Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness - and Health Care?
Headzup Satire: Andrew Card is asked about Rep. Zach Wamp's claim that healthcare is a privilege, not a right, claiming healthcare is a want, not a need:
Are you one of those who believes that health care is not a right? If so, then this is for you:
Most generally, I prefer to hold my tongue and walk away from contention. But this time I can't do it, and here is my cry out against this hub: You Do Not Have a Right to Health Care
Our Constitution states clearly "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
Now, how can you possibly believe that depriving someone of medical care does not fall within the category of an outright denial of the provision of the rights guaranteed to us by the US Constitution?
Without medical care, life itself and its continuity is threatened. No one should go without medical care which can lead to their death, just because they do not have the money to pay for it. If you are deprived of medical care, you will most certainly die.
No one who has more money should be able to have medical care, and the person who has no money have to do without it.
We all have the same right to enjoy the best health possible.
A rich person's body is not more valuable than a poor person's.
Or were you born "better" than me somehow? Did you come into this world with more right to enjoy good health than I did? Should I suffer terrible pain because I have no money and you receive relief because you are rich?
Right now I have a terribly abscessed tooth which is causing me excruciating pain. It needs to be pulled. But I can not do that, because I do not have the money. And I will not have the money anytime in the near future. So I'm suffering and not able to get dental care because I have no money. So I should suffer, right? Too bad, right? Must be my own fault, right? I guess if the infection gets worse and turns into septicemia and I die from it, that's my own fault and my tough luck, too, right? I have no money and will not have any, because I am too sick to work, and have been waiting 1 1/2 years for a final decision on my Social Security Disability claim. In the meantime? No job, no income, and no medical, dental, nor vision care.
You people who keep complaining about people wanting medical care are WRONG.
Health care is NOT a corporate commodity. It is a basic need.
I'm sorry. But, you ARE selfish. And you ARE lacking in compassion for your fellow man.
Again, I ask you this question:
Would you rather your tax money went to bail out big bankers and to kill millions of innocent people in the Middle East?
Or would you rather it go to letting America's poor and elderly go to the doctor and have the medicine they need?
Some people are not able to work, they are too ill.
Some are too elderly or sick to even take care of themselves.
And babies and little kids are certainly not responsible for their lack of money.
I agree that the health care bill they are trying to get passed is WRONG!! There is no way the government should be ORDERING us to BUY health insurance plans from big corporations. That is insane. The "exchange system/public option" is a joke, too. Just a way to give the insurance companies MORE of our hard-earned money.
They think we are too stupid to know the difference. That we can't see that it is just a ploy to give big corporations even MORE control and MORE of our money.
Some people, like all of you who don't believe that poor people should have the right to health care, have fed into that BS about it being all right to "force" people to buy health care insurance, that it is not a right, that poor people "don't deserve health care", and that if poor people don't have health care, it is their own fault, etc, etc, ad nauseum...
However, what the government DOES need to do, is to regulate the percentage of profits allowed to be realized on pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and health care in general.
And there need to be some regulations on the health insurance companies.
But also, we need to provide for those who are not able to pay for health care insurance either because they are too ill, elderly, poor, or are children. There is already a system in place for this. It is called Medicaid.
All that needs to be done is put regulations in place to control profits realized by big pharma and health care corporations, control health care costs, and provide a net to catch those who can't afford to buy health insurance, by expanding the scope of Medicaid enough so that the 51 million Americans who can not afford health care, can get it. (BTW in case you don't know it, there are co-pays involved with Medicaid now, it is NOT FREE!)
Stop being so damn petty and selfish.
This kind of attitude exactly, is what is wrong with this country. No compassion for your fellow man. And no love.
Grow some.
Sorry. I disagree with the points exponentiated by the adversaries of Universal Health Care.
People like you are always trying to point fingers at everyone else and act like you are somehow superior, never realizing that exactly what these 51 million other Americans are going through, can very easily happen to yourselves. I don't care how much you make, nor how much you have right now. But it can happen to you - it surely can! You can get sick, lose your home, and end up in the same unfortunate place that 51 million other Americans are in. Sick and homeless and going without health care!
