saarein

Please read the link I have added here. It is a letter to Mr. Obama concerning a better way to go with Health Reform. Phttp://www.galen.org/component,8/action,show_content/id,13/blog_id,1143/category_id,2/type,33/

Please, I think we have beat this dead horse enough! We will have to agree to disagree on this subject. There are those of us who will not just sit by and accept everything that is hand fed to us. No matter what anyone tells us, we have our principles and ideas of what is right and wrong. I really do think we need a way to vent our frustrations of this mess in a more pragmatic way; taking more of my hard earned money out of my paycheck so other people can enjoy the "right" of having insurance is not the way!

i do think it is the holy grail along with the declaration of independence and the magna carta. i hold these documents in high esteem along with the brave men and women who risked life and limb to give you and me the freedoms we enjoy. i, too, am finished with this thread for other reasons not mentioned here, but very obvious.

Your basic innate recognition of a human right to healthcare would be the compassion of healing and care-giving, not robbing from me and giving to others who have had the chance to prosper and pull themselves up by the bootstraps the way I learned to do. I grew up in a very poor neighborhood and was among those who were looked upon as being dirt poor, but my father decided that his children were not going to be labeled the same way he had been. I was the first in my family (both sides) to graduate from college. I find it very discouraging when those in power and some of us not in power to lower all the standards so those who are "less fortunate" may be able to be taken care of. Well, it is my experience that if there are no expectations, you will not go that extra mile to prove that you are able to. I don't mind helping, I give to my church and also give on a regular basis to four charities. I have heard over the years people stating that a person can be one heartbeat away from being homeless(homeless, by the way, does not always mean one is out on the street or sleeping in cars; it can mean you just don't have a place of your own. You could be living with relatives or friends). I beg to differ with them, I will not be homeless. My fathers display of hard work (working 2 jobs all his life) and his wanting to give his children a future has been enough for me to know that the human spirit is stronger than those in power want us to believe. Times have changed and I'm sure there are plenty of people who don't remember when there wasn't a lot of free things. Those were hard times, I certainly remember, but my family got through it. I'm sorry if I have been rambling on and on, but I just don't understand the mind-set of people who will not or think they cannot take care of their own.

Just as I posted before, if one disagrees with the majority then that one person is made to feel as if they have three heads or are Attilla the Hun. Yes, I am in the healthcare industry and no I don't think one of the rights of a human being is healthcare. I don't think the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence points out that one of my rights is healthcare. I have the right for the pursuit of happiness and taking out 44% of my husband's and mine income is not a pursuit of my happiness. I don't understand how anyone could possibly not think that our taxes will go up with this estimated trillion dollar business our government is thinking about going into and will have to grow another teet on that old sow for everyone to step up to the trough to partake. I also think that Marx had another idea in that statement. I'm sure he meant that everyone should be equal and that equality means that the government takes from those who can afford to give to those who can't afford. I'm all for helping those who can't help themselves, but not at the expense of those of us who try to go by the rules and still cannot get ahead. No, I don't want anyone to suffer and how dare you imply that I would like that!! And the attitudes I was brought up with were wonderful. I was taught rsponsibility, respect, honesty, and question everything. I respectfully disagree with you about everyone who has had UHC loving it. I work with a few people who have come from those countries and they didn't like it and saw lots of flaws in it. Sure, they don't like our system, either, and neither do I. I'm a capitalist and feel that we need to add more competition for the insurance companies, and our government should not be in the insurance business. We have had a lot of changes since January 20th, and all the changes have cost us, our children, and our grandchildren a lot of money, so do we need to push this through at the speed of light, too? I'm sorry that I cannot jump into step with everyone else on this post and maybe I should just unsubscribe to "allnurses.com" altogether. I don't want to argue and bicker about this and yes, I do not think we can resolve this and I know we will not do it if those of us who disagree continually get reprimanded and accused of not being compassionate. That makes us dig our heels in all the more!

