Monday, January 14, 2008

a thought about health-care

There is a difference between providing government-run health care, and in forcing everyone to pay for health insurance; the first involves paying taxes which go directly to health care (however "inefficiently", as conventional wisdom would have it), while the second involves paying taxes to a middle man who skims off some cash/profit before providing some kind health care (and by now we all know how well that system works).

The primary objection that Republicans have to government health care is that, like any tax-supported enterprise, the wealthiest citizens will pay more for the same service as the poorer ones do. This is why Republicans are trying so hard to push school vouchers (the true goal of NCLB), and why they support so enthusiastically the building of toll roads. If they could figure out how to charge per use on everything the government does, they would do it. See, if health-care is insurance-based, then everyone pays "equally" for it, whether they make $20,000 or $20,000,000. Change to a tax-based system, and your medical payments will be based on percentage of income, not raw dollars. Poor people will "get something for (practically) nothing", while the Rich will pay much more than they currently are for the same care.
Never mind the hidden benefits of such a system, America thinks only in terms of the ledger book these days, and it takes vision to see beyond the numbers and courage (or morality) to believe that there is something beyond the money those columns of numbers represent.

Republicans (not necessarily conservatives, but Republicans) are selfish and anti-society; they dont really care about society at large, just their own narrow portion of it. This is quite obvious not only by their actions, but often even in their words. Until the public figures this out and removes them completely from power (or at least puts a check on that power), America will continue to decline.

derived from a comment at Newsguy's blog
the more things change... no wait, they havent changed AT ALL!!!Bear in mind, this cartoon is from 1993!

2 comments:

United We Lay said...

I would rather have universal care even if I have to pay higher taxes. I don't want to have to consider leaving the country if my son gets sick or getting surgery while on "vacation" so that I don't have to pay as much asd I would here for it. Seriously, my dental work is done in Colombia because it's cheaper and the care is just as good. We considered giving brith to my son in Canada so that he would be a citizen and could receive care as necessary. That should NOT be a major concern in the waeliest country in the western world.

daveawayfromhome said...

Until the idea of "deserving" only what you can pay for is eliminated from the thinking of a large number of Americans, nothing is going to change in this country, not with health care, not with education, not with criminal justice, not with drug addiction, not with anything.