Should Healthcare Be Funded As A Basic Human Right?

This article looks at funding healthcare as a basic human right. It examines what is a basic human right. It looks at the need for re-examinaton of the health care system in the United States. Is health care a right or a privilege? By looking at the number of uninsured and who they are, we ask if everyone has the same access to health care. We examine traditional methods of funding and use the Medicare model as a framework. Nurses Activism Article

You are reading page 9 of Should Healthcare Be Funded As A Basic Human Right?

Actually you were not. The poster I WAS referring to addressed my comment already.

Then I apologize... Jokes on me, huh?

Oh, I don't know...maybe it has something to do with the people suffering daily health problems that they can't get taken care of because they don't have insurance, such as overwhelming depression because of the struggles they are going through, perhaps it could also have to do with the fact that they can't improve themselves without some type of education, which involves a time commitment many don't have because they are most likely working well over 40 hours per week if not working more than one job and may be a single mother with no one to help with kids and housework so she can do homework after working a ten hour day. Many don't know they can do any better because their life is all they know and is passed down through the family, they don't know the resources available to them, they are completely overwhelmed and feel helpless...the list goes on....the world is not black and white PRICHARILLA.

This misperception that everyone who is poor is just lazy and looking for a handout is rampant and wrong, maybe you should get down here in the trenches with me and see for youself instead of sitting up on your high horse and judging people you know nothing about accept what you see on TV or hear from other people whose opinion mirrors your own. I mean, everyone who is fat is just lazy too, right?

Pets, You seem like a really nice person. You really do and I wish there were many more people like you out there. You wish the best for all even those who aren't willing to work for it. And I like people like that. They are very pleasant to be around. But every once in a while I hope they would take off their "Rose colored glasses." The world we live in is a FAR cry from what I imagine you think it is.

I ask in my post "Why should an adult have to be coaxed to try harder to take care of themselves instead of relying on society to do it," and you jumped to arms defended them. You are saying it's ok for them to give up and live off the rest of us until something better is handed to them! I'm not sure how I can convince you. I honestly believe that you will defend the unfortunate even if they admitted they just don't want to fend for themselves. I just can't debate those kinds of beliefs.

wooh, BSN, RN

1 Article; 4,383 Posts

Please think about that...

We have people on this forum who are working, yet can't afford health insurance. WORKING, and have no health insurance! WORKING, and have no health insurance. WORKING, and have no health insurance. WORKING, and have no health insurance. Yet you believe it is ok to fund the healthcare of those who don't even lift a finger to help themselves?

Does that really sound right to you? I'm asking.

I'm saying that I'd rather help everyone at the risk of helping a few who "don't deserve it" instead of screwing everyone, including those in this thread, just so I can punish those you think "don't deserve it."

CiscoNurse

47 Posts

The question is should healthcare be provided by the Government ? The answer is no. When healthcare becomes a gvt program then this is what happens.

No accountability, can't get fired, tough luck for the patients, all the good healthcare will be in privately owned hospitals here and abroad, the wealthy will always get the proper and best care, while the rest of us will get 3rd rate care or worse.

People who want this should work for a gvt agency first and experience surgery in a place like Cuba where its "free" .

There aint nothing free

I'm saying that I'd rather help everyone at the risk of helping a few who "don't deserve it" instead of screwing everyone, including those in this thread, just so I can punish those you think "don't deserve it."

Your heart is definitely in the right place. It is.

But wooh, it is MUCH more than a few. And I'm not saying I don't want to help, either. I DO want to help. I just don't want us (taxpayers) to do more for anyone than they are willing to at least TRY to do themselves.

But honestly, as noble as the sentiment is to help those in need, the bottom line is that it is plain WRONG to FORCE some to pay for the rest. Them not lifting a finger to help themselves just makes it worse. I'm just not a fan of the "Robin Hood" mentality.

Pets to People

131 Posts

Ma'am, The point is that they find the money to pay for luxuries, yet claim poverty when they are asked to fend for themselves. If they had health insurance, they would only be paying a small fraction of the Dr visit bill and only a co pay for their meds..

Of course they could if THEY HAD INSURANCE, that's the whole point. Most employers, especially those who pay low wages, do not offer insurance and even if they do, or if the person choses to purchase insurance on their own, they cannot afford it. This cost is more than they pay in rent, even if they are not on section 8 (which by the way does not cover the entire amount of rent), heck for us it's more than we make in month. Insurance through my husbands job would cost us $900 a month for the three of us and he makes $700.

