centre of the universe

I don't understand

Okay, I’m’a need some edimification here.

What’s the big deal with socialised medicine? Seriously. Why is it a bad thing? Are you seriously THAT preoccupied with the redistribution of wealth?

If you pay private insurance premiums for health insurance, you’re basically playing a betting game – the insurance company is betting you’re going to live a long, healthy life, and you’re betting you’re not. You’re betting on your own infirmity. And not only that, if you *do* turn out to be right, you have to, in your own illness and infirmity, PROVE to your health insurance company that you are ACTUALLY infirm, and that the coverage you signed up for and have been paying through the nose for is ACTUALLY includes the type of infirmity you have. It’s way easier if you just do something easy like lose a finger.

So, what you’re saying is that you would rather pay outrageous premiums out of your own pocket for sketchy coverage that sometimes doesn’t apply at the hospital/doctor of your choosing, rather than have a nominal amount of your tax dollars do that for you, in such a way that you *always* qualify for whatever care you need and/or want (with the exception of elective surgeries that most health insurance doesn’t cover anyway).

I don’t understand you. I really don’t.

The only argument I get here is when people say they want the government not to tax anyone, for any reason. I think that’s unreasonable and unworkable, but that’s because I can’t conceive of a government that runs a country *for free*, because if there’re no taxes, who is going to pay your government?

Anyway, I’ve sidetracked myself again.

The point is, I don’t get you.

UPDATE:
The graphic below (an infographic showing the correlation between national health care spending and average life expectancy) boggles the mind *even further*. Infographic yoinked from BoingBoing

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cenobyte

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8 responses to “I don't understand”

  1. rww Avatar
    rww

    And why is socialized killing (military) ok but socialized saving lives not.

    Reply
  2. melistress Avatar
    melistress

    Not just the act of governing but who is going to pay for your roads, your educational system, your military, your right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, your….

    Reply
  3. Silent Winged Coyote Avatar
    Silent Winged Coyote

    Well the simple answer is ‘The rich people don’t like it when people who aren’t rich can have what they have.’

    If you’re rich and don’t care about health bills then you can get the best care you want. If you’re poor you have to get health insurance and then try to fight with them to get the coverage like you pointed out.

    If you have socialised health care then the poor and rich get treated the same and rich folks get pissy about shit like that.

    My WV is quiroske. I like that.

    Reply
  4. melistress Avatar
    melistress

    Even stranger, I feel, is that it isn’t just the rich and the well insured that are protesting socialized health care. It is also the people who have no access to it. Unfreakingbelievable!

    Reply
  5. Amy Avatar
    Amy

    Amazingly, my word verification is “soclibb” so I have to post.

    Coyote almost has it, I think. After living here and talking to seemingly sane people, I think it’s the fear that someone, somewhere, will get something to which they’re not entitled. These people will be *perfectly happy* to spend $500 to make sure someone deserves to get $100. It’s a very odd mindset, and seems to be stronger in the not-rich.

    Reply
  6. cenobyte Avatar
    cenobyte

    So, what’s the deal? All these hyper-right-wing-nuts in the States (some of whom are also hateful, terrorist-thinking religious zealots) think they’re entitled to more and better because…

    Reply
  7. Amy Avatar
    Amy

    I’m glad you didn’t say that all of them are hateful, terrorist-thinking religious zealots, because I was pleased to discover that that’s not true. It would almost be easier to understand if it were.

    It’s odd, because it honestly doesn’t seem like they necessarily want more or better or anything like that for themselves. It’s the fear that someone (not necessarily only someone who is *not them*, but *anyone*) will get more than they deserve.

    It’s the idea of fair play and reward-for-hard-work twisted into something almost unrecognisable (along with a unique definition of “deserve”, of course. I love the Jim Hightower quote referring to G.W. Bush… “He was born on third and thinks he hit a triple.”)

    I might not be making much sense here, sorry.

    Reply
  8. cenobyte Avatar
    cenobyte

    I guess I’ve just never really understood the Great American Dream.

    It’s almost as if these folks (the ones who fear social medicine like they fear the French Pox) have lost a sense of community, and what it means to be responsible to and for one another.

    I say that because when you have a sense of community, and what it means to be responsible to and for one another, it seems to me the *natural* extension of that is wanting to care for the community; I guess it’s a ‘Sesame Street’ understanding of neighbourhoods and small town America that maybe doesn’t exist?

    Or maybe it’s just as simple as fear of the unknown?

    The Puritan ideal of “the harder you work, the better will come to you”, but retooled to have nothing to do with the afterlife?

    Reply

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