Health Care: The Ticking Time Bomb

Nurses General Nursing

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  1. Would you support a public health care option?

    • 1527
      Yes, I support a "public option"
    • 1139
      No, it's a bad idea
    • 2180
      It depends on how it's structured

4,846 members have participated

Our health care system hurts everyone. Premiums are expensive and increasing every year. Doing nothing today will cost taxpayers 2-3 times more in the next few years.

Currently, the "public option" is the biggest obstacle when it comes to health care reform. Many believe that it will be the end of health care as we know it today - others think that it is long overdue.

Would you support a public health care option?

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"Why do people equate government sponsored insurance with limited access and choice? There isn't any evidence for this at all - it is a fear tactic being perpetuated by those who do not have all the facts."

Wrong. Tell me which docs are willing to "jump" through government hoops (and I mean the ones that are seriously good and seriously busy practices--who TURN AWAY patients). I know those docs are already saying, "I don't have to participate, therefore I won't." THOSE are MY docs. I don't want someone who is going to see me as "#7370303000403020030403--you can go in now." I DON'T THINK SO.

I will not--and I mean WILL NOT--be on anyone's waiting list.

My fave ortho surgeon has his PICK of patients--he's that damn good and I know two IM docs who don't take ANY insurance. AT ALL.

They have minimal overhead and explain to their patients that they are responsible for paying out of pocket. These two docs make house calls too.

Yes, I admit I live in a region where this exists.

But I tell you again, I am NOT going to wait because I've never had to and I'm not starting now.

Well, what a privileged response. Why should anyone give a **** when there are over 46 million Americans who can't see any doctor AT ALL?

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You people need to stop calling it FREE healthcare. Nothing is FREE. ONLY illegal aliens get their healthcare free. What I want to know is what percent of these undocumented are going to be covered under Obamas plan? and Why. What we need to do first is to amend some parts of constitution to exclude this group to be covered. Next, aLL politicians should be mandated to sign up for this same national healthcare reform(should this pass), including OBAMA. So far, only 42=Republicans have signed up for it, and 0=Democrats. Please petition against this reform. I for one am sick of covering for those we take advantage of the system. :heartbeatOnly the elderly, children and the disabled SHOULD be covered for Free healthcare. No No No for healthcare reform:nono: to all others. I have no problem paying for my insurance and working hard for it. Healthcare is not a RIGHT........work for it.

Not to get into a whole different debate, but "Illegal Aliens" generally pay even MORE for healthcare than citizens; most are W2 employees who have taxes deducted from their paychecks that never receive the refunds or social security they'd be entitled to if they were citizens. I could give you a bajillion links to support this if you'd like, but it sounds like you're the type who only believes that healthcare is only a human right extended to middle-class American citizens who speak the English :/

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I can't even believe this issue is up for DEBATE on a nursing forum.

Am I the only person on here that believes that healthcare is a fundamental human right, period?

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I can't even believe this issue is up for DEBATE on a nursing forum.

Am I the only person on here that believes that healthcare is a fundamental human right, period?

No but then I'ma a person without affordable or available healthcare. Sure I could go to the ER if things got really bad as Rush Limbaugh indicated this week. I still couldn't pay for it all the same. Since I was raised that it is dishonest to take things without paying for them, including services, health care is unavaiable to me.

I'm also not in favor of free healthcare either. I feel that people have a tendency not to abuse the system as much if they have to pay something for it.

Fuzzy

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Specializes in Critical Care (MICU, CICU, TNCC),.

Once again, health care is NOT a right.

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People have the right to smoke, drink, eat diets that will kill them and engage in risky behavior of all sorts. The issue is not about rights because if you work to support the above "choices" then why not work to support paying for your healthcare as well. If you can pay 5-6 dollars (many smoke more) a day for smoking (or whatever vice) then why not put 5-6 dollars a day towards health insurance. Then people truly needy of government help could get it. The problem is too many feel they are entitled to free care.

