Tea party crowd about sick man without insurance: "Let him die"

[nebris]

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The largest audience cheers in the Republican presidential debate came when Wolf Blitzer asked Ron Paul whether he wanted an uninsured 30 year old with a treatable disease to die because he didn't have health insurance. You can hear the crowd shout, "let him die." healthcare, reaganomics, corporate profits, income inequality, libertarianism, tea party politics, gop, ron paul, wtf, social safety nets, 'capitalism', washington, class war, starve the beast, ayn rand, 2012 presidential election

Comments

[poetpaladin]

There are charity hospitals for those who either have the money and refuse to pay for health insurance, or those who can't afford it. I have given to charity myself, and expect the aid to go to those who can't help themselves. If I find myself penniless, I hope perhaps to receive charity.

Ideally, these charity hospitals should only help those who can't afford it. Not those who, as Blitzer describes, make a good living, but don't want to pay for insurance. We should honor that young man's choice, then.

[nebris]

As I said below, "For Profit Health Care is an abomination on par with chattel slavery".

~M~

[gwendally]

So, how about this:

A thirty year old who is healthy and working but has been dodging paying taxes - working under the table - comes down with an expensive disease. How does the NOT FOR PROFIT system you envision handle this?

Okay, now he's a non-citizen non-tax-payer who discovers he has an illness and wants it treated in the United States. How do you handle that?

Okay, now he's 85 years old and needs dialysis so he won't die of his kidney disease before either his colon or lung cancer gets him. How do you handle THAT?

If it's not the users of health care who pay, who is it, exactly? And how much are they okay with paying? Because right now the per person spending on health care in the United States is about $7000 per person, or about 20% of our GDP.

Who is supposed to pay for this, since it's not the 30 year old single guy with a job?

[badnewswade]

Ours is 10% - suck on that!

[gwendally]

What *is* the correct answer?

[nebris]

The correct answer is that For Profit Health Care is an abomination on par with chattel slavery.

~M~

[gwendally]

My health insurance is a not-for-profit plan.

Would that help?

[nebris]

It is still girded by the For Profit Industry, thereby rendering Universal Health Coverage moot. So, no.

But, like your slogging match with 'badnewswade', this is debating over scraps. The entire system is terminally corrupt and in all likelihood heading for the shitter.

~M~

..yay for comment editing..

[alobar]

In my life, the socialist partnership I was in paid for all my doctor & medicine needs for ~6 years. For the rest of my life I have been too poor to buy any form of health insurance.

Most of the people I now know have never been able to afford health insurance and still buy food, pay rent, etc.

There is a big difference between a young man who could afford health insurance, but chooses not to buy any and the poor who work but cannot afford to buy health insurance.

I note that many or most of the blood thirsty people shouting "Let him die" probably consider themselves "good" Christians, yet they feel OK about ignoring Jesus' words, Whatsoever you do to the least of your brethren, you do also to me.

[gwendally]

Humans are very good at filling short-term needs and very bad at filling infrequent or long-term or uncertain needs. For example, when I help clients with budgeting I find that they're all very good at knowing how much they'll need each week for groceries and gas and how much they'll need each month for rent and car payments. But ask them how much they'll need for car MAINTENANCE and they're clueless. It comes as a tragic shock to them when they need a muffler or brakes or tires, even though these eventualities are CERTAIN and even fairly quantifiable. They are just infrequent enough and uncertain enough that it stymies most young people

[alobar]

The rich do not pay for nearly their fair share in taxes.

The reason th poor have little or no $$ is because the minimum wage is set far lower than a living wage, because the rich by lawmakers.

Healthcare in France costs much less than it does here, *and* life expectancy is muh higher than it is in the US.

[lightvortex]

It costs less, not more, in other developed countries where it is practiced, as far as I know. There is less spent on administration, for one thing, with just one agency handling basic needs. But I don't see the U.S. moving to that model unless lots and lots of people start demanding it; politicians aren't going to decide on their own initiative to propose something which will make them powerful enemies