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The question was stupid, and designed to illicit a negative response that could be used against us.

It was an either/or false choice, and even Ron Paul knew better. We didn’t need government paying for health care to make people take care of sick people without insurance. We did it through charity.

Government became our charity in part because we WERE charitable, and moreso because politicians SAW that WE were charitable, and wanted to take CREDIT for that charity by giving our money away FOR us.

But seriously — this is the heart of the problem with our health care debate. Who among us would say that a person should be left to die on the sidewalk in front of a hospital, because they hadn’t bought insurance and didn’t have money to pay?

Sure, that’s the “Atlas Shrugged” answer, right? Take care of yourself, and if you don’t suffer the consequences? I believe that — until people are dying or I can help them. If somebody stupidly walks on the edge of a bridge, and falls over, I will jump in to save them, not let them drown because it was their own fault.

And I don’t want to leave people starving in the street, or dying on the sidewalk. But that means I can be taken advantage of, because people know we are charitable, and can take advantage of our charity.

I had a proposal once I thought had merit. We DON’T do Obamacare, or have government mandate health insurance. AND we treat everybody, no matter whether they have insurance or not.

But if someone gets treatment and can’t pay for it, then they are OURs. Not a slave, but they now OWE all the money we gave them. We can force them to buy health insurance at that point, because they OWE us for treating them. We can garnish their wages. Maybe we’d have a service program they could participate in. We make them pay for being stupid enough to not provide for their own security.

I’m not sure that would be incentive enough for people to do the right thing. Really, people who take advantage need to get “less-then-gold-plated” care. I don’t want to say substandard, but there has to be a difference in the service people who provide for themselves get vs people who make us pay for them.

Here’s a plan nobody here will support. We actually implement a national health insurance, paid for by taxes. But this is just a catastrophic plan, which provides limited services. No extraordinary life-saving care. No end-of-life amenities like hip replacements. It might even have death panels. Sorry, we have to ration to keep the prices low. Nobody WANTS to use this plan, but if you don’t provide for yourself, it will treat your heart attack, get you back on your feet and on your way.

The problem is we don’t have it in ourselves to be uncompassionate. I don’t think government is the solution for that, but I don’t know how to get us back to where we were compassionate on our own, and I fear the american people won’t stand for going back. They may hate Obamacare, but I believe they are quite happy with government providing a health care safety net.

There is a place for compassion but it is not via the force of government arms. Compassion belongs to individuals and their voluntary associations. There is no such thing as a compassionate government.

You would force all of the rest of us to support your compassion. How do you reconcile such a thing? You would cause the IRS to seize my personal property in order to help those you believe should be shown compassion.

There is nothing to stop you from spending ALL of your wealth to help someone. You even said you would risk your life so what is spending all you have compared to that? So go ahead and have at it but DO NOT force the rest of us to go along with it.

You mention if people do not pay they should get help but less than those who pay. I am curious where does your compassion end? After you have the government take our money to pay for getting the dying man off the street, will you also have us pay for his kidney transplant? You wouldn’t pay for it personally would you? Even though you would die helping him from getting run over buy a bus.