How is it that everyone is paying? There are people who do not work and pay taxes. So how do they pay? If they don't pay now, how will they pay with the "free healthcare"? Medicaid will not go away, so those of us who do pay taxes still pay for Medicaid and will then pay for the "free insurance plan", too. I do have another question, what happens when those of us who do have insurance through our employers find that those employers do not want to contribute anymore because it's too expensive and "besides the employee can get free healthcare that the government is offering"? I am not in the mindset for the government to take care of me. That is not their job, it is my job. There is a slippery slope we are coming to and we need to think with the intelligence God has given us and think of a better way. There is a quote from Karl Marx that makes the hair on the nape of my neck stand up and it is "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs". Isn't that what we do now?

Thank you so much for saying what had to be said! I try not to write too many replies because of my politics, which do lean to the right. Every time I have replied to a touchy subject I feel I get attacked by those who would want to stiffle my opinion. If by chance I want to take my opinion further I am made to feel guilty because either, quoting from someone from this thread the other day, "I'm either taking care of me and mine", or "I don't care about anyone else". I do care about people and how they receive healthcare. For goodness sakes I am a nurse! I do wish we could have intelligent conversations without resorting to name calling or accusatory language. This is a very emotionally charged subject and we, as nurses, know this first hand. But there is something else we must think about and that is not to jump to conclusions about other people's freedom of speech and freedom of opinions. We all have different areas of nursing that we are specialists in. Mine is pediatrics. I have been a school nurse for 10 years and have never seen a child turned away from medical care. In fact, I have begged parents to take their children to the doctor. If they do not have private insurance, they usually have Medicaid or there are several free clinics in my county they can take them to. But I still have to beg these parents to take them even to the free clinics. The only time I have seen a child not being able to receive healthcare is when an irresponsible parent will not take them and get the free healthcare. I take offense to anyone who states that there are some of us who have the mindset of taking care of our own first and not think twice about those who do not have what we may have. As a responsible human being and mother, yes I think of mine first, that's what I am supposed to do. No one else needs to take care of me or mine, that's my job. What a novel idea!

I think you are mistaken, it will not be everyone who will be paying. Not everyone now pays taxes. In fact there are a lot of people who get refunds from the government who do not pay into it. I think that is called earned income credit. I am a school nurse and I estimate that over 30% of the parents who's children I take care of have no job or do not want a job because there are too many "free" things out there for them. Now there will be "free" healthcare that I will be paying for. My husband has no employees with his business. I work to have insurance and I am confident that the 1400.00 I pay for insurance for the year will be a lot less than the hike in taxes to pay for those who have no insurance. There should be insurance reform or how about the judges not awarding millions of dollars to people whose common sense stopped working!

I would like to know how all this "free healthcare" is going to be paid for. Who is going to pay for it? Nothing is free! My husband and I already pay enough taxes for three people. He has his own business and with federal taxes (no state~we live in FL), medicare, business insurance, unemployment insurance, we see about 56% of our money. Now will we have more taxes taken out for "free healthcare"? Will I have to get a second job? Oh boy!

I'm sorry, but I don't quite believe the half truths of Michael Moore. Yes, I have watched all his documentaries and I have found that I don't quite like the way he spins his stories. I'm not ready to drink from Michael Moore's cup of kool-aide at this time.

I think it would be appropriate for fergus51 to update the US nurses with any changes that have occurred between her "lengthy post", which was written if you noticed in 2004, and now, 2009!

CONGRATS!!!!

How about "oldtimers". That's what I have heard from so many patients and some medical people!

If you get stung by fire ants and you can stand it use bleach and warm water. When I first moved here the dog and I stepped in a whole mess of fire ants. She had the good sense to get away from them right away, but I didn't know why she was jumping away from me until I felt the horrible pain in my feet and looked down and could barely see my feet! The lady next door brought out a pan filled mostly with bleach and a little bit of water. The pain dissipated within 30 seconds. My feet were covered with small raised blisters from the bites, though!

Not giving Td's for childhood vaccinations anymore. Age 11-12 they give Tdap now. For the last 4 years there has been a resurgence of Pertussis in the population and the Tdap covers that need. Over time we lose our immunity for Pertussis that we received from the Dtap.