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Your premise that care should be denied those who cannot afford it is sickening, and even if you are heartless enough not to mind wading through dying people on the curb of every hospital the majority of society won't accept that. So, since denying care became untenably selfish around the invention of the car (and even more so in the last sixty years as income disparity has increased exponentially) lets move forward to finding the most effective method of providing care.
I think you are misunderstanding the fundamental problem. I don't think there is a lot of argument that if a hobo or some other person that has nothing is OD'ing on heroin in an ER they are going to get treated for free, or if a poor mom brings her kid in having an allergy attack and has no insurance they aren't just going to be like, well fuck you should've bought insurance. Even republicans are okay with this, the big problem is the middle class people that put in 40 hour work weeks every week, and maybe own a home, maybe don't, pay their bills, contribute to society, but aren't provided benefits through their employer. I've gone without health care for a couple of years now until I got it through work, and let me tell you, just to have catastrophic coverage is like a hundred a month. So someone that doesn't make 50-60k a year individually has no chance at affording insurance. Then if you have kids, or a spouse that needs coverage too, you are fucked. A car accident or a serious flu could bankrupt you, straight up. If your idea is that every sick person should just die, well that would probably solve the problem eventually, but what kind of country do you want to live in? And don't give me the charity argument we all know thats bs.
Yeah I don't disagree with this, I'm just saying it is a huge burden for people that don't make a lot of money to have to pay for health insurance out of pocket, and one that many people simply cannot do. For many people, the numbers just don't add up. I'm not saying I'm pissed that my catastrophic was 100 a month, it beats the shit out of a 30k emergency surgery, thats why I had it. But lets say I got pnuemonia with my catastrophic insurance. I'm a healthy guy, young, could probly fight it off if I went to the doctor, but my insurance says I gotta wait until I'm about to die to get covered, so I do. Then we are at the point that what could've been solved with like 300 bucks is now 5 grand in the hospital. This isn't a perfect example, but the point I'm trying to make is that there is an argument to be made that, since the taxpayer has to foot the bill for this shit all day long anyway, it might as well be done in the most cost effective way possible. Not that everyone should get a bunch of shit for free.
Have you ever read the preamble, homie?
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
I see that right there as good enough authorization for me...
Honestly, society is mostly to blame for obesity and diabetes. Why else would heart disease be the number one killer in america? Its because all our natural resources are gone. You have no choice but to eat the processed corn starch and soy products that the government subsidizes for you to get fat and die early from. In the old days, you could hunt. You could grow your own food. You could own land and rebuild your house from the trees that still existed if it burned down. Not anymore, the corporate fascists have taken all of that from the rightful owners- the people. We are forced into economic slavery, only distracted by consumerism and appeased to keep quiet about it by the majority that earn a "living wage" . The government has stood idly by while corporate interests have taken everything from us, so we are forced into this bullshit artificial survival that we cannot escape. Fuck personal responsibility, it doesn't exist anymore. Fuck the government and fuck big business, and fuck you too.
what other legitimate options? ER visits? these are still payed for by taxpayers and are extremely expensive.
I think that if the majority of the citizens of a republic believe providing health care to all to be the moral and correct decision, then it is totally legitimate to collect and spend revenue as needed. That's kind of the point of democratic government.