Wonder How You Manage To Make Ends Meet
This is an article that everyone interested in the Great Health-Care Debate should read.
The short of it is: We, as a nation, have been on the apparent cusp of having universal coverage for NINETY-THREE YEARS. However, this has been constantly derailed by wars cropping up, and spending getting diverted thereto (See: WWI & II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq I & II, Afghanistan, various relatively minor operations). The other common thread is that opponents have characterized it as "too European" in some form or fashion. To quote: "The argument against health-care reform often amounts to a) it’s foreign and b) we have gone this far without it, thank you very much."
Think about that for a second. This so-called debate on health-care reform in America has been in the making for longer than the average life-expectancy for any American citizen, with or without insurance. Instead of building our own infrastructure and actually taking care of all our citizens, we've been bopping around the world, killing people with funny-sounding names. As a consequence, we are the only modernized Western(/Westernized) democracy in which the phenomenon of "Medical Bankruptcy" even exists, and it accounts for more than 60% of all bankruptcies in the US.
From a moral standpoint, anyone who claims to have an ounce of empathy for their fellow humans should be outraged. Hell, access to health care is listed as a basic human right in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, specifically:
Article 25.
(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection. [Emphasis mine]
By not providing all our citizens with access to quality healthcare, we stand in direct violation to the UDHR, of which we are a signatory. By opposing universal coverage, you are, in essence, extending a giant "FUCK YOU" to every man, woman and child who currently lacks even basic access to health care in this country.
On a more pragmatic note, the federal government covering all citizens in case of illness makes solid fiscal sense, as well. By paying for preventative care, we curtail more expensive illnesses down the road, leading to an ostensibly healthier, more productive workforce. Should you believe that "everyone can just go to the Emergency Room if they get sick" and still oppose universal healthcare as "socialist" or some such nonsense, you should re-examine your perspective, as (surprise!) the cost of treating those who go to the ER and can't pay (i.e., those who need universal coverage the most) gets passed on to everyone else in the form of higher premiums, etc. By endorsing the "just go to the ER" approach, you endorse the most inefficient form of "socialized medicine" yet conceived. If private plans truly can provide higher-quality care, great.
Those who can afford it will always have more options. However, we shouldn't deny basic preventative and emergency care to those who can't afford it under the current system. That only serves to solidify barriers to upward social mobility, and restricts people's options for innovation and risk-taking.
So, find your congresscritters and call them, write, whatever. Just do something.
The short of it is: We, as a nation, have been on the apparent cusp of having universal coverage for NINETY-THREE YEARS. However, this has been constantly derailed by wars cropping up, and spending getting diverted thereto (See: WWI & II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq I & II, Afghanistan, various relatively minor operations). The other common thread is that opponents have characterized it as "too European" in some form or fashion. To quote: "The argument against health-care reform often amounts to a) it’s foreign and b) we have gone this far without it, thank you very much."
Think about that for a second. This so-called debate on health-care reform in America has been in the making for longer than the average life-expectancy for any American citizen, with or without insurance. Instead of building our own infrastructure and actually taking care of all our citizens, we've been bopping around the world, killing people with funny-sounding names. As a consequence, we are the only modernized Western(/Westernized) democracy in which the phenomenon of "Medical Bankruptcy" even exists, and it accounts for more than 60% of all bankruptcies in the US.
From a moral standpoint, anyone who claims to have an ounce of empathy for their fellow humans should be outraged. Hell, access to health care is listed as a basic human right in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, specifically:
Article 25.
(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection. [Emphasis mine]
By not providing all our citizens with access to quality healthcare, we stand in direct violation to the UDHR, of which we are a signatory. By opposing universal coverage, you are, in essence, extending a giant "FUCK YOU" to every man, woman and child who currently lacks even basic access to health care in this country.
On a more pragmatic note, the federal government covering all citizens in case of illness makes solid fiscal sense, as well. By paying for preventative care, we curtail more expensive illnesses down the road, leading to an ostensibly healthier, more productive workforce. Should you believe that "everyone can just go to the Emergency Room if they get sick" and still oppose universal healthcare as "socialist" or some such nonsense, you should re-examine your perspective, as (surprise!) the cost of treating those who go to the ER and can't pay (i.e., those who need universal coverage the most) gets passed on to everyone else in the form of higher premiums, etc. By endorsing the "just go to the ER" approach, you endorse the most inefficient form of "socialized medicine" yet conceived. If private plans truly can provide higher-quality care, great.
Those who can afford it will always have more options. However, we shouldn't deny basic preventative and emergency care to those who can't afford it under the current system. That only serves to solidify barriers to upward social mobility, and restricts people's options for innovation and risk-taking.
So, find your congresscritters and call them, write, whatever. Just do something.