Is healthcare a "right?"

No, the good old Collateral Damage philosophy of personal responsibility.

 

And I wasn't responding to you, was I.

I have no clue what hamhocks cost. I do know what a can of corn, green beans, beets or other vegetables cost, along with canned tuna, canned ham, cold cuts, store brand cheese, fresh vegetables and fruits, cornmeal, flour and 2% Milk costs.

So what great mysteries of this planet to the prices of hamhocks reveal to you?

 

Are you sure about that? After all, Medicare reimbursement rates are below that of private insurers.

CBO reports show private insurers pay physicians, hospitals far more than Medicare

https://www.healthcaredive.com/news...-physicians-hospitals-far-more-than-m/445949/

 

Payment isn't the same as cost.

Charges = What the hospital charges for a given procedure, which is based on the cost involved with a given procedure.
Payment = What a given payer will reimburse for a given procedure which is based on negotiated contracts, except for Medicare.

If the hospital charges $500 for a given procedure due to the cost of that procedure, Medicare reimbursing at $300 doesn't mean the cost of care is lowered. It just means Medicare pays below what the hospital is charging. The hospital system I work for loses tens of millions of dollars on Medicare and Medicaid patients.
Said another way, the work involved for the $500 charge doesn't lower because Medicare pays a lower reimbursement. The cost of running the machine doesn't lower, the cost of the technician doing the procedure and reading the results doesn't lower, because Medicare reimburses at a lower amount.

In order for health care costs to lower, nurses and doctors would have to be paid less. Medical supply companies would have to charges hospitals less money for the supplies. Medical device companies would have to charge hospitals less money for medical devices. Pharmacy companies would have to charge hospitals less money for drugs.

 

Huh? Since a public option is essentially Medicare for those who want it the lower reimbursement rate means the cost to the nation........the amount of GDP being used towards healthcare.....declines. That is a primary goal of any kind of reform.

 

That doesn’t lower the actual cost of care. And please don’t edit my posts.

 

A food price fixing conspiracy.
canned foods and processed meats are bad for your health. They are loaded with chemicals and salt.

 

Ah, you must be a Canadian.

 

So I guess you agree that there are more variables at play that could explain the graph. Thank you for that concession.

Your other points are peripheral to the graph. Of course the graph is 4 years old, before the massive migration into Europe. Norway's stats along with everyone else's have surely changed as a result of that migration. But you make a point about tobacco.

I am skeptical that the education system has unhealthy dietary practices in the curriculum. But if it does, remember it is government run. And the left wants those same people in control of healthcare? That argument is the poster boy for "struggling."

 

Relating to what?

 

Trump is a bad role model for healthy nutrition. He's obese and promotes fast foods.

 

Nope. Born and raised in the US.

 

Clinton was the same thing. I don't think they have a serious impact on what you buy at the grocery store, or what the school cafeteria serves to kids.

 

Democats wanted to improve diet education in our schools and got slammed by the right wing.

The right wing demanded that we go back to teaching good diet from books for a couple hours a year and then establishing a lifelong pattern of horrible diet every day of their entire life at school.

 

How do you cook them? Red beans and rice? I'm serious.

 

Then your comments have no value in this discussion.
Apparently you only trying to defend what has been given to you by the government.
Don't you think it is hypocritical to blame us (ordinary people) for our desire to have guaranteed access to health care, while reaping of government benefits at the same time.

 

I honestly wonder what would happen if 100% of all programs were eliminated tomorrow . I think you'd be surprised how much families, local communities, churches, neighborhood associations, would step up. We have a lot of surplus food these days.

I do think it important that we all create and cultivate social networks to step in in case the government fails or Libertarians take over and eliminate the programs.

 

It got slammed by the students who refused to eat Michelle's diet plans and the schools who were paying to throw out all that food for which they were paying.

 

NO! Not the same, the new government that will be eventually elected.
Yes, we might not like it, because of the other ugly thing they might implement.
BUT people have no choice.
Health Care is a priority.

 

You have a right to health care just as you have a right to read a book, or own a gun even though it is not an explicit right as expressed in the Constitution. You don't have a right to require other people pay for yours even through the government and taxation.

 

Don't see it that way at all. One of the benefits of serving in the military is having use of the VA. No different than a benefit offered by any employer. I don't feel it was "given" to me, I feel I earned it. Your right to disagree with me is one of the many things I feel I signed on to defend. As for what I paid into Medicare, that was forced on me.

 

That is a B.S.
Yes, I have a right to require people to pay for the services that cannot be provided by private organizations.
That right is called taxation. You pay for the roads, police and schools, that I use.
The health care is no different, it is no different for a simple reason that no private organizations can provide health care without government intervention.
It is only perverted minds of so called conservatives do not understand this simple concept.

 

Regardless of anything, you are against Medicare for all, that is hypocritical.

 

You tend to contradict yourself. On one hand you think the "people have no choice" on the other hand you say a "new government will be eventually elected".

I guess you are good with whatever government does as long as you get your meager handout? "we might not like it, because of the other ugly things they might implement"; "BUT the people have no choice. Health Care is a priority".

Health care is only a priority for the Socialistic Democrats and those with out healthcare.

I for one would be willing to work to help get health care for those who do not have it. I am not willing to give up my health care for some crappy government run single payer plan.

 

Yes, people should elect those representatives who supports guaranteed access to health care, I do not see any contradiction.