They were born poor. They can't afford the better healthcare. That's how it works. If you have the means, you can afford better.
If you die from lack of healthcare you can't work, so there is nothing to work for, surely. I would have thought you would at least need to provide some form of equality of opportunity (i.e. good schooling, healthcare etc) for that to be a valid argument. Otherwise the haves stay the haves and the have nots stay the have nots.
Your communistic viewpoint, commrade, falls short in that people who work to afford better for their family have earned that privilage by their very efforts. People who either refuse to work (the majority of those who do not have healthcare) or those who are simply unfortunate may be entitled to healthcxare, but I see no argument that entitles them to the exact same care as those who can afford it. Your argument is that those who can afford the best can not have it due to those who can't doesn't cut it for me. The next issue is why is we must suppose the government, run by PAC's and lobbiests, is best suited to create, provide and manage healthcare for all and tax far more for it than it would coast to provide it under more of a free market system. Do you really beleive that politicians are best trained to ruun our healthcare? I am not opposed to providing at least basic care for those less fortunate, but to aim at the elimination of insurance companies and place all our healthcare in the government's hands (with their track record) is just plain wrong, commrade.
Nope. There is no equal opportunity. People that are poorer need to work harder than those that are not in order to get it. Not everything in life is fair, hardly anything is in fact. We don't need some arbitrary fairness monitor to try and unnaturally make everyone the same.
Master mentality. Lack of empathy and introspection. Lack of real worth as an individual. Edit: Slave owner in past life.
Buzz Killington, Suppose someone murders your family. Do you expect the judicial system to right the wrongs of the perpetrator? Or is life not fair and you are stuck to deal with it?
At which point do you stop with that line of thinking? All children get healthcare, but some get better healthcare than others. Just like some kids get better food, better housing, a better education, nicer clothes, more material goods, etc. I think a minimal standard of healthcare is a better alternative, and the US has that in spades. You live in the UK where rationed care is the norm. Here in the US that's not the case. Precisely because we have a free market healthcare system, we have more operating rooms, MRI machines, CAT machines, etc. Like any fixed asset, they seek to operate 24/7. Rich and poor people use them. However, our costs aren't covered only by government. We also have private insurance, charities, non-profits, etc. Healthcare providers do procedures pro-bono all the time. Certainly some fall into this camp, and I encourage it. However, the desire for a better life is oftentimes the strongest incentive. As a physician, you can do good and do well at the same time. I want the best and the brightest going into medicine instead of law, which is a social externality. More competition invariably offers superior physicians. I know plenty of physicians in Europe who love medicine. Compared to the ones I know in the US, they're more noble, but also less skilled. I care about results, not intentions. Compare innovation in the United States vs. the Soviet Union. The free market system will almost always result in a more optimal result. If you have 1,000,000 people working out of their garage vs. one well-funded government program, I'll take the innovation from the people working on their own. There was a scientist who once said, "If the government were solely responsible for polio research, we'd have the worlds finest iron lung instead of a vaccine". That scientist was Jonas Salk. As an American, the above paragraphs are terrifying. The United States is different from Europe in the fact that individual freedom is paramount. You're fine with bureaucrats telling you what kind of healthcare you can receive. In this country, we're free to choose for ourselves. No one stands between us and our physician. And my response is that it's no one else's business than the family's. The latest poll I've seen shows 34% of the American people want this bill. That's not the government representing the will of the people.
In socialized countries, movement between classes is much lower than it is in the US. Here, people have the ability to build and lose foetunes. We tax success much less than does Western Europe, which keeps people in the station into which they were born.
As I've stated, if people want some universal healthcare, I would be fine with it provided that there is a universal tax rate. A cascading system gives me little sympathy for lack of good healthcare, schools and facilities for lower income neighborhoods since they are getting that all essentially funded by other people and not themselves. If everyone paid their "fair share" instead of it being a system where a small population takes care of the rest, then it would be an easier pill to swallow.