Pets to People

131 Posts

Plus those MRI machines cost a ******* fortune ;) They kinda have to be on the expensive side.

I'm sure they pay them off completely within a few years, if not less.

And as someone else said "ain't nothin free", well then how about not free but affordable, based on a persons income, so that it's not a handout but they can still have healthcare access?

Pets to People

131 Posts

But every once in a while I hope they would take off their "Rose colored glasses." The world we live in is a FAR cry from what I imagine you think it is.

I ask in my post "Why should an adult have to be coaxed to try harder to take care of themselves instead of relying on society to do it," and you jumped to arms defended them. You are saying it's ok for them to give up and live off the rest of us until something better is handed to them! I'm not sure how I can convince you. I honestly believe that you will defend the unfortunate even if they admitted they just don't want to fend for themselves. I just can't debate those kinds of beliefs.

Why do people assume that people are poor because they are lazy or unwilling to help themselves? There are so many other factors involved, and sometimes a person just needs a little help, and some need a lot. They don't need a handout, they need a hand up. Who determines who's worth it? Aren't we all worth it? And not you or anyone else will ever convince me otherwise.

And I can assure you I have lived without rose colored glasses since my first memories. I have seen the absolute worse in people and have been drug though hell and back, but it has not hardened my heart. I I am an example of someone who can come from the worse type of life and with a little help and a lot of determination, can become a self-sufficient, tax paying college graduate.

wooh, BSN, RN

1 Article; 4,383 Posts

But wooh, it is MUCH more than a few.

It's not as many as you imagine it is. (But I'm sure imagining it's a lot calms your conscience.) So punishing those lazy you people imagine are lurking on every street corner is worth thumbing your nose at folks like PforP that can't afford insurance?

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN

1 Article; 20,908 Posts

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

There are also people who through no fault of their own...done everything right....worked a good job, worked hard all their life, paid more that their fair share of taxes, and been a n upstanding citizen and employee that have fallen on hard times or been stricken with a debilitating/catastrophic disease who have lost their jobs, their insurance and now are "UN-insurable" and are denied insurance. Does this mean they don't "deserve" healthcare? That they are better left for dead and kicked to the side of the road as unworthy?

There is a growing population of working poor, especially in suburban America, who bust their behinds..... working 2 and 3 mediocre jobs.....to give their family the best possible life..... that don't offer insurance because corporate greed is too cheap to lose their profit margin and simply cannot afford commercial insurance and make too much money to receive assistance, they simply don't qualify....that go to the emergency room for basic care because they can't be told "no you can't have an appointment because you don't have insurance" or cash up front before we will treat you. Who come to the ED because they are give an appointment 3 months down the road because that is the next medicare/medicaid appointment available.

You never know when you will find yourself in that place..There but for the Grace of God go I.

The system is completely broke...shattered into pieces. I know this personally these days.....I don't know if it can be fixed. Being ill has been....shall I say....enlightening, unpleasant, shocking, and disappointing. Words cannot express what I have experienced as a new chronic consumer (chronic being the key word). Appalling...and I have insurance....at least for now.

But I also know that healthcare should not be doled out according to the ability to pay.....that only those who pay receive....for then we are deciding who lives and dies by their wallet....and that's not right....the first true of medicine is...Do No Harm.

texashyles

47 Posts

Specializes in Med-Surge, ER, GI Lab/Scopes.

Should Healthcare be a Basic Human Right? What about protection of property, finances, the ability to make and then bring home a decent wage? These rights are being trampled. The lack of checks and balances in the Medicaid system is putrid. I do not believe that people who can afford cigarettes, alcohol, street drugs, and other luxury items should be given food stamps and free cell phones. I do believe that monitoring of such behavior should be mandated to protect my rights. If abuse of the system were to be significantly decreased, programs such as education and job training assistance could and should be strongly advocated. Some people simply do not know how to become self-sustaining.

Fuzzy

370 Posts

The thing of it is, the dead beats area already covered. They know how to work the system. Unfortunately there are generations of them. People in low paying jobs cannot afford insurance and their employers do not even provide it. Ask the person at the convenience store; dog groomer; housekeeper; motel maid; waiter/waitress; etc. if they have health insurance. I can tell you that most will tell you no. Yet this people add a valuable service to the commuinty. Plus keep in mind that they want to work. Think about it, they could easily become one of the deat beats. All they would have to do is stop working and claim that they cannot be employed. Sadly some of them would probably bring home a larger "paycheck" if they weren't working.

Fuzzy