Do You Want Universal Healthcare?

Published

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?

whoops! Be careful. Do you know how many divorced women with children are working full time jobs and going to school to become a nurse?

steph

I meant single and poor... Those divorced women that have 2 kids and go to school are either getting assistance, had money or have support from family.

Not everyone has money, not everyone has family. School support is no different than health support IMHO. Support is support and many people need it at one time or another.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
I meant single and poor... Those divorced women that have 2 kids and go to school are either getting assistance, had money or have support from family.

Not everyone has money, not everyone has family. School support is no different than health support IMHO. Support is support and many people need it at one time or another.

mmmmmm . . that isn't true either. Look out! Better duck! :eek:

:redbeathesteph

Up Vote Up Vote ×
mmmmmm . . that isn't true either. Look out! Better duck! :eek:

:redbeathesteph

A Pell grant is support. No way a woman with 2 kids can pay for school AND everything else on minimum wage. Especially where I live... You can't even rent a room on minimum wage where I live. YOu would have to get Section 8 at the very least. Which is support.

Of course if she had perfect credit she could finance school but credit is a different thread...

Up Vote Up Vote ×
A Pell grant is support. No way a woman with 2 kids can pay for school AND everything else on minimum wage. Especially where I live... You can't even rent a room on minimum wage where I live. YOu would have to get Section 8 at the very least. Which is support.

i agree.

there has to be other means of support.

leslie

Up Vote Up Vote ×

There isn't one person who has posted on this thread who has not received tax payer support at one time or another in their lives for infrastructure, health care and/or education.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.
oh my gosh madwife . .. . . I thought to myself "why is she posting that smilie with triangle-shaped nurses cap waving in the breeze?".

I put the cursor over it and saw "truce" . . . :clown: ah, it is a white flag. I'm a dunce. Or maybe that is a dunce cap. :D

steph

LOL:chuckle

Up Vote Up Vote ×

My impression is that divorced women with children who work and go to school get loans that they pay back. That is not the same as universal healthcare. Child support is definitely not the same as UHC. Scholarships are not the same as UHC.

steph

Up Vote Up Vote ×
My impression is that divorced women with children who work and go to school get loans that they pay back. That is not the same as universal healthcare. Child support is definitely not the same as UHC. Scholarships are not the same as UHC.

steph

scholarships and child support are still forms of income that enable one to go more forward in their life, than others.

they are still support systems.

many, many others do not have these.

i very much admire and encourage all who make sacrifices in order to prosper.

but we're still not addressing those who just cannot do this w/o support.

as a society, it's time that we did.

just by virtue of being spiritual human beings, we are all connected.

and we need to hold ea other up.

ok, i'm rambling.

but scholarships and child support both, are notable aids in enabling someone to succeed.

everyone deserves the same chance.

leslie

Up Vote Up Vote ×
My impression is that divorced women with children who work and go to school get loans that they pay back. That is not the same as universal healthcare. Child support is definitely not the same as UHC. Scholarships are not the same as UHC.

steph

Philosophically they are from the same branch. (Most) student loans are taxpayer subsidized. Scholarships are usually a combination of tax payer support and private fundraising. In reality the problem with health finance is that we have people who are not paying into the system. Our system needs to have everyone paying into the health care system.

We also have obscenely expensive administrative costs. Why should I pay 31% of my contribution towards health care in administration and profits? Medicare can do it for 3%. If we want to have a private insurance system than private insurance should operate with no more than 5% administrative costs. Their profit can be generated by delivering BETTER and CHEAPER care than the 3% figure of medicare. IOW if they cut their administrative costs below 3% that is their profit margin.

A 2% income tax in lieu of premiums is much cheaper for the average middle class family.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ER/Ortho.
This just goes on and on and on....

Who made the decision to work there (at Wal-Mart)? I don't work there.

A couple of times in my life I've been down and out. I always, always pull myself up with little assistance from anyone else.

After years of doing without, I got myself educated and got a good job. Six years ago I was making big money at a local business. One day, I was dismissed due to downsizing. My next job was for $6.50 per hour. I worked nights and weekends, went back to college during the days, and pulled myself up again. Today I am a Registered Nurse, able to take care of myself and my family. And yes, as part of the benefits I get, my company has an insurance plan. My field is such that if they don't provide insurance I could go somewhere else and get it, so they must provide. Such is the decision I made to look out for myself and my family. I choose not to spend money that I don't have. I choose not to be in debt. My car is 14 years old. I buy new clothes when the old ones wear out. My furniture is old and ugly, but usable. Money that I earn goes into my bank account and I pay my bills from it. My bills are less than my income, so I save money. It's called carrying your own weight.

I'm old, ugly, and stupid, but, I pulled myself up. Why can't others do that?

