Do You Want Universal Healthcare?

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I know this topic has been discussed before on this site..but, I was curious for an updated response. How many of you would be willing to pay more taxes for universal healthcare? I find it egregious that the US has put a cost on maintaining/saving ones life! I traveled to Europe and the thought of them having to bring their checkbook to the hospital aroused literal laughs. It's the same notion that we'd have to whip out our debit card to firefighters before they turned the hoses on our burning homes. It's sad. I think the overall costs of UH would be beneficial...in fact, the raised taxes would still probably be lower than our rising premiums every 2 weeks! Thoughts?

Specializes in Med Surg/Tele/Ortho/Psych.

TreeDoc, you asked about my family and why I didn't ask them for help. My mother was dead of a drug overdose since I was a little girl. No fault of my own. She abandoned me and my 2 sisters. My father was not healthy on many levels. My entire family are mentally ill and my 2 sisters had their own problems and were not able to help me. No fault of my own. I was basically homeless and indigent at the time. As I said I could not get help from the state because I was not pregnant or never had a child. I had to fin for myself. It was the worst time of my life. God had mercy on me.

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Oh. You can dish it out, but you cannot take it, huh? You are entitled to healthcare and the best of everything. I am not entitled to health care and now not entitled to my view point or opinion. I'm not buying it. You are gonna have to try to pitch it to someone else. I just hope nothing that has ever happened to me in the past happens to you.

I think this is called an ad hominem argument, usually employed to distract from the issue at hand. I have never stated I was entitled to anything, but you have.

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With all due respect, I don't want someone's religion involved with my paycheck. I'll decide who I want to help with it. I don't need the government or what Jesus did in the past deciding how to best spend my money.

I am not God. If there are hungry to feed and poor to shelter, then he can take care of it. Maybe I will. Maybe I won't. But it should be my decision, not a bunch of far right holy warriors or far left pity hippies forcing Uncle Sam to steal money out of my pocket to give away to those less fortunate.

And by the way, all that good fortune fell in my lap after I worked my ass off for many years in school while working many jobs. I have lots of debt and lots of callouses. But if you're feeling extra touchie feelie, feel free to send my some of your good fortune.

Amen.

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Things are about to get nasty. It's time to leave this debate.

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Specializes in Med Surg/Tele/Ortho/Psych.

I apologize if I have offended anyone. This is a very personal issue to me.

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TreeDoc, you asked about my family and why I didn't ask them for help. My mother was dead of a drug overdose since I was a little girl. No fault of my own. She abandoned me and my 2 sisters. My father was not healthy on many levels. My entire family are mentally ill and my 2 sisters had their own problems and were not able to help me. No fault of my own. I was basically homeless and indigent at the time. As I said I could not get help from the state because I was not pregnant or never had a child. I had to fin for myself. It was the worst time of my life. God had mercy on me.

No, I did not ask about YOUR family, I asked that rhetorically in the context of a previous post I had made. Obviously you have had a tough go of things and I wish you the best in the future.

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"Universal health care is a right..."

Who says? You? That's an opinion not a fact. Interestingly, I have the opposite opinion. In fact, I don't believe health care is a right at all. No one has a right to receive health care from some one else for free. No more than universal feeding is a right. Do you believe that McDonalds should give away their food just because you're hungry and have no money? Should Walmart give you clothes because you're naked and broke?

Do you really expect doctors and nurses and counselors to help you because you're sick and poor? Just do it for free because it's a nice thing to do? Do you think all that kindness will feed their families or pay their bills or pay for THEIR healthcare?

Do you really believe you have a right to my tax money to pay for your bypass? Do you exercise daily? Do you eat fatty foods? Are you fat? Are you lazy? Do you have the right to make me pay for all of that too? I think I have a right NOT to pay for your problems. I've got my own problems to pay for.

Instead of declaring our rights to this and that, maybe we should talk about our responsibilities. I have a right and responsibility to take care of myself, my family, my friends, and others. But it is MY right and responsibility to do so and to determine how I do so. No one else has a right or responsibility to make that decision for me. Not you or any government. Keep your god and government out of my pockets. I mean it.

"Providing health care to people who couldn't otherwise afford it should not even be a debate at all."

Shouldn't be a debate at all, huh? It should just be your decision and the rest of us should just abide it. No vote, no debate. I think perhaps you are in the wrong country.

