flaja :
let me respond to one of your questions/objections :
Quote:
hbg wrote :
in the end WE ALL have to pay if our neighbour does not receive adequate health-care when needed - no matter how many bad habits he might have .
flaja responded :
But why should we be compelled to pay for mistakes that our neighbors intentionally make?
let me take a simple case :
-one of your neighbours had very little education and therefore cannot find a job with a company offering group health-insurance .
- was it his INTENTIONAL mistake not to get better education ?
- is it possible that he is trying his best but can simply not compete with better educated people ?
- your neighbour has a low-paying job with an employer not offering group health-insurance and cannot afford private/individual health-insurance ( some a2k members have stated that they cannot afford the health- insurance premium ) ,
- the roof of his house starts to leak and rain-water comes into the children's bedroom ,
- since he does not have enough money to pay for a roofer's emergency call , he climbs on the roof tryinng to fix the problem , he slips , falls of the roof and is taken to emergency ,
- i understand that even in the united states one would be treated in the emergency room even though one might not have insurance or money for the treatment .
if he truly cannot pay for the treatment , who do you think reimburses/pays the hospital ?
or let's assume one of his childern has a bad cold . he can't pay for the doctor and eventually the child is admitted to emergengy with pneumonia .
would it not have been better if he had had UNIVERSAL health-insurance so the child could have been treated early , BEFORE it turned into pneumonia ?
whether you like it or not , you are paying for the treatment of those not insured , and it'll cost the economy(YOU !) more than if that person had had insurance .
of course , you do not see the cost to the economy (and YOU !) of treating the uninsured and perhaps having to look after disabled people that might have been able to get back to work had they received proper treatment early on .
there is an old saying : you can pay now or you can pay later- but paying later is going to cost you extra !
you probably won't agree with me . well , that's your privilege .
i'm glad i live in a country where every citizen is entitled to basic health-care . i don't mind if my neighbour needs and gets more health-care than i , even if he paid less into the fund .
if our system can keep me reasonably healthy , i don't mind my neighbour getting some extra care if he needs it - perhaps some time my family needs the extra care and i'll be glad if i don't have to go begging .
that's the way i see it .
hbg