Toq

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I'm willing to pay for my healthcare. I just cannot afford the $750/month that I would have to pay through the state insurance pool. I cannot get private health insurance as I have pre-existing conditions. I've tried. Sure I could always go back on disability but I can work. My job doesn't provide health insurance. I don't want free health care. I want affordable and available health care.

Fuzzy, who does not drink, smoke, own a cell phone, have cable television, drives an old clunker, etc. Who gets tired of not being able to receive even the most basic health care due to the extreme out of pocket cost because she cannot get health insurance.

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Specializes in OB, HH, ADMIN, IC, ED, QI.
I can't even believe this issue is up for DEBATE on a nursing forum.

Am I the only person on here that believes that healthcare is a fundamental human right, period?

The quote below is from the preamble to the Universal Declaration, which was written on December 10, 1948 at the General Assembly of the United Nations that adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

"Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,"

If health isn't an inherent dignity, which needs to be available to all, equally and without exception for all human beings, so that there will be freedom, justice and peace for all, what is?

There's hardly anything that diminishes one's dignity more, than being ill, in pain, and anxious about the outcome of your disease. I've had cancer twice (two separate occasions of primary breast cancer of different cell structures), been victim of gross medical care while having a GI bleed (the location and cause of which is still unknown), and not allowed to continue my life saving medications.

I definitely reacted, and possibly overreacted to the above situations in very undignified ways, having lost my dignity. I did have health insurance coverage that was adequate but not all encompassing for the physical aspects of the illnesses. However the emotional impact was not addressed, which I believe is necessary to confront during any illness, or I wouldn't still be talking/writing about it so much later.

The bottom line is, (no matter what any individual claims as their viewpoint), adequate mental and physical health care is a human right, as it preserves "inherent dignity".

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If you read my post I never said there were not people that did deserve or need help/ assistance. I merely stated that there are people that do work the system and hurt the others that truly need help. I have also read many posts here by people that needed help at different times in their lives and government programs helped them to get back on their feet. I do feel if someone has the money to buy an unhealthy lifestyle (which is their right) they should not be entitled to take money away from people with true hardships.

Toq

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Specializes in OB, HH, ADMIN, IC, ED, QI.
If you read my post I never said there were not people that did deserve or need help/ assistance. I merely stated that there are people that do work the system and hurt the others that truly need help. I have also read many posts here by people that needed help at different times in their lives and government programs helped them to get back on their feet. I do feel if someone has the money to buy an unhealthy lifestyle (which is their right) they should not be entitled to take money away from people with true hardships.

Toq

You seem not to agree with many of those healthcare workers who work with the people who smoke tobacco, drink alcohol excessively, gamble to their detriment and overeat, who want to rid themselves of those pathological addictive disorders.

The very things you said "work the system", are diseases that could be more feasibly treated by the system. At this time, only celebrities and other rich members of our society, can afford treatment involving cleansing of toxic agents, in residential settings, away from the substances to which they are addicted. The government settings for that treatment would no doubt be less luxurious than the ones currently used, that cost fortunes. Right now, many of those who require treatment are in jail as a result of their illness. :madface:

The way Canada dealt with those who tried to abuse their universal system of healthcare, who weren't as incapacitated as they claimed, is to investigate cases to feret out those raising inequities that present "red flags". My sister was one of those investigators there. Unfortunately, just as there is a need for surveillance cameras in other businesses to use after burglaries occur, it's necessary to deal with people who obtain disability incomes while working for an employer who doesn't know their status regarding their health or lack thereof.

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Specializes in He who hesitates is probably right....

ObamaCare seems to be sputtering. My democratic representatives will not support it for fear of losing their offices and associated perks. Hopefully it will soon fly into the mountainside and be relegated to the trash heap of history.

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No where did I post that people with poor life choices would not get care. I again for the record stated that if one can afford 5-6 dollars a day for smokes why could they not put same amount into their healthcare. Why, Lamazeteacher, are you so opposed to people taking some ownership for their own care?

Toq

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