Insurance Companies Just Accidentally Made The Case For Medicare For All

[moonshaz]

America’s Health Insurance Plans, the trade group for commercial health insurance companies, published an infographic this month breaking down how the industry spends every dollar it receives in premiums

Comments

[pairatime]

Yet at the end of the day it's not the federal government's roll to be running heath care for everyone. Personal choice trumps the government spending less money than a private company in an industry that it shouldn't even be in.

[prehnite]

Nah.

[moonshaz]

That is your opinion, and one that I and I'm sure a lot of other people here don't share. A WHOLE lot of people in many other countries don't agree with you, either.

The only way that whar you state as a foregone conclusion makes sense is if one sees health care as just another commodity that should be bought and sold like other goods and services, on the assumption that what one can't afford, one must simply do without, even if doing without means suffering, even dying. That school of thought is repugnant to me. I see health care as a human right, not a commercial enterprise. So do the governments of EVERY OTHER DEVELOPED NATION IN THE WORLD EXCEPT THE U.S.

The problem with leaving these matters up to the whims of the marketplace in the name of "personal choice" is that it leaves far too many people with NO choices at all. That is completely unacceptable to me, and afaic, it should be unacceptable to any caring, feeling human being.

[lightframes]

*applause*

[pairatime]

Other people can believe what they wish I won't stop them.

And health care is a commodity. health care is not a human right. Emergency medical care maybe a human right but the other is not.

[moonshaz]

In your opinion. ;-)

[pairatime]

yes, all rights are opinions, that's why they change just some are put into laws and some are not.

[stainedfeathers]

Your opinion is pretty terrible. Healthcare should be viewed by everyone as a right, not a commodity. Under your view of "emergency medical care maybe a human right" then that means my younger brother, who died of skin cancer 3 years ago at age 23 due to not having health care/insurance because we couldn't fucking afford it, would still be dead, dead, dead. Skin cancer or really ANY cancer is not considered emergency medical care so anyone with ANY type of cancer would die. Fuck them, it isn't an "emergency" and therefore not a human right to be cared for by your "maybe" standard. The kid that got drunk and into a car accident? Emergency, so totally a human right. The kid with cancer? Eh, fuck him

[pairatime]

I'm fine with the government trying to lower the cost of healthcare with regulations and other measures but I'm not fine with the government paying for everyone's health care. You clearly see things a different way. I'm okay with that.

[omimouse]

We hold these truths to be self-evident, 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. - That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed

Healthcare, bluntly, equals life. And if the private sector won't secure that right, then that's where the government should step in.

[pairatime]

Healthcare, bluntly, equals life.
Emergency healthcare yes, all health care no.

[kaymyth]

That is incorrect.

Preventative care catches and gives the ability to treat potentially deadly conditions before they become serious. By the time things like cancer bring someone to the point of needing emergency care, it's too late. Plenty of lives are saved by routine healthcare.

Besides, being able to live a life free of pain is a human right. Diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, and countless others - these are diseases that drastically effect a person's basic quality of life. Are you honestly saying that being able to live a life free enough of pain to function day to day is not a basic human right?

[pairatime]

Yes. Because I don't use the word right as freely as others. You have the right not to be killed. And you have the right to seek medical attention but you do not have a right to demanded it from someone else.

[kaymyth]

I see. So in your mind, someone has the right to not die of a sudden injury, but if they're dying of cancer and can't afford insurance coverage, welp, they're just outta luck.

My sister is being covered by the Medicaid expansion. Due to a combination of health conditions, she would almost certainly die within a few years if she didn't have coverage. The Medicaid expansion is both keeping her alive and allowing her enough quality of life that she can function at about half the level of a healthy person on her good days.

You have the right to your opinion. Unfortunately, this particular opinion leaves me with the impression that you are a horrible human being.

[pairatime]

and that is your choice.

[omimouse]

If I had had access to preventative healthcare, I would have a 7 year old daughter right now.