Is healthcare a "right?"

For the sake of discussion let's take Medicare for all off the table. How do we get to a system that isn't going to bankrupt the country like the one we have now will?
Because garbage like.......You have the right to whatever healthcare-related goods and services you can afford.........proves the inhumanity of some but does nothing to solve the problem we have.

 

People move. I moved across the country years ago. I meet people who moved here from many states. And we need equal access. What you're saying as I see it is that people in CA should be paying for the excellent healthcare there, and people in flyover states should just put up with sparse clinics and poor healthcare because that's all they can afford. I have great healthcare too but I'm willing to have my healthcare taxes help those who can't afford what I have.

Most of us pay taxes that fund corporate subsidies, foreign intervention, dairy and farm subsidies, benefits for fossil fuel companies and polluters and everything else anyone can object to. So sorry if I can't work up tears over your examples.

The "local regulation" argument is great for some things like land use and zoning laws, speed limits, and wildlife management. But for many things we need to continue with the traditional practice of federal government defining the minimal requirement and allow the states to exceed that minimum if they wish. Then there are things like healthcare that we must ensure provide equal access and coverage affordability for everyone. Pockets of excellence interspersed with pockets of inadequacy should be prevented.

It seems you're the one making "stupid" examples and objections. Would you like to make amends by being realistic?

 

I think our healthcare system needs a top-to-bottom overhaul. But to minimize the shock, including the psychological shock for some, it seems necessary to make incremental changes. Yet incremental changes are doomed to failure as we have seen. I call the ACA an "incremental change".

 

I'm sorry, but that just isn't how it works - at least where I am. If your spouse falls out they will absolutely ask "which facility" if there is a choice. They will have suggestions as well, depending on the type of emergency. Some facilitates are better than others at dealing with different things and it may be worthwhile to go directly there. I have first hand knowledge of EMS doing this so I don't really care what you believe .

The point is, in America, you have the damn choice to be treated how and by whomever you want, assuming they likewise agree to treat you.

Many of those choices, people aren't so willing to hand over to the government. Many of us like to have a say in which doctor cuts us open.

 

they will not. They will take you to the nearest ER to be stabilized.

I have first hand knowledge as well. You are not given a choice where to be taken, in an emergency. You are taken to the nearest ER.

demonstrably false.

you don't have a say now. Single payer doesn't prevent you from seeking a particular doctor. It just removes the profit driven insurance companies.

 

This is when a amendment to the Bill of Rights to make healthcare a guaranteed right is needed. The way to go about it is not smart, ensuring it in the Bill of Rights will put the issue of making it a human right to rest. Add healthcare to the very document you cited in the OP. This is America, not Yemen or Nicaragua, all of her citizens should be entitled to good, non-compromised healthcare.

 

If a national healthcare system provides better healthcare for me & you and your loved ones, and at a cheaper price because there's no longer a profit margin to be concerned about, then everybody wins. Why would you oppose such an outcome?

 

You obviously have a lot more faith in the federal government than I do. Do you really want a Trump or Hillary making decisions for your healthcare?

No matter which side of the aisle, they are all a bunch of snakes that don't give a damn for the average American. The closer the governing are to the governed the more in tune with their needs they are. Do you really think Pelosi or McConnell give a crap about healthcare? Absolutely not, it just gets them votes to act like they do - and more power.

The federal government does a horrible job with everything they get involved with, why do you want them to regulate your healthcare?

 

Since that has absolutely NO relationship to the issue of national healthcare and no politician would make decisions for my healthcare, you have now shown your utter poverty of understanding on this issue. End of story.

 

ideological stubbornness is why they object.

 

If owning weapons of war is a right, then healthcare must be a right. Otherwise, we have to be the dumbest bunch on the planet.

 

Isn't that the way we provide food? Are you also in favor of government-run communal farms and grocery stores? Stalin tried that and millions died. Your best case scenario is akin to going to the DMV for healthcare.

 

Do you prefer to contribute for a front loaded payment mechanism, or when they actually receive the care?

 

So who oversees federal programs if not congress and the executive branch?

 

When you look at the Bill of Rights, it is a document that restricts the government from taking things away from you. You already have a right to healthcare, just like you have a right to an AR-15. No one is suggesting government will restrict your ability to shop for healthcare.

What you are talking about, is not a right to healthcare, but the right to force healthcare providers to give you healthcare for free. Shouldn't food and water and transportation be ranked as a higher priority than healthcare for most people? How about free food? I'll take the beef tenderloin and king crab legs, please.

 

Well, one thing is for sure. These healthcare threads demonstrate our educational system is in worse shape than our healthcare system.

 

All due respect, but this isn't going anywhere. Maybe they do it different where you are, I don't know. But where I work, and when it was my family member having a heart attack, they absolutely asked "where would you like us to take them."

 

No, healthcare is not a right. Neither is food or clean drinking water, but it sure makes life easier when you have them.

 

First of all, we make sure people have food, as it IS a right - and as life and health SHOULD be.

From there, one can easily notice that our capitalist system is designed to motivate corporations by a profit motive. And, those who are both poor AND sick are not particularly great contributors to making corporations more profitable. So, those corporations do EXACTLY what we expect a good capitalist to do - tell people who don't come with money to F off.

That works GREAT for TVs, cars and cell phones.

But, expecting THAT to be our national healthcare coverage system is absurd.

 

You sound like the majority of Americans who are fed up with the way government rules. But conservatives keep voting for the rich, wealthy businessmen as their representatives, under the delusion that they will somehow miraculously care about & legislate for your concerns. They won't. You have to learn that the rich candidates support the status quo, and its the same status quo that you are so angry at. New Democratic candidates like Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and others are campaigning on new policies that would help end the negative results you complain about. I encourage you to listen to these candidates & see if they might make you feel better about your government, if elected.

 

No, but it certainly could be a privilege granted for living in one of the most economically successful countries in the world.

 

What’s the difference in cost to me in your scenarios?[/QUOTE]

 

Many of the ignorant confuse health insurance with health care. This country has health care for all. Anyone can go to a hospital in this country and be treated.

Second, it is widely known that anything the government runs is loaded with red tape, is inefficient and have long lines. Anyone wanting government controlled health care needs to look at the VA and determine if that is what they want.

Third, I always love it when the Dems come up with a new name for health care. They always claim it is the answer. Medicade, Obama Care, blah blah blah a new name is always the answer. Now they want to call it Medicare for all. News Flash Dems, changing the name does not make it cheaper. If you do not address what drives up the costs, the costs will not change.

If the Dems want cheaper health care costs first they need to clamp down on their lawyer friends with tort reform. Every developed country in the world other than the US limits the amount of medical settlements. Next, reel in the federal agencies. In the rest of the world it takes 2 years or less of testing to clear a drug for use. In the US it takes 8 to 10 years. Next, do not allow the drug companies to stiff the US consumer with all the R & D costs. Next, be like every other country in the world and not allow free health care for non Americans. If you go to Europe or Mexico, you don't get treated if you don't show the cash. We should be the same.

 

I don’t believe you.

 

There is quite a difference between preventive care vs just emergent care. Preventive care is what one gets when they have health insurance. People with no insurance can only get emergent care.
That being said, no I’m not advocating for single payer universal care. But I would like people to understand the difference between preventive care vs emergent care.