See, this is a democracy. We debate everything and allow all opinions (no matter how absurd) to be expressed. Then we decide, together, which way is best. It's not perfect but it's a pretty good system.

You may feel more at home under an authoritarian regime such as North Korea or Iran. Travelocity has some good deals on one-way tickets.

See you (actually, we'll probably never see you again!) and good luck (you'll need it).

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I apologize if I have offended anyone. This is a very personal issue to me.

There's no need to apologize. We are here to opine! Important topics bring out the passion in us all. Sometimes we cross the line but we are not china dolls and those who can't take the heat generated from debates on important topics need to go crawl back under their security blankets or grow thicker skins. People need to stop being so damn sensitive and so easily offended and so quick to run to a lawyer or Big Brother to protect them.

As far as universal healthcare being a personal issue for you, well... there's nothing personal about "universal" healthcare. If you were talking about your own healthcare- that's personal. But you are talking about everyone providing healthcare for everyone else. There's nothing personal about that (unless it's personal for us all, and thus it's universal).

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"Envy" for Canada's socialism? Move. Go there and work and give your money to the government and let them redistribute it as they see fit. Please go now.

see this bothers me... I am pretty level headed as far as this whole debate, and most online conversations to be quite honest, but this.... sigh.

Our world will not EVER become a better place, if we do not stand up for what we believe in. If everyone just left the situation when they were not happy with it, think of how many broken homes we'd have and injustices left unaccounted for.

I love many things about this great country of the USA, but I detest our current healthcare system. I "envy" those universal healthcare systems. Does that mean I want to move to the frozen north or to Europe? Of course not. We do not have to reinvent the wheel. It's much more logical to look at the failings and successes of those around us and those who have come before us, and chose a system that we think will work best for us. That is, after all, why we study history isn't it? To analyze the actions we have already taken and try not to repeat the same mistakes.

My favorite quote as a teen, which holds true today...

"I do not agree with a word you say, but I will defend to my death your right to say it"

~Voltaire (attributed although I never did quite find the writing it came from)

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With all due respect, I don't want someone's religion involved with my paycheck. I'll decide who I want to help with it. I don't need the government or what Jesus did in the past deciding how to best spend my money.

I don't understand where you get the reference that this is a "holly rollers battle". I don't believe in "God" persay and feel no alliegence to people based on my religious preferences or lack there of. It doesn't take religion to make someone think that universal healthcare is a good choice.

FWIW, I am a pagan of sorts and my husband is a die hard athiest and we both feel very strongly that Universal Healthcare is the way to go. You don't have to agree, but to assume that its a religious movement is a fallicy. Religion doesn't provide the driving force in many of the other countries that have universal healthcare either.

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I work near the canadian border. Sometimes these people have to come to the U.S. for use of our cath lab, and other specialties such as our nuerosurgeons. Is this universal healthcare at its best?? What may happen if these people did not have the option of using our facilities in an emergency??

Please note that I love Canada, and the people there. My point is that a governmnent run healthcare system is a bad idea.

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I work near the canadian border. Sometimes these people have to come to the U.S. for use of our cath lab, and other specialties such as our nuerosurgeons. Is this universal healthcare at its best?? What may happen if these people did not have the option of using our facilities in an emergency??

Please note that I love Canada, and the people there. My point is that a governmnent run healthcare system is a bad idea.

Its not a perfect system. That doesn't mean we have to model ours EXACTLY like theirs. Its not a take or leave it scenario. Take what we want and leave the rest.

So lets give the option of privately subsidized healthcare more like they do in England.

My friend went to England with another friend right after we graduated high school. She was flat broke by the end and had saved every penny she could muster for a long time just to go. She slipped and fell and cracked her head open over there. She couldn't get over how great they treated her, and how nobody ever mentioned her finances or made her feel like she "owed" them something for helping her. They stitched her up and saw her for follow ups and everything, without complaint or expectation. I remember her saying how great it was to be treated and only have to worry about her injury and not about finances. She hates England (no offense to our nurses across the pond!) but loved their healthcare system.

Oh and as an addendum to my last post, beyond being non-Christians believing in Universal Healthcare, I also consider my family to be "middle class" as we are just around the $50k p/yr mark, so its not like we're impovershed and want universal healthcare so that we can get something for nothing. I'm all for paying for it...

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