Universal health care, let me get this straight...?

Question

I play flag football. Nobody forces me to do it, it's just something I enjoy. But as a result I have ended up in the E.R. a few times over the last 6 years (broken bones, sprained ankles, etc.). It's just a part of the game, stuff happens, and I accept that when I choose to play.

My best friend does not play football and has not been in the E.R. at all over the last 6 years.

So, let me get this straight: instead of me paying for my trips to the E.R., some people are in favor of a single payer system (universal health care) where my friend and I would both pay higher taxes to pay for my trips to the E.R. What color is the sky in the universe where that makes sense? My friend doesn't play football, he didn't force me to play football, and he could not stop me from playing football. In no way at all is he responsible for my activities or the medical bills I incur from it. So how can anybody justify raising his taxes to pay for it? That is literally insane, not to mention a gross violation of his basic human rights.

I chose football as an example, but you could use anything else that people do that results in medical bills (eating junk food, not exercising, drinking, smoking, whoring around, refusing to wash your hands, etc.). The fact is that most medical bills are a consequence of choices that people make. How can you justify taxing money from 1 person to pay for the consequences of another person's choice? You can't. It's immoral, unethical, and illegal. So how on Earth can anybody support the insane concept of a single-payer or universal health care system?

Elwood Blues · Accepted Answer

Take a good look at Canada and Europe.  They have longer life expectancies and *much* lower health care costs.  Why is that?

The fact is that in the USA we pay nearly *twice* what Europeans pay for health care, and we have both higher infant mortality and lower life expectancy than most European countries.  In the table below, im = infant mortality and L = life expectancy. 
2010 life expectancies: http://www.infoplease.com/world/statistics/infant-mortality-life-expectancy.html
2010 health care per capita: http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=HEALTH

United States -- im= 6.1,  L= 78.2, cost $7538, 16.0
Canada ---------- im= 5.0,  L= 81.3, cost $4406, 10.4
		 
Austria --------- im= 4.4,  L= 79.6, cost $3970, 10.5
United Kingdom -- im= 4.7,  L= 79.9, cost $3129, 8.7
Denmark -------   im= 4.3,  L= 78.5, cost $3540, 9.7
Finland --------  im= 3.4,  L= 79.1, cost $3008, 8.4
France --------  im= 3.3,  L= 81.0, cost $3696, 11.5
Germany ------   im= 4.0,  L= 79.4, cost $3737, 10.5
Greece --------  im= 5.1,  L= 79.8, cost $2687, 9.7
Italy ------------ im= 5.4,  L= 80.3, cost $2886, 9.5
Norway ---------  im= 3.5,  L= 80.0, cost $5003, 8.5
Spain ----------- im= 3.4,  L= 81.0, cost $2902, 9.0
Sweden --------   im= 2.7,  L= 80.9, cost $3470, 9.4
Switzerland ---   im= 4.1,  L= 80.9, cost $4810, 10.7

The short answer is preventative care. Going in for regular doctor visits catches many diseases in their early stages before treatment gets expensive. Our system cause many people to forgo preventative care and wind up in the emergency room, where care is most expensive but costs can be shifted to the society at large.
,

Kini · Answer

Your friend is bound to need medical care even if it is not the Emergency Room. And how do you pay for the Emergency Room visit without insurance? Most medical bills are from illness or injury and whether you could have prevented your injury or illness should not be the reason to have no health care system. Do you pay for private insurance? Millions of people cant afford it. We all pay taxes which are used for things we dont need like rockets to Mars or a highway in Alaska I will never use but I have to chip in because I live in a country that has to tax people to operate whatever it is used for. Even if you dont have to pay taxes for health care, your insurance premiums are higher because of so many uninsured people.

? · Answer

the issue with nationalized healthcare is that with the government working it, the value will nonetheless be there, you in simple terms pay for it with greater taxes. Belgium has a severe-high quality nationalized healthcare gadget. needless to say they quite have a fifty 5% popular tax fee to pay for it. I actually have a extra helpful thought, and one that i think of can quite make anybody happy. the reason drugs are so high priced is that it expenses billions of greenbacks to learn and improve them. With the present affected person rules, they have purely approximately 7 years after affected person to recoup those expenses earlier it is going popular. What in the event that they prolonged the affected person on drugs, allowing extra time to recuperate the R&D and turn a income? Or, on the different hand, a small royalty from the popular manufacturers? the two decision or a mixture of the two might decrease drug expenses, enable the prescription drugs to teach a income, and grant high quality drugs and the inducement to learn extra. All this without nationalizing the finished gadget. in my view, i think of nationalizing healthcare is like attempting to restoration a photograph physique with a 20 pound sledgehammer. My physique of strategies is a lot extra concentrated on the underlying issue.

Anonymous · Answer

ok what the health care reform was try to do
is to make sure everyone in this country pay for an health care insurance
is pretty much like make sure everyone pay their taxes 
and yes you been forced to do so by law

but people don't get it

so you think national health care is insane??
that if fine lets kill the national health care idea
and we go back to use American people tax money 
to pay for those who can't afford an health care insurance 
or they don't want buy one..!!!

but remember this

provider health care services
for those who don't have an health care insurance or they can't pay for it
is guarantee by a Federal Law

scott b · Answer

IF you don't have insurance, then MY tax money already pays for YOUR ER trip. And, THAT is the biggest problem.

You clearly don't understand the issues or how our health care system works.

Universal health care, let me get this straight...?

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