Question of the Week 3; Should healthcare be universal?

[La Femme Fatale]

Just to let you guys know, if there's any topic you want to see discussed here, please message me about it. I'm not really sure of what kind of issues y'all want to talk about. Anyway, this one ends April 5th.

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Some of you may know that President Obama recently passed a healthcare reform bill, including the The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. For various reasons, Republicans and conservatives are still overwhelmingly opposed to health care reform. Where you do stand on the issue of socialized (publicly-funded) healthcare?

Possible questions to consider:

Should healthcare be universal?
Do people have the fundamental right to healthcare?
Who should be required to contribute towards the cost of healthcare?
Should the government support healthcare through taxes or forcing citizens to buy insurance?

 

[L]

Question 1: Yes, health care should be universal.
Question 2: Yes
Question 3: High class people who have tons of money on their hands.
Question 4: Well, yes and no. Don't tax any middle-low class citizens and force them to buy insurance but do it to high class people.

 

[tequila]

Big controversal stuff going on here in the USA with this topic.

Healthcare SHOULD be universal, considering that most Americans pay taxes. Also, those who have immigrated the the country should also have a shot at getting healthcare IF they pay taxes. Tax dollars have been thrown around for these fancy parties and events and salaries for the high class wealthy politicians. Let out tax money be put into use! If the Healthcare Reform is not justified, a big chance of risk that many Americans without healthcare will be left untreated and "just there left to die". Everything is increasing such as taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, ect. Many jobs are still being cut today. So where does this leave us?

Sometimes even the "most powerful nation" is not at its best. :S

NOTE: I'll come back to further push my arguement, have short time to explain right now.

 

[Kellyrose]

I am somewhat undecided on this.
First of all, yes, I think that health care should be universal. However, I'm afraid that there are some things in the bill that was passed that politicians might have skipped over. I know this is a kind of silly argument, but who has actually read the whole bill in it's entirety and knows exactly what is being passed? That's kind of what scares me, is the stuff that is left out of all the headlines. One thing that I really liked, though, is that they are going to start being required to list the nutritional information of foods from vending machines.

Also, I'm registering as a republican in a year, when I am able to. You can start hating me now.

 

[Romero]

Some of you may know that President Obama recently passed a healthcare reform bill, including the The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. For various reasons, Republicans and conservatives are still overwhelmingly opposed to health care reform. Where you do stand on the issue of socialized (publicly-funded) healthcare?

Possible questions to consider:

1) Should healthcare be universal?
2) Do people have the fundamental right to healthcare?
3) Who should be required to contribute towards the cost of healthcare?
4) Should the government support healthcare through taxes or forcing citizens to buy insurance?

I'm on the outside but I am convinced that the US needs a healthcare reform badly. However, I don't know if this reform is good or not. But it's probably an improvement.

1) Yes it should be universal.
2) Yes, basic health care should be a fundamental right.
3) People with income, which means the tax payers. (Who else?)
4) It will have to be financed by tax or private insurance, or a combination. Isn't the idea of the reform to have tax funded health care? At least the most basic health care should be tax funded.

In Norway we have tax funded health care. The public health care doesn't work too well, people are sometimes dying because while waiting for operations. People who can afford it go to private hospitals for treatment. We don't have to buy expensive insurances like Americans have to, instead we pay heaaavvy taxes. I'd rather have the current American system than our current system.

Also, I'm registering as a republican in a year, when I am able to. You can start hating me now.

Can I stand beside you and take my share of the hate?
I don't like all of their politics, but I'm usually on their side. I tried to donate money to RNC and GOP a couple years ago, but they said in an email that I could not donate because I'm not a US citizen.

 

[tequila]

Also, I'm registering as a republican in a year, when I am able to. You can start hating me now.

I am registering as a democratic very soon. But we have our political differences. I won't "Hate" you because you're republican, it's because you're republican is why I hate you.


:lol: I'm just playing.

That's the choice you chose, so I respect that and everyone else should respect among political views. Of course some are going to be uptight and what not, but that's the way it is. So no hating involved around here.

 

[Angel]

Some of you may know that President Obama recently passed a healthcare reform bill, including the The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. For various reasons, Republicans and conservatives are still overwhelmingly opposed to health care reform. Where you do stand on the issue of socialized (publicly-funded) healthcare?

Possible questions to consider:

Should healthcare be universal?
Do people have the fundamental right to healthcare?
Who should be required to contribute towards the cost of healthcare?
Should the government support healthcare through taxes or forcing citizens to buy insurance?

I don't know how it works in the US but here in the UK, we've got the NHS (National Health Service) which has been around since after the second world war. There has been an influx over the last few years of companies offering private healthcare which is basically premium based insurance;some people opt for it and some don't. It's expensive and the small print has numerous clauses which exclude certain conditions, illnesses and types of treatment so really the only benefit is a nicer hospital, quicker appointments and better food if admitted, in all honesty.