Before the benefits of ANY health care bill passed now go into effect, it is estimated that another 135,000 Americans will die as a result of having no medical care. I myself will very likely be one of them.
Look me in the eye face to face and tell me I don't deserve medical care. I dare you to.
What is happening to me and millions of others can also happen to you. Know how? Just get a terminal illness. And lose your job. Use up your savings. And get to the point where you also lose your home and everything you own. And to where you MUST receive medical care and your medications or you will DIE.
Then see what happens.
I'll tell you what happens right now in this country:
You lose your home
You lose everything you have
You end up living in a tent under a bridge somewhere
You starve to death
And you do without medical care or your medications entirely
You will suffer and be so sick and in pain and no one will give a damn
Then you die all alone in the cold somewhere and no one will care about that, either
While you are waiting for Social Security Disability to decide whether or not to give you a check - which can take up to FIVE YEARS!
And also you get to listen to people like you, who think that anyone who is sick and can not afford health insurance premiums is lazy, or somehow less than you. And listen to you rant and rave about how "health care is not a right" and how letting poor, sick people have medical care is somehow "taking the money out of your pockets". And how if people are sick and can't afford medical care, then it is their own fault.
There are plenty of people who have college educations and who made good incomes, whose only fault is that they got SICK. And now they have nothing!
How do I know???
Because I am ONE of them. I am also speaking as an RN who has seen the results of the selfishness of this society. I also have several personal friends who are now dead because they could not get the medical care they needed and deserved.
Pray you don't get sick in this country.
I suggest you take a few field trips to your local county mental hospitals, nursing home facilities, jails, and childrens' homes, and you take a good look at who needs our help. You be the one to tell those poor, sick people that Americans have no compassion and no help for them. I sure won't be the one to say that to them. I dare you to do it.
I have taken care of literally THOUSANDS of helpless, sick, and poor people - people who must be taken care of, who can not fend for themselves, who need help just to bathe or get dressed. Who can not walk nor talk, nor feed themselves, who wear diapers and can not hear, see, nor even understand what you are saying. Do they not deserve our pity and our help? Most of them have family members just like you. Selfish and uncaring, who never go to see them, nor check on them, and who could not care less about them. They are "throwaways", undeserving, and somehow "less than you". They are "taking money out of your pocket" because they are lazy and looking for a "handout".
Do you not realize how many millions of people like this there are in America? There are so many millions of them that if each one of us took it upon ourselves to help just one, there would not be enough of us to go around. But most people are too selfish to understand this. And they leave it to the few of us who do care, to deal with the needs of these people. And it is not all about money. But it IS about love, compassion, and receiving the best health care they can get, to alleviate their suffering as much as possible.
NO one who is sick and hurting should have to go without the medical, dental, nor vision care that he or she needs to feel better. To feel the best that they can feel, and live the best life that they can live. Just because right now you are healthy does not mean you always will be that way. No one dies healthy, but we all get old, sick, and die in pain. All of us. So you will get there one day, too. You better pray that there will be someone like me around who will care about you and take care of you!
Open your eyes and see, and open your heart, also.
Jesus does not want us to stand by and watch our brothers and sisters suffer, and do nothing. If that is what you are doing, then you are paving the road to the eternal destruction of your own soul, not to mention the loss to humanity.
Would you begrudge your brother a glass of healing water when he is sick and thirsty?
Shame on you. God is watching.
There, now I have had my rant. Although, I think you all know by now, how I feel about this subject. And it is not only because of my own situation, but I feel this way because I love my fellow humans and can not stand to see anyone in pain or suffering.
And much less can I bear to see someone die because they were deprived of the help they needed. The help that we are very much able to give, if we were not all so selfish.
Put a little love in your heart!!!