Lets look at this. Here in Dallas min wage is currently $6.55 an hour. It actually just went up to that amount a week or so ago. Anyway, lets say a woman with 3 kids leaves a domestic violence situation. She grew up in the ghetto, she dropped out of school to run away from her father who molested her. She now has an 8th grade education. She is not the sharpest tack in the box, and when she was tested in school her IQ was in the low 80's. She has low self esteem, and post traumatic stress from being molested by her father, and then beaten and raped by her husband. Her social skills are well below average because she grew up where she did around the people that raised her. She gets a job making min wage. This means she makes $262 a week before taxes, and $1048 a month. Now I know that back 15 years ago I paid for daycare for two kids. It cost me $236 every two weeks, and thats $118 a child for two weeks. If she has three thats $354 every two weeks, and $708 a month. Remember that these were the prices I paid 15 years ago I can only deduce that it would be more expensive now. Lets just assume she is paying day care prices from 15 years ago, and that leaves her with $340 a month, or $85 a week. She has three kids, and no husband so she can't easily work a second job. Her kids are already in daycare all day. She must find a way to pay rent, buy food for 4, pay for transportation to get all her kids to daycare and home, and her to work. She must pay for her electricity, water, gas, sewer, garbage pickup, and if she is to better herself pay for her tuition and books while also covering daycare for her to go to school. She must do this with the $85 a week she has left minus the taxes, social security etc they take from her check. We havent even thought about how she would dress herself and her children, pay from laundry, soaps, shampoos, medical care, and medications.

So tell me how is she supposed to stretch that $85 to do that with no help?

I would like you to tell me that. Remember she cannot get family help, daycare assistance, foodstamps, medicaid, free sitting, wic, grants, or any type of assistance. So tell me how can this woman get to where you are now.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
First let me say that I totally agree with the post that stated teenagers are brain damaged.....they are driving me insane. They think they know EVERYTHING. Instead of letting young girls take care of a robotic baby in home economics they need to give them a teenager for a week, and a list of things they must get the teen to do. That would cut down on teen pregnancy.

Anyway, back to the actual subject matter. My teen son recently got a job a Walmart. He is a teen so his money pays for his bills (car, cell phone, car insurance, fun money etc), but there are many adults who work there who actually have adult bills to pay. They must pay rent, electric, water, gas, food, etc for their family. My son makes $8 an hour which is only $1.45 above minimum wage. We opted out of the insurance package they offer.

It clearly states on the cover of the brochure that if you have other insurance do not cancel it because this is not a major medical policy. The employee pays something like $20 twice a month out of each check. Which doesn't sound like much, but when your only making $8 an hour it is. You then select a Dr from a list, and after a $50 deductable you only pay $15 to for each Dr. visit. There is also a $50 deductable for prescriptions, and then the employee must pay half of the cost of prescriptions. There is NO vision or dental. Here is the kicker. The max the policy will pay is $1000. When you see the Dr. if he charges $120 a visit, and you pay $15 then $105 goes toward the $1000. If you get prescriptions that total $100 then $50 goes to toward that $1000. If the Dr orders blood work, or an MRI any cost after your $15 goes toward that $1000. Once that $1000 is reached nothing else is paid, and you know longer have insurance for the rest of the year.

I am sure that if someone was in an auto accident, had a baby, required surgery, or even needed tests to diagnose something this insurance would not even start to cover the cost. Or think about the person who is a diabetic or has some other chronic illness.

I researched it, and this is the same insurance offered to Target, home depot, and starbucks employees as well as many more well known companies.

There people are not lazy they work every week.

Just recently in the paper, a woman who worked at Walmart, and had their insurance, and was in a severe auto wreck, not her fault. Collected a large sum of money from the accident that was going to pay for the hospitalization and rehab that she needed to completely recover. Walmart put a lien on the $$ and tried to take almost every penny of it to pay them back for the $$ that it cost for her hospitilization and post accident rehab. They would have taken the entire amount until the family went to the media and made Walmart look like the Scrooge of the century. The negative publicity pressured Walmart to eventually back down and let the woman keep the entire award. If she had lost that money to Walmart, the taxpayers would have paid for this woman's rehab. That is how companies like Walmart work.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Spokane, Washington

Up Vote Up Vote ×
there isn't one person who has posted on this thread who has not received tax payer support at one time or another in their lives for infrastructure, health care and/or education.

exactly. everyone here has at one point received public aid. whether as a child get something subsidized or federal student loan or something else. most have family members getting medicare or medicaid or some sort of help as well.

just by virtue of being spiritual human beings, we are all connected.

and we need to hold ea other up.

one of the biggest arguments used in this country. mostly by conservatives is that this nation was built on christian principles. conservatives use that line all the time. ok, jesus was all about helping people. time to start practicing what you preach...

our system needs to have everyone paying into the health care system.

many people benefit from services they don't pay into. pell grants go to people that by virtue can't pay. welfare, medicare, medicaid. why should uhc be different. we always will have people that can't pay.

ahem, let me get on a pulpit and say that everyone has a duty and moral imperative to help the other. if the conservatives won't do that, then frankly, the next time they try to push something for a religious reason they can stuff it. in for a penny then in for a pound. this is a christian nation or it isn't... the conservatives really need to get their story straight.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion