Text 12738, 95 rader
Skriven 2008-03-13 09:14:46 av Bob Ackley (1:300/3)
  Kommentar till text 12493 av Jeff Bowman (1:229/500)
Ärende: Bush Vetoes Waterboarding Bill
======================================
Replying to a message of Jeff Bowman to Björn Forsström:

 BF>> Wonder why Roy or Ross haven't commented on this and called you a
 BF>> liar and anti-American. In their world you are a traitor. I've had
 BF>> about 15 surgical operations and never paid a $ for it and I even
 BF>> got payed for staying at home after them and one period lasted for 3
 BF>> years and I have never worried about any bills to pay.

 JB> That's okay, I'm not unaccustomed to being criticized about my
 JB> opinions on healthcare from friends (and otherwise) who are
 JB> conservative.  But I stand by everything I ramble on with, because
 JB> various members of my family experienced the country's healthcare
 JB> disaster first hand, some of which from an income bracket that a lot
 JB> of conservatives don't seem to concern themselves with.

 JB> From my point of view, raising taxes to ensure everyone has a basic
 JB> right to health is completely worthwhile. 

Some localities have done exactly that.  Most public hospitals in this country
are
owned and run by religious (primarly Catholic, but there are Methodist,
Lutheran and
Jewish as well) institutions, but some (not many) are publicly owned.  The
publicly
owned hospitals are generally at the county level (or state level and
associated with a
state college or university's medical school).

Highland Hospital in Oakland, CA, is owned by either Alameda County or a
hospital
authority under Alameda County, I'm not sure which.  Usually a hospital
authority of
some sort is used to manage the hospital and provide the taxing authority, and
the
hospital appears on the property tax bills in its 'catchment area,' just like
the local
airport and schools.

I have no problem with a locality establishing such an authority and one or
more
hospitals under it.  I have a big problem with demanding free or cut-rate care
from
established providers.  We don't (yet) require that grocers give free food to
anyone
who demands it, do we?

A lot of folks are contending that health care is a 'right;' note that no
legitimate right
places a burden or obligation on another.  Some folks have claimed that a right
to
'reasonably priced' ('reasonable' is a purely subjective concept and thus means
different
things to different people) health care is one of the most basic of rights; I
point out that
air, food and water are all more necessary to life than health care and of
those three
only air is free, if only because the government hasn't yet figured out a way
to tax it. 

 JB> I mean we already have
 JB> public schools, police, fire, emergency services (911), etc.  Why is
 JB> this truly any different? I honestly would not mind paying more to
 JB> see that my family, friends, and neighbors never had to worry about
 JB> their health or medical bills.

Don't bet the ranch that a publicly owned hospital would provide less expen$ive
care,
even to those who are paying the taxes that support it.

 JB> Opponents of universal healthcare
 JB> plans however seemingly have a disregard for the well-being of others

Actually it's more a matter of control.  We (or at least I) object to giving
the
government more and more control over our lives.  When I worked in Omaha
hospitals I often noted that it was unfortunate that so many people got sick or
injured, but if they didn't I wouldn't get paid.  Britain has its National
Health
Service, if you are over age 55 and develop kidney failure that service will
not
pay for dialysis treatment (or at least would not as of several years ago, I
don't
know if that's changed) - you have to go to the parallel private system, which
exists outside of the NHS and fills in at least some of the holes in it.

Health care is rationed.  There always seems to be more want of it than there
is
available.  In the US the rationing is done by price, in places with
'universal' care
it's done by time - IOW waiting lists for services or simply denial of services
("There's nothing we can do for you, sorry").


--- FleetStreet 1.19+
 * Origin: Bob's Boneyard, Emerson, Iowa (1:300/3)