posted June 15, 2008
Who in their right mind is going to vote for universal health care? In concept it is like saying, who loves puppies? Everyone loves puppies. No one is going to say that they hate them. But universal health care cannot be a reality.
First, every father and mother should work so they can provide for their own family. If you need to get two jobs like many of our ancestors did then so be it. Work hard for your family. If you cannot get a job that provides health care or access to it then get a job that does. Get training, move up, make more money, work hard for your family.
Now just crunch the numbers with me for a moment. My employer pays about one half of the cost for health care or more. So let us just say we share the expense equally. Say I pay about $100 per month and so does my employer. That is health care cost of $200 per month or about $2,400 a year. Now let’s cover all 300 million Americans. That means the government would need to spend about $720 billion dollars a year to make sure everyone is covered. If you are a visual learner that looks like this: $720,000,000,000.
That means they would have to raise your taxes to pay for it. That means you would be paying for your own health care any way. Why don’t they let me and my employer pay for it and give me a tax break?
Can we not find a better way to help people get health care than for the government do cover us all? Name one country in the world where the health care is provided by the government and it is any good. Any takers? I thought not because there is not government health care in the world that is any good on a scale like the United States.
We cannot afford universal health care. It may sound like puppies but the numbers don’t work. It would cost too much and be lousy. I am doing just fine finding my own thank you very much. Obama wants to raise taxes on the “wealthy” and have universal health care. He cannot do it just by raising their taxes. He would have to raise everyone’s taxes and he will come after each of us.
Johnny Franks
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I have relatives who live in France, and the UK. During the last family get together one year ago, I asked each of them about their healthcare system. I told them about the propaganda that we get from the U.S. about how horrible these countries healthcare system is. They all just laughed.
According to them the wild tales of having to wait months for surgeries is a lie. My aunt who lives in France recently awoke with a sharp pain in her abdomen. Within minutes a doctor came to her house and treated her. How is this a bad thing?
Sure taxes may be higher but I think most people would gladly trade higher taxes for the constant worry that getting hurt or ill may devastate you financially. These are lower middle income people and they both can't believe the idea of having a $40,000 hospital bill or having to decide whether to buy groceries or medicine.
I'm sorry Mr. Franks that you have completely bought into the notion that free or affordable healthcare is evil. Have you ever tried to get a medical insurance policy that was worth anything when you don't work for a company that offers it? If you think that all is well with the healthcare industry in the U.S., you are either blind, ignorant or sadly misinformed.
I think that you are just the person that Reagan, Bush and McCain are campaigning for. If you want to know the real truth about universal healthcare, try talking to someone who is a recipient. It always amazes me how those who have it made or are rich have so little compassion for those who struggle.
Mary Anne Watkins
maryannewatkins39@yahoo.com
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Ms. Watkins speaks of her family from France and how their universal healthcare is just wonderful. I would like to say in defense of Mr. Franks, I have personally spoken with recipients living in England with this same type of healthcare. They said the healthcare was a waste of money and they did not receive the treatment they needed with that insurance alone. They explained the only way to get proper treatment is to have a private insurance in addition to their government funded healthcare.
The example they used was quite similar to Ms. Watkins family's example. The family I spoke with had a teenage daughter with abdominal pain. She received no care from the hospital until they spoke up and advised that she had private insurance. Thank goodness they did because the young girl had a ruptured appendix and likely would have bled to death had she not been treated in a reasonable amount of time.
I would recommend that Ms. Watkins not make assumptions about Mr. Frank's knowledge or political beliefs before knowing the other side of the story.
As far as people like Mr. Franks not having compassion for those that struggle, I can only say this: I don't know the man, but if he is anything like me, he does have compassion for those that struggle, doing everything they can in order to provide for their family. However, it's those sitting on the couch, doing nothing while waiting for their government checks to arrive in the mail, while I work for a living that I have no compassion for. This healthcare suggestion is only going to make it easier for them.
K. Sheets
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Mary Anne's foreign family is either non-existent, except as a proof for the story, or they are misinformed. All one has to do is watch the Prime Minister's weekly address to the House of Commons on CSPAN to see the healthcare system in the UK is broken.
There are not enough hospitals. Doctors are underpaid (because they are employees of the state) and quality care is not available at standards we are used to here in the United States.
I am not sure what she means when Mary Anne says people like Mr. Franks have no compassion. Compassion is a care or concern to improve the condition of our fellow countrymen. I do not see how making healthcare in this country a federally run institution improves anyone's condition. We have public hospitals. Public hospitals are required by