Thread: Seriousness American Health Care
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Old 09-10-2009, 07:17 PM   #178
fugazied
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I travel to Australia a lot and health care is a universal human right there as well. Many industrialized nations have health care for their citizens so yes the US is at odds with the norm.

The big problem for the US is the fact there are so many vested interests in the current system. Many hospitals, insurance companies and drug companies make millions with costly treatments and medications (which cost 25% as much in other countries). So it is like there is a lot of price goughing going on.

Combine that with the fundamentalist free market doctrine of republicans and you have a lot of opposition to what most countries see as a human right.

I personally believe a citizen should have some basic rights - food, shelter, clothing, medical care. So even if you come from an incredibly disadvantaged background or have terrible 'luck' and have a string of illnesses, you can still have a chance at the American dream. In Australia they call it 'a fair go'. The fundamental premise that the disadvantaged deserve a helping hand so they get to the stage where they can use their skills to participate in society.

Many Americans go bankrupt if they get sick or die because the insurance company denies coverage. It's not right and both sides of politics need to work at it. At the moment the republicans seems to want to side with corporations yet again and ignore the 50 million Americans without a safety net.
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