Quote:
Originally Posted by Nate the great
So long as you attack me by impugning my motives there is no chance that we will come to an understanding. I have said this before, and I will say it again.
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I'm sorry you took my message personally. By "you" I meant the broad group of people who prefer to be uninsured. I was not attacking you personally nor impugning your motives.
I am glad that you are willing to pay for your medical care and I hope that you will always earn enough money to pay for it. And I think people who want to be excluded should be given the option of being excluded -- but be excluded entirely. Either pay in advance the estimated full cost of treatment or get no treatment no matter how uncharitable and cold-hearted that may seem. (Although I see it no more uncharitable or cold-hearted than their wanting to deny universal health care to the rest of us.)
The reality for most people who choose the route you chose is that they cannot afford to pay for medical care beyond perhaps a doctor's office visit. They simply do not earn enough to pay the costs.
I also know that I need -- I do not want, but need -- to take certain medications daily and that my copays for the medications run $270 per month and if I had to pay out of pocket the entire cost, it would run me $1728 per month. My illnesses are not lifestyle illnesses that can be cured by such expediencies as weight loss or cutting out fatty foods, as much as I wish the answers were so simple.
Few people can afford such payments over the long-term no matter how frugal they have been. And if they aren't covered by insurance before they need the medications, insurance won't cover it.
Americans should not be required to choose between decent health, decent housing, decent food, and decent education. America is a great nation because of the contributions made by all of its people and all of its people deserve decent health, decent housing, decent food, and decent education.
The reality in America is that fewer people would choose to go without health insurance if they knew there was no backup available that would be paid for by their fellow taxpayers. Libertarianism, like most other isms, is great until one needs a different ism and can't get it.
The other anomaly I note in all these arguments is that many of those opposed to national health care either have health insurance through their current employer or union, are already receiving a form of national health care such as through the VA or Medicare, are economically in the top tier of wage earners, or are young and in the prime of life and have not yet experienced the devastation -- emotional and economic -- that lack of health insurance can cause when struck (or a family member is struck) by a sudden debilitating disease. This is one of those causes that requires a more christian perspective of putting oneself in the shoes of the needy rather than in one's own shoes.