Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness - and Health Care?

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!!!