Sen. Bernie Sanders on Health Care Reform:
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Comments
There are better ways to provide healthcare than the sleezy stupid bill we have in congress.
So do you believe every has the right to healthcare, food, shelter, school, and clothing without the capability to pay for them. If so, I guess I will quit may job and start demanding these things? Why am I working for all these things when the government should just give it to me free. And they must include a car and gas, because I need a way to go the store and the doctor.
Or wait the government is not giving healthcare to me. They demand that I pay for it, and if I don't I will be fined, and possible go to jail. Or I don't have the right to deny healthcare if I don't want it?
And does this mean I will have to start going to the doctor the goverment says I must go to, even if he is a quack? And why is the congress on the same healthcare as we are?
Government can't run medicare without it being full of corruptions, and we want them to take care of the rest of us? So who will take advantage of this, the big industries you claimed you disliked up above.
Is the president doing this for the right reason, or for power grap and to turn our country into socialism.
Yes, things are bad here for healthcare, but most government country health care systems are worse. I have several Canadian friends, and they say the wait for everything. Most procedures have over a 2 year waiting list. So they basically have nicknamed their healthcare system "The No Healthcare System" To think this goverment take over of our healthcare is going to change things, think again.
Social Security in Canada is broke. They are getting checks every 3-4 months instead of every month.
We need to wake up and do this healthcare reform the right way, and not with what Pelosi, Reid and Obama is forcing down our throats. They need to slow down and take a better look at this. Most polls show that a majority of the people are against the current bills.
Keep on hubbing!
- Author
Eovery - thanks for reading. I do agree with most of you that the bill they are ramming through is not right at all. There are too many things wrong with it. Starting out by forcing Americans to pay for health care insurance regardless of whether they want it or not.
I agree that there have been many abuses in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Mostly by greedy pharmaceutical, medical device and health care delivery corporations, and by dishonest doctors.
I am not saying, my friend, that everyone should get free health care. I am only saying that for those who are too sick to be able to go to work and can not afford to pay for health insurance or health care, there should be a way to allow for those people to receive proper medical care. They should require proof of these items to avoid abuse of the system. And it should be Medicaid, not Medicare, that serves as the net to catch these people. Medicaid now does have a co-pay system in place, where you pay for your health care expenses covered by Medicaid according to your ability to share the costs. This is not a bad thing.
I agree that the Fed should not take over health care, nor mandate that we buy health care insurance, nor decide what doctor, nor what care people should receive. This is wrong and exceeds the scope of the Constitutional powers of the government. That point made by anti-healthcare people,is correct. But also, as a compassionate and responsible society, we must provide a way to take care of those who are not able to take care of themselves. We can't let poor, sick people die from a lack of medical care. We can not stoop to becoming that low of a society.
What can we do? It is so hard to figure this out, because really, there is so much corruption involved in every aspect of the health care delivery system, so many abuses. And health insurance companies should never have been allowed to acquire the stranglehold over health care that they presently have. Profit margins are too high, too few controls.
What is the answer? I don't know for sure. We would have to clean up all the corruption. And it is so ingrained that it may be impossible to do that.
Why couldn't each county have a free clinic? Where the doctors donate so much time each month on a rotating basis, and the drug companies help out by donating medicines? They're making plenty of money. If they all shared, it would not hurt them to do this. And let each county decide how they want to handle this. Would that work, does anyone think?
You are right, we do not need Big Brother telling us we HAVE to buy insanely high insurance plans or pay fines or go to jail. That is just crazy. Nor should the Attorney General have access to all our financial and medical records - nor should the government dictate what health care we receive.
But I am afraid we are fighting a losing battle. The behemoth of corruption has infected the whole system, including our Congress and our Senate. Baucus and our own Kentucky Sen. McConnell, for example, are hugely benefitting from cash contributions from big pharma and the health insurance corporations and lobbyists that are sucking us dry. You are right, Eovery, that the Fed is the wrong place to look to solve our health care problems.
