Just a quick word about the health care debate by someone who will really and truly be affected by the outcome a great deal.
One of the truly terrifying things about this whole losing-job process was realizing that there was a very real possibility I would lose my insurance right when I need it the most. Worse yet, if my unemployment were to be a woefully extended period of time, re-enrolling in a group insurance plan after I finally find a new job would require me to go without treatment for a YEAR before it was covered again. (Thank GOD for the COBRA subsidy provided in TARP -- perhaps the ONLY useful and practical thing to come out of that thing!)
I am approaching a crucial point in the impending beginning of treatment. If delayed a significant period of time, my health would deteriorate rapidly. In the course of that year without treatment, an opportunistic infection could easily take up residence in my weakened state and pretty much kill me.
I know there are a lot of ideological differences on what should go how far when and how. None of the ideas on the table are particularly good yet, but this is important stuff that's being talked about right now. The "death panels" some have crowed about already exist -- populated by profit-seeking insurance accountants and executives exploiting loop holes when coverage is needed the most, like arguing your teen acne counts as a pre-exiting condition.
I'm fighting like hell to make sure all my bases are covered. I have contingency plan on top of contingency plan ready to go if it's needed. But before crowing about the evils of a universal healthcare system, consider what would very likely happen to me -- your friend, your brother, your son -- if the worst case scenario played out with things the way they are right now. And then tell me it's not worth it.
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4 comments:
I have to respectfully diagree, Bro. Either way you slice it, you are talking about redistribution. You have been on your ass before. Who helped you? The government? No. Family did. The hole in your argument is the idea that the government is somehow more in tune with your needs and more likely to be responsive to them than regular people are. The fact is that regular people give because they care. Government redistributes in order to buy votes.
Healthcare as a right? Nope, sorry. Rights cannot be given by the government, only taken away. Now, accessibility to healthcare? That has been there all along, and not just domestically. Do you know that the hated George Bush did more than any President ever has to eradicate AIDS in Africa? Are you aware that charitible programs... very effective ones... already exist that provide medicines and care to HIV patients who cannot afford them?
There are a few things that government does very well... raising an Army, for instance. Almost all other things are better left to a competitive market place. For someone who has been the recipient of substantial no-strings-attached kindness from your fellow man and been continually victimized by government entities, you have a strange perspective on this.
John
The disagreement, you note, coming from somebody who has medical care provided by a single-payer--the government and who will enjoy Tri-Care and the VA, also single-payer systems.
Ours is the ONLY first-world country without unversal healthcare and that which we have is brutally expensive, inefficient and poses a real threat to the financial future of this country.
dad
Mmm. Koolaide is the best medicine. Pretty much every health statistic available that has not been manipulated to support the government taking over 20% of the economy disagrees with what you are saying.
Yes, I have lived under the single payer system. I have also lived under the free market system. Under the free market system, if I need a physical, I can call and schedule one this week. Under the Army system, there is AT LEAST a 6 month wait and the results are lost about half the time. Remember my struggel to be promoted to Major? Remember why? When they told me they had lost my physical, I did not have the option of just getting another one. I had to wait 6 months before they could schedule one, and they tried to call THAT my date of rank. It took three years to unscrew that mess. When you look at Social Security, Medicaid, and the US Postal Service, how on earth can you believe government run healthcare will be any less a disaster?
Do you not find it curious that the administratioin wants to FINE anyone who does not PURCHASE health insurance? Does it not bother you that the CBO... that is the NON-PARTISAN Congressional Budget Office... has stated that this thing will be roughly three times as expensive as the administration is claiming. The administration's response? Why, it's a Republican conspiracy. And now, asking questions or disagreeing with numbers that do not add up is un-American? People who ask difficult questions at town hall meetings are Nazis, KKK sympathizers, or terrorists? The Republican party couldn't put on a poker tournament in it's present state, let alone orchestrate a national healthcare sabotage campaign.
The founding fathers recognized that rights come from one place and one place only... our creator. Once the government decides it is the purveyor of rights, we can kiss our personal freedom goodbye.
John
Also...
There is a reason my children are not on DEERS... the free dependant health care offered by the Army. I prefer to pay for private insurance for them.
John
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