Don't sick and/or get accident if you don't have money

[farmerlor]

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Well DUH, I wish I could be poor! I'd love to be vilified all day by people who need me to serve up their burgers or babysit their children or take away their trash or teach their children in school or keep children safe. After all, we're all here on this Earth for a minute and it's every man for himself right?

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

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I am sooo glad Canada has free healthcare for that reason, how terrible

 

[mulia24]

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It really sounds good. We don't even have single identity, by the way, we can even have more than 1 ID card..

And again and again I always got jealous with you people. Why it's always the neighbors that have better system?

just like the other people said, neighbor's grass is always greener that ours...

We don't have such insurance here. We need (and I just apply it) to apply to private insurance company for this that this and that kind of protection and every time we increase protection then the cost is increasing.

I wonder if I can have insurace too by default...

okay, public official means to service the citizen, not being serviced by citizen. With so high campaign cost, how can someone regain money to close the debt (s)he made when (s)he fight to become an official.

 

[mom'sfolly]

Poverty level for a family of three, about $18000

National average rent on a two bedroom apartment is about $900, but let's assume that the poor somehow pay less...

annual rent at $750/month = $9000...over $10,000 if you use the national average)
average annual spending for food at home (US census data): $3700

With just modest estimates of two primary expenses we're up to $12,700. This leaves $5300 or less for all the other expenses a family might have. Utilities, transportation, clothes, school supplies, medicine, doctors, everything else life throws at you. I think for this country, this means poverty. I also think that most people who live in poverty don't want to be there, and would love to get out.

I'm not sure how this thread came to be on poverty in America.

Is heathcare a right or a privledge?

How is requiring everyone to have health insurance any different from requiring all drivers to have car insurance?

Do we as a society benefit from denying healthcare to those who cannot afford it?

Is chemotherapy only for those who can pay?

Does allowing preventable illness to flourish help or hinder society as a whole? Should vaccination programs only be provided for those of means?

 

[desertdarlene]

Poverty and being poor is not a choice. Try being someone who does everything they can to find work only to get a job (or two) that keeps cutting their hours and paying them next to nothing. That is, if they're lucky to get a job at all. Some people do everything "right" and are poor. There's just too much greed, selfishness and self-centeredness in the world and as long as there is, there will always be people with way more than they could ever use and those who have absolutely nothing.

 

[Patience]

Oh boy.

I probably shouldn't jump in here as I am new and talking politics usually doesn't end well, but I will because I would like to see if we can all start focusing on goals instead of attacking each other. (I am not trying to accuse anyone on here of doing that, it's just the way this conversation always seems to unfold and we never seem to get anywhere as a nation.)

I have come to my position on health care (and most public policy) after looking long and hard at some facts that I find horribly disturbing:

Our health care costs are higher than those of any other developed nation.
We have the worst outcomes.
Medical school enrollment has been declining for decades.
The leading cause of bankruptcy in the US is due to medical costs.

Our system is broken and we need to fix it. I frankly don't care which model we use if it makes America healthier and more efficient.

I would like to address some misleading and inflammatory ideas that are all too common in this conversation.

Only 50% of workers pay taxes. This is false. It is true that just under 50% of American households pay no income tax. This is because they do not earn enough to owe it. That is as it should be. What the people who throw this figure around forget to mention is that all American workers pay SS/Medicare taxes and FICA. Unless they are wealthy enough to max out their contributions at $106,800 at which point they cease to contribute. In addition, every citizen (and non, for that matter) is subject to taxes in the form of sales and excise taxes, property taxes, and so on.

Since about 1950, the percentage of GDP revenue from personal income tax has remained steady at about 8.5%. Since that time, the percentage of GDP revenue from corporate taxes has fallen from over 6% to under 2%. That is unconscionable.

The term socialism is used to indicate something scary and vaguely un-American which is just laughable given the history of this country. The Boston Common was socialist. Roads are socialist. Law enforcement and public safety is socialist. Medicare and SS are socialist. Libraries are socialist. I'm in favore of all these things and if that makes me a socialist, I really don't care. I want the best for this country and everyone in it.

People often try to claim that we have the best health care system in the world, otherwise, why would so many foreigners come here for care? Well, the fact is they don't. Fewer than 100,000 patients come to the States for treatment while 750,000 Americans travel abroad seeking care. Often, those that do come here, do so because the dollar is in the toilet. Not much to brag about, really.

As to the idea that we should abandon social programs because a tiny percentage of people abuse the system, I don't even know how to respond to that. I mean, who cares? I would rather see 99% of Americans who need it have access to services and live with the 1% who game the system than watch 100% of those in need suffer.

I hope I haven't offended anyone. That was not my intention. I would just, for once, like to see a rational discussion on this topic that was fact-based and goal-oriented. The best proposal I have seen is to open Medicare to all. If anyone has a better solution, I am eager to hear it.

 

[desertdarlene]

You didn't offend me, Patience. I thought your post was very good!

 

[Patience]

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Thank you, desertdarlene.

 

[kagedgoddess]

I wish some people could just be compassionate in this healthcare debate instead of assuming anyone who cannot afford medical insurance privately is just not tryi g hard enough. Its easy to judge isnt it

 

[Dunkopf]

Patience that was one of the best postings I've ever read on the true facts here in America.