But what else can we do? Can we motivate people all over this country to work at a grassroots level in their own states and counties to establish clinics to give health care to those who need it? Do we not need some sort of intervention by the Fed to get this accomplished?
The real problem is that we can not trust the Fed to represent our best interests.
Thanks for airing this burning issue. Whether or not we have a "right" to health care is not something I feel needs debating,: I think it's a given....of course we have a right to it health care, but it's how it's delivered that is the problem. And who pays for it...and should we be forced to have it?
I think I would have to agree with what Magicstar refers to as the "real" problem": Can we "...trust the Fed to represent our best interests?"
And....are all our "best Intersts" the same???
I have no idea what the passage entails. I do know that republicans would, in general, rather stick a fork in their eyes than to part with their money and health care. No I'm not a democrat. At least, the very least, it is being addressed. I never voted for Clinton (or any winner, I vote third party- I refuse to throw away my vote), but at least the Clintons addressed the problem. The folks most "concentrated" in opposition to heath care seem to be in the profession. Great writing. I'm certainly against the "inaction of the WRONG WING".
Jesus had the right idea. He gave away health-care. Jesus gave away food. He was a financial failure. It would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle....
No- I don't want to call myself a Christian. I want to be more "Christ-like". I want to be more "Gandhi-like"...
- Author
I think that we can all agree that mandating the buying of health insurance policies from the very corporations that we should be removing from the middle of our health care delivery system is insane, no matter which side of the fence we sit on. That is the Fed grabbing too much control that does not appertain to its Constitutional limits of power. And we must not let the Fed decide what health care, how much, and by whom we receive the health care, nor should we allow them to bluster in and allow the judicial branch (Attorney General's office) to have free access to our financial and medical records. This is an invasion of our privacy, and they should not be allowed access to these records without a court order. If we consent to this invasion, we will become totally owned and controlled by "the state". Incredible as this would have sounded to us all 20 years ago, this is the unbelievable and horrific reality that we are facing right now.
In small, but ever-incrementing steps, the Federal government has seized control of each and every aspect of our lives over the past years. So small that most have not noticed it. There has always been some "reason" - like security, safety, protecting society from "the evils of drugs", or "terrorism", or "criminals". They use division and condemnation against our fellow Americans to justify their power grabs and effect the total annihilation of our Constitutional Rights and seize control of everything. It's all a crock of crap. If you compare the quality of life in this country 25 years ago, with that which we have now, it is like night and day. It used to be we had jobs, could count on having some rights, some health care, and some of everything which made America great.
Corporate greed and fascism has completely corrupted our government. They are all bought and sold by corporations and that is who our elected officials represent. Not us. I think they should all be required to wear jackets with their sponsors' logos on them, so we can know who they work for.
What made America great was our freedom, independence, and our enterprising people. Corporate control has eroded all of that now, and our country and our freedoms are OVER.
- Author
To Micky Dee - Yes, I agree - we should be more "Christ-like", or more compassionate and loving towards our fellow humans. But sadly, so many have abandoned those qualities as "antiquated" or "unrealistic for the times". There again, we can not order people to be loving and compassionate, either, can we?
But there must be some sort of a standard, some sort of an ideal for the fair and respectful treatment of all that should be adhered to. And those that we elect to represent us in our government should be reflecting that ideal. They are worse, however, than the most selfish and uncaring among us...
Great, There is a few things that could correct a lot of the problems.
1. The healthcare industry has become a money making machine and is losing it's focus and purpose.
2. The insurance methods have it set up to make us want to spend money in healthcare. I.e. I am spending a lot insurance, I am going to use it. Instead we need to have a better detectable system up front to discourage the use unless it is needed. I.e. My company has set up a health care fund that covers my first $500. If I don't use it, I basically lose it. Therefore they are makiing me want to use it. They should have it that I get reimbursed the amount (or at least 50%) if I don't use it.
3. Doctor's and Hospitals should be required to give the patient a cost estimate of the procedure. This allows the patient to shop around at different hospitals/Doctors. I.e. The local hospital where I live is more expensive on most procedures than St. Mary's by the Mayo Clinic. What is wrong with this picture.
3. People get a cheaper rate than billing through the insurance. My son talk to a Doctor and the cost would be about $300 if we went through the insurance, or $70 if we paid it ourself. What is wrong with this?
4. Many of the uninsured goes to the ER room when they have a problem where they cannot be denied emergency care. There should be a better way for this to be done.
5. With the liberal trying to ruin christianity, we are losing the basic concept of caring for you neighbors. We should be able to be charitable enough to take care of our needy.
6. Personal integrity also start to play a part in all of this too. When there becomes charitable means to help with healthcare cost, some abuse the system and are right out dishonest. And this has a tendency to grow worse in time. The Christian values and personal values need to be established strengthen so that this can be effective.
When I was young, my parents and neighbors did not carry health insurance as ranchers, but took care of the expenses ourselves as the happened. When a major contastrophe happened, the neighbors would pitch in and help each other cover the expense. I guess this was kind of a self-insured system.
Today, I see benefits thrown for people with major health care costs, where I have seen thousands of dollars raised to help out. This is one good thing that I see happening today, that I elate on.
Keep on hubbing!
- Author
to eovery: All of the things you listed are very good points. Yes, we can do things ourselves, with a spirit of wanting to help. Sometimes it doesn't have to be much. You'd be surprised what little of a thing is a huge insurmountable problem to a poor or a sick person. Maybe just a ride somewhere or as little as $4.00 to help them get a generic Walmart prescription. Help taking out the garbage or mopping a floor. Anything. Our government does not care about us. We need to care about each other - and we need to stop letting them separate us. We all have a lot in common - we are all Americans, and we are all going through the same things...
Yes, there has been a lot of abuse, both by individuals taking advantage of the system, and especially, by the doctors, medical device manufacturers, drug companies, and the health care corporations that run the nursing homes nowadays. I so agree with you here. We must stop all this abuse if we are to ever fix anything - here is another case in point. My friend recently got a new leg prosthesis. He has Medicaid. The prosthetics place who fitted him for the leg and ordered it for him gave a list of the prices for the leg and the accessories. The price of the leg for patients with health insurance? $14,100. The price if you have Medicaid? $9,600. The price if you pay cash? $7,200. What's up with these huge differences in price?
Look at some of the name brand drugs that doctors get paid by the drug companies to force down our throats: 20 Doxycyclines are only about $14.00, or $4.00 at Walmart. A different, newer antibiotic can be as high as over $200 for the same amount of pills. What makes the newer one worthy of costing so much more? Answer: Nothing. It is all nothing but hype to rip us off. And we are so stupid we fall for it. Many of the older antibiotics are all just as effective as they ever were. It is not all that true that the older antibiotics don't work anymore. Culture and sensitivity tests verify this. Why do MD's prescribe the more expensive stuff? Answer: Because they get a kickback for doing so.
They are all nothing but crooks, and we need to start holding them accountable and stop kissing their butts.
We also need to give more credibility, and more opportunity for alternative remedies and healing methods. They are the science of the future. We need to focus more on PREVENTION and CURING and not TREATING THE SYMPTOMS.
It is totally ridiculous this situation I will tell you here now: I have bad breathing attacks. If I am able to see a doctor for just a few minutes every few months and get them to throw me out a prescription for my inhalers and my breathing treatments, which I can get for about $25 a month, plus the sample Azmacorts I get from the doctors, I will probably not get a bad breathing attack that lands me in the emergency room. If I get one, I can first use the inhaler. If that does not work, I can use the breathing treatment until I get myself straightened out, and just go on about my business. One breathing treatment costs me about 25 CENTS!!! If I get them at Walmart under their generic plan!!!
If I am forced to go without my medicine because I can't see a doctor and can't get my prescriptions written, then I get breathing attacks constantly. I have no way to stop them. Then I am FORCED to call an ambulance - that costs me about $1400 to take the ambulance to the emergency room. Then I get another bill for around $1800 for the emergency room, doctor, chest x-ray, etc. So it costs me $3200 that there is no way I can possibly ever pay, just to take care of something that would cost me A QUARTER - JUST TWENTY FIVE CENTS!!!!! to fix on my own at home. Then I would not have to wait all those extra minutes and suffer while I can not breathe, either, waiting on the ambulance, waiting to be seen, etc, etc. The way things are set up, I have to pay $3200!!!! for something I should be able to take care of for a QUARTER!!!
REALLY!!! Eovery, you are totally right - what possible sense does that make? My God, we don't need a whole lot of help, just let us know when we have a condition and give us the means to take care of it before it becomes a big crisis that involves thousands of dollars in ER bills and hospitalization expenses!!! Let us have our BP pills, our heart meds, and our breathing medicines, so we don't get in a mess and cost everybody lots of money needlessly!!! In fact, why should these simple medications even require a prescription in the first place. What's so special about an inhaler? Nothing. Just that everybody wants to make their share of money off it. The inhaler probably is only worth 50 cents but if you have to buy it for full price, it costs $48.00. So senseless.
If we could just have a clinic in each county in this country where poor people who can't afford health insurance could go for diagnostics and preventive care and get their medications, everybody would be just fine. Let the docs, the drug companies, and the hospitals donate a little - spread it out, it would not hurt them a bit, they are making plenty. Let those who can afford to pay a little, pay some.. Those who just can't, well, then help them out. And make sure the ones who are using the free clinics are truly deserving of it. Not freeloaders.
That's my 50 cents...
One other thing. Eovery, I know that you are not a Democrat lover. I know that you don't like Obama either.
I didn't like George Bush.
Why do we have to be enemies? Why can't our representatives in Congress and in the Senate understand that our basic needs and wants are the same? And work together for the benefit of all? I'll tell you why: Because they do not represent us, they represent the corporations who are financing them. That's why we can not get the right legislation for the citizens of this country. And that's why we need to Kick Them All Out. Please see the Kick Them All Out Project at: KickThemAllOut.org
Thank you for reading and caring enough to comment. I appreciate your comments very much, eovery! :)
All men are created equal. We have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Nice, broad, macro-idealism issued by wealthy aristocratic white men who left the details to our imaginations. When those words were written bleeding and leeches were popular medical practices. Living past 50 wasn't the common man's lot-especially not for woman who routinely died at childbirth. Somehow I can't imagine that medicine was universally dispensed like "doc" did it on "Little House" with Michael Landon smiling in the background.
I don't think the constitution really helps frame or further the debate for universal health care.
We as a nation have to take a deep breath and finally make some fundamental choices. Is it going to be "capitalism" or people? Is it going to be irresponsible behavior, or thoughtful logical decisions that benefit humankind. Is it going to be "Free Market" or take care of our own? Debt or responsible stewardship of our wealth and resources?
The military found out that 75% of military aged citizens could not serve due to the inability to pass the physical, prior criminal convictions or lack of proper education. Who will protect us or be able to pay for any of this in the future?
- Author
"I don't think the constitution really helps frame or further the debate for universal health care." I don't either - I just framed the hub that way because it is an answer to the one I referred to in the first paragraph...
"The military found out that 75% of military aged citizens could not serve due to the inability to pass the physical, prior criminal convictions or lack of proper education."
As to that statement, I don't doubt that a bit. They feed us garbage and poisons, our educational system sucks, and they throw everybody in jail for hardly any reason at all, so everybody has criminal records now, and because of it, can not get jobs, vote, nor do anything at all in this country.
The US is the biggest Prison Nation in the world. We only have 5% of the world's population - but 25% of the world's prison population - due to the stupid "War on Drugs" which victimizes and ruins the lives of people who are not criminals. 60% of the US prison population is there due to drug convictions. There has to be a better way.
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