OP, do you believe that people over age 65 should have Medicare or do you think everyone at those ages should have to pay for private insurance?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Since healthcare must be performed by others and has to be paid for, how is it a right? If it is a right, what does that look like? Free neighborhood clinics or cancer treatment at MD Anderson?

When did having roads become a right?

Or fire stations?

The interstates or a Navy?

Those are not rights, and no one has ever said they were rights.

And yet, our country provides them all without question or issue.

Anonymous wrote:Since healthcare must be performed by others and has to be paid for, how is it a right? If it is a right, what does that look like? Free neighborhood clinics or cancer treatment at MD Anderson?

Let's turn the question differently....what is more expensive, having people running to emergency rooms with every malady or condition, or...providing once a year check ups with proactive medicine to catch things before they become acute. And, while you are pondering this question, consider that every industrialized country in the world has universal healthcare or some version of it.

Anonymous wrote:
How do you feel about public schools, OP?
I’m guessing you are also like:
Why should I pay to educate someone else’s child?
Why should I pay for roads I don’t drive on?
Why should I pay for fire stations that will likely never benefit me?
Stop enslaving me to pay for schools, roads, and emergency services I don’t use, waah waah waah

I’m guessing if a poor person breaks their arm, you want them to die of sepsis? Too bad for them, huh.


No, I accept that the democratic process and policies of our lawmakers have led to public schools. I would vote for public schools any day and support paying for them. I understand that roads are fundamental to the economy and support them. Fire stations - the same. I would even support a bond measure to raise money (weirdly some municipalities rely on volunteers to put out fires, yet provide free housing to illegal immigrants). I am not opposed to some level of healthcare, but what is provided on medicaid is far above what I would support. Neighborhood clinics for preventive health and life, limb, and eyesight emergent care seems appropriate - and some program for children who need care and treatment for illnesses. Definitely not some insurance scheme that enriches for-profit health systems.

Okay. So the title of your thread is misleading. You obviously believe in some healthcare as a right. So what level of care do you consider "above what you would support"? Do you believe that Medicare is an "insurance scheme"? Please cite the for-profit health systems that are being enriched by Medicare and how that enrichment is taking place. Sounds like you may be worried about fraud (which definitely needs to be prosecuted).

Not a right but goes along with “to provide for the general welfare of the people.”

No person should be financially destroyed for a health issue due to insufficient funds or insurance. However, the US treasury shouldn’t be destroyed paying for ordinary care like aspirin.

Somewhere between “government pays it all” and “the citizen pays it all” is a reasonable solution.

What that solution may be, I have no idea.

Anonymous wrote:Probably appropriate to mention, there were roads *before* there were taxes.

Our interstate highway system has been crucial to establishing the US as a thriving economy. We make choices as a society based on our values and what we believe will benefit the common good. We express these choices through collective action via government. Always have. Always will.

This is such an unserious conversation.

The word "right" means different things in different contexts. If we're talking about Lockean natural rights, then sure, healthcare is not one of those. In other contexts, the word "right" refers to a legal entitlement created by statute, like intellectual property rights or the right to a public education. It is not inaccurate to say that children have a right to a public education in the United States, even though that right is created by statute and not God.

The same is true here. When people say healthcare is a right, they're not talking about an Enlightenment-era conception of rights; they're saying that government should guarantee some degree of access to healthcare because it is so fundamental and necessary to a functioning society.

How do you feel about public schools, OP?
I’m guessing you are also like:
Why should I pay to educate someone else’s child?
Why should I pay for roads I don’t drive on?
Why should I pay for fire stations that will likely never benefit me?
Stop enslaving me to pay for schools, roads, and emergency services I don’t use, waah waah waah

I’m guessing if a poor person breaks their arm, you want them to die of sepsis? Too bad for them, huh.


+1 I'd wager that the OP went to public schools at some point and even if they didn't they have benefitted from research done in public universities.