You'll hear many brits complaining about the state of the NHS and yes, it is underfunded and overstretched, but at the same time in order to keep it going, taxes are required and no one particularly likes paying those so it's one of those situations whereby unless we are willing to cough up, the NHS is limited to a certain degree.

I'm not an American citizen so forgive me for any assumptions I may make in error, but I can see great benefit to there being healthcare offered to people without the need to have adequate insurance. If I were to require a transplant in the UK, it would be offered to me as and when it was possible. I have heard of situations in the US when someone has been in desperate need for the same thing but their insurance did not cover it and so they were denied the opportunity. This to me seems almost barbaric in nature - to deny someone the right to their health just because they are not wealthy enough to afford it or they've bought the wrong policy.

I think people may balk at the idea of introducing an appropriate tax for free healthcare and also at being forced to buy insurance but if it was made income-related on a sliding scale then perhaps it would be possible. What you don't want is a separation of the classes with the rich getting the preferential treatment and the poor getting the bare minimum of care. If you take out the same policy or pay the same tax (maybe not the same rate, but still contributing nonetheless) then you should be entitled to the same level of care. If you wish to take out a private insurance contract on top of your care entitlement then that is your affair but it does not exclude you from tax - you can do that in the UK but are still required to pay your taxers like everyone else and part of those taxes go to the NHS as standard. Implementing a new tax system might be the way to go with a portion of it going towards the new healthcare reform.

/wall o' text, not necessarily making any sense either.

 

[Romero]

/wall o' text, not necessarily making any sense either.

Wall .
It was a good wall that made sense to me and I have to completely agree.

 

[Mr Sunshine]

If health care is not a fundamental right then what is it?

I'm suprised there isn't a public health care system in the US(if I understood right).

So, there are occasions where you need to do a surgery immediately and your helth insurance doesn't approve it? NO WAY!

 

[La Femme Fatale]

That's actually right.

I think Angel is spot on here. Anyway, to be frank - I don't quite understand why people can be against health care reform. I've seen survey results that allude to the fact that some Americans see public healthcare as being too socialist. And sure, you can say that if you can afford it. But, to be honest, being against public healthcare because it's 'too socialist' is the most selfish, disgusting, ridiculously uneducated opinion I've ever heard. I think everyone has a fundamental right to healthcare, and I think it's a country's duty to provide that. No one should not be entitled to healthcare solely based on how much money they have. That's downright cruel. I've also heard that universal healthcare 'impinges on their personal freedom'. WTF.

At least 15% of America's population are entirely uninsured. Of all personal bankruptcy in the United States, about 62% cites medical debt as a factor, and it's the single largest factor of all. Americans spend more money on healthcare than any other developed nation, yet the actual use of healthcare services falls far below the median for all developed countries. If some American citizens don't see anything wrong with that, then I am speechless.

 

[Kellyrose]

I've also heard that universal healthcare 'impinges on their personal freedom'. WTF.

I've heard this on a the news a lot lately, and I just don't understand this viewpoint at all? It seems like the opposition is really grasping for straws here by trying to scare people who don't know anything about the reform, when it is actually a good thing.

 

[La Femme Fatale]

I didn't know why myself, so I asked this question on YA and here are some of the answers I got. IMO, they're kind of a big pile of horse-crap, and as you said, a last attempt to pick at straws.

Well, if the governement has a cheaper insurance...everyone would flood to it. So you would have less options. Also, this particular plan will place massive taxes on the rich and on business...and those taxes will be moved from the business to the consumer in higher prices. So if you have less money to spend on things...you have less freedom to do what you want.

It's not the "public health care" per se....but rather the inclusion in the new law requiring the purchase of health insurance combined with government regulation upon the health care industry. The first should be obvious and the second could lead to a significant reduction in choice in terms of coverage types and quality. Reduction of choice is, in my mind, a government-imposed "impingement."

Well, for one it will take someone else's hard-earned money to pay for it, therefore limiting the freedom to spend their money on what they want. Two, it will get the government involved in healthcare, instead of it being a matter between you and your doctor.

Under the new law I am penalized by the govt for choosing to not have health insurance. We may regard that choice as stupid, but freedom to fail is part of being free.

 

[Romero]

on YA

As I asked in Q2, what is YA?
Hmm.. :ermm: Was there something called Yahoo Answers? (Wild guess.) But I searched with Yahoo and it didn't found it.

 

[Kellyrose]

http://answers.yahoo.com/
I'm 110% sure that no one on Yahoo Answers knows what they are talking about.

 

[Angel]

Pretty much - they're the people too dumb to get a Wikipedia editing account