be turned away for medical treatment on their inability to pay. This comment that is becoming the meme is attempting to obfuscate the issue. It is an attempt to guilt people into agreeing with letting big brother take over the system.
A friend had a good comeback. “No one should die because some government bureaucrat peon mingles in your personal health care decisions”.
Works for me.
"No one should die because their mother doesn't want to be punished with a baby."
Tell the truth. No one does.
What about optical insurance? A blind person could get hit by a car and DIE.
What about life insurance? Everyone DIES.
Insurance is something you buy "just in case." If you're concerned, buy health insurance. If you can't afford what you want, get a second job or go back to school. That's what anyone else would do if they wanted something bad enough.
It's not a right to have someone else buy you everything you want. It's bad enough others are stuck paying for what you need already. Health insurance is a purchase, like car insurance. If you drive a car, you could DIE.
U.S. law says all emergencies must be treated - and someone else is getting stuck with that bill, too! I think that's more than fair, don't you?
My follow-up to someone who claimed I must be corporate shill with employee benefits, who was definitely of the “We’re all gonna die without Obamacare, and besides, even 3rd-worlders have free healthcare!” mentality:
I am self-employed and pay for my own coverage, and I have held state insurance licenses for over a decade. It is against the law for hospitals to refuse care that will save your life, based upon evidence of insurability. If they refuse care due to a lack of insurance, it is because the treatment is not necessary to save the life of the patient.
When everyones “shares” the cost, the only people who pay less are those who aren’t having the living daylights taxed out of them already. As far as socialized medicine in other countries is concerned, it has managed to deliver horribly substandard care at hyperinflated prices. We have the best healthcare system on the planet precisely because it IS NOT run by the government, which is why tens of thousands of people come here every year seeking treatment; why do you think the Canadian health minister came here last year for surgery? If you want the healthcare system of the worker’s paradises of Cuba, Venezuela, and China, support Obamacare.
This started showing up on facebook yesterday. I asked a friend who posted in on her wall, “would you pay my health costs for me”. No reply.
You would not get chemotherapy in the ER. If you are diagnosed with cancer, need chemo, and are certifiably too broke to pay for it, you get Medicaid.
Medicaid is paid for by our taxes. That’s my understanding.
bump
They don’t die. It’s USA law that any emergency room must fully treat, regardless the ability to pay.
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THIS^^^^^
“No one should be enslaved to provide for another person’s health care.”
And
“Food is not a right.”
“Shelter is not a right.”
“Health care is not a right.”
You’ve hit an important point, the real issue here isn’t about health care, it is about financing it. They are two separate issues that the left likes to combine in order to attempt to wrangle control of the entire industry.
Health Insurance isn’t health care. Health Insurance is basically a savings account (for lack of a better term) you stick money in just in case you need to pay for health care.
Moreover no one should die because the Democrats historically have done nothing to tort reform. Thus keep the costs of medicine as well as healthcare high.
Sure no one should die because they can not afford health care. So while private health care is sometimes expensive now, we should not make the price infinite.
A government option that does away with private health care choices makes the price of private health care infinite. And many more people will die because they can not afford infinite priced [or very expensive foreign} private health care than die now because health care is expensive.
No one should jeapordize their ability to pay for Healthcare of themselves or loved ones in the event of an unforseen emergency by being FORCED to pay for the Healthcare of others.
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