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.
I thought it was a smart piece and if lawyers think
their hill is being stormed, they may jump in on
our side.
Spread the word.
“But of course, then we sound like heartless b@$t@rd$.”
I’m a proud heartless bastard!
Pay your own way ir quit taking up space on this planet!!
I respond by saying that I want true tort reform. That alone would bring the cost of many drugs down to more reasonable levels.
treat to stabilization THEN send away.
just ask Michelle Obama, it worked for her hospital.
There is a difference between dying because you can’t
afford health care and dying because it simply is not
available. It is like starving because you can’t afford
food vs. starving because there is no food available
at all. At least when something is not affordable, but
exists, you have possiblities, dare I say “HOPE”. Maybe
you can borrow, maybe some kind people will help, etc.
For other countries with socialized medicine, they could
come to this country if they really wanted or needed care
they could not get in their own country. Besides, it
nice of the other side to SHOULD on everybody all the time
and guilt us into things.
Does anyone have Ronald Reagan’s proposal for catastrophic care insurance?
BTW why can’t we have tax exempt health savings accounts for routine care?
No one should die because a drunk driver hits them.
No one should die because they smoke.
No one should die because they are too fat.
No one should die because they drink too much.
No one should die because they abuse drugs.
No one should die because they didn’t wear a seat belt.
And on and on and on. Most causes of death are behavior related, old age being the main exception to that rule, and even then, good judgment and good health habits come into play.
This is talking an aboslute standard which can never be achieved and is used merely to support a government takeover. Even so, my response is that more people will die without healthcare after a government takeover than before because it will take away care from people, mostly eldelry, who need more of it. It will also place in the hands of government bureaucrats decisions that will harm more people than the decisions made between people, their families and their doctor.
If the government is put in charge of the desert, there will be a shortage of sand.
THAT response is awesome! It’s now my FB status. Thanks for posting it.
VirginiaMom
No one should die because they were the one who posted that status one too many times. Don’t be that one.
Answer: anyone can walk into any emergency room any time with no money and get the stabilizing treatment they need regardless of the cost. Nobody is going to die because they don’t have health care - it’s right there for the taking, it’s just not advertised.
Fact: everyone has money (at least some) and can earn more (somehow), so they can work out some way to pay their debit. Doctors & hospitals will work something out with you, so long as you’re willing to do what you can to be fair about it; they won’t make it easy ‘cuz they don’t want to get scammed, but you _can_ work out _something_ if you’ll make an honest effort to.
Anecdote: last year I had open-heart surgery with a six-digit price tag, which works out to about $10 every day for the rest of my life (easy enough to do, even just sweeping floors for 1.5 hours a day).
Reality: there are a few treatments which are very very expensive in relation to quality/length of life they provide, and a cold hard truth of life is that finite resources must be allocated somehow, and government cannot extend those resources by fiat. People die from lack of resources - it happens, cope.
Welcome to the real world: you must work to live, and at some point you won’t.
No one who hasn't even been born yet should be forced to pay for our excessive government spending, including Cap and Trade, TARP and galactic health care. If you agree, call your Senators and tell them 'Enough is enough.'
True. I guess the really short reply to them would be: Stop guilt-tripping me.
Chemo is a long-term treatment. The patient does not enter suspended animation between sessions; so long as they’re alive they can work to earn what they can to pay for it, and the hospital will work out some kind of payment plan and/or discount if the patient just asks nicely and earnestly seeks to work it out.
Heck, I knew a nurse who had a permanently bed-bound patient who dealt dope. Where there’s a will there’s a way.
Ok — I think we have the “can’t afford” covered — but what about the other half of that meme?
There *are* stories out there of people who had health insurance who developed catastrophic health problems — their insurance ran our, their savings were depleted and they were left with a mountain of debt.
I know there is a conservative response to this — can someone crystallize it for us?
I.e. My response for the first half is “Everyone should know that there is health care available to anyone who can’t afford it”
but what about the second half? What pithy response would be a counterpoint?
My daughter has a brain injury and epilepsy, so I am very concerned about healthcare. I posted this yesterday in response to the Obamaites posts:
I posted the following links about the problems with Canadian system:
http://www.lufa.ca/news/news_item.asp?NewsID=4414
I also posted:
” feels very fortunate to have great healthcare!!! As a mom of a special needs kid, I am thankful for a great husband who has worked very hard to get a job that has great healthcare and that has made enough money so that we can take care of our daughter’s special needs. Increasing our taxes means taking away money from her. We’ll have less money to take care of her ourselves.”
I like that one!!
We have 60 million people on Medicaid. 37% of all births in the US are funded by Medicaid. There are 35 million people collecting foodstamps. The idea that Americans are being denied health care is nonsense.
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