And they have benefited from the work of those who went to public schools. We all work together here in America. We didn't become this great country without keeping people from being sick and the prevention of the spread of disease. Human beings are a great national resource even if you don't like your fellow man OP.

How do you feel about public schools, OP?
I’m guessing you are also like:
Why should I pay to educate someone else’s child?
Why should I pay for roads I don’t drive on?
Why should I pay for fire stations that will likely never benefit me?
Stop enslaving me to pay for schools, roads, and emergency services I don’t use, waah waah waah

I’m guessing if a poor person breaks their arm, you want them to die of sepsis? Too bad for them, huh.

+1 I'd wager that the OP went to public schools at some point and even if they didn't they have benefitted from research done in public universities.

Anonymous wrote:How do you feel about public schools, OP?
I’m guessing you are also like:
Why should I pay to educate someone else’s child?
Why should I pay for roads I don’t drive on?
Why should I pay for fire stations that will likely never benefit me?
Stop enslaving me to pay for schools, roads, and emergency services I don’t use, waah waah waah

I’m guessing if a poor person breaks their arm, you want them to die of sepsis? Too bad for them, huh.

No, I accept that the democratic process and policies of our lawmakers have led to public schools. I would vote for public schools any day and support paying for them. I understand that roads are fundamental to the economy and support them. Fire stations - the same. I would even support a bond measure to raise money (weirdly some municipalities rely on volunteers to put out fires, yet provide free housing to illegal immigrants). I am not opposed to some level of healthcare, but what is provided on medicaid is far above what I would support. Neighborhood clinics for preventive health and life, limb, and eyesight emergent care seems appropriate - and some program for children who need care and treatment for illnesses. Definitely not some insurance scheme that enriches for-profit health systems.

Anonymous wrote:Funny how no one dares to say what free health care is supposed to look like.

I lived in South Korea and when I took my child to the hospital for multiple tests and exams, I paid before I left and it was about $40 which was very affordable to me. Civilized healthcare is possible. And it looks amazing. I’m sorry you’re more concerned about insurance companies and their CEOs getting rich than you are about having a civilized society.

Anonymous wrote:America elected Trump to Make America Great Again. Barack Obama did NOTHING to help get the poisons out of our food. At least Trump got FORMER Democrat RFK on board to do something productive.

Obama did NOTHING.

WHAT? Michelle Obama faced horrible opposition from Republicans for trying to get the poison out of school lunches for kids. Where were you? Oh- probably calling her names.

Anonymous wrote:America elected Trump to Make America Great Again. Barack Obama did NOTHING to help get the poisons out of our food. At least Trump got FORMER Democrat RFK on board to do something productive.

Obama did NOTHING.

And of course sleepy joe did nothing either.

America elected Trump to Make America Great Again. Barack Obama did NOTHING to help get the poisons out of our food. At least Trump got FORMER Democrat RFK on board to do something productive.

Obama did NOTHING.

Anonymous wrote:Nobody has the "right" to free labor of another human being or the "right" to take another person's money to pay for free services.

It is charity given by the grace of others.

The entitlement attitude is childish and gross.

I don’t think anyone is saying medical providers should give away free labor.

The doctors and nurses etc. would still be paid with government-sponsored insurance. Just like they get paid with Medicaid and Medicare.

It’s one thing to say you don’t want your tax dollars paying for universal healthcare. I disagree with you, but at least there is some logic behind the opinion. But to feign outrage over people being expected to give away free labor is stupid because this isn’t being proposed.

Perhaps there could be a program where doctors can work for less money for student loan forgiveness, which has helped with other industries like law. That would have the double benefit of making healthcare more affordable and allowing more people a path to afford medical school.

Also no one would be “taking” anyone’s money. It’s called taxation and spending. Personally I don’t agree with my tax dollars being used on ICE raids and the iron dome, but I can’t claim the money has been “taken.”

Basically you really don’t sound as clever as you think you do and it is clear you don’t really understand how the constitution or government works. I’m hoping you are a bot and not a real person.