The proposed health care bill thread (merged)

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by XabbaRus

I also don't get why there are so many in the US against what is in essence a national health system?

It benefits everyone. At the end of the day it HAS to be paid for.

What is the difference of paying it from your taxes or handing a cheque over to a private comany? At the end of the day you are giving money out of your pocket to pay for your health care.

As for the whole "why should you get benefit from money I earn" argument. That is called social responsibility. The crux is no matter how well of you are now sh!t could happen and you find yourself on the downside and will need the safety net.

I'm not saying that there isn't abuse in social care systems, god knows in the UK we do have an issues with scroungers, however in all fairness I think as a percentage of the population it is quite small. However I know I can relax in that if things do go pear shaped due to unforseen cirumstances.

All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated...

As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness....

No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

- John Donne

That's why not only do I want a universal health program (the devil is in the details of course) but why I am willing, as a tax payer, to pay for this program. Because I feel it is the "right" thing to do.

Call it Noblesse oblige if you like or Social Responsibility, or Morality. I leave those definitions to the philosophers.

I just recognize something that is right in my opinion and I am committed by my effort and by my money to support this, despite whether I do or do not garner any benefit.

There can not be a greater cause then to help people you don't know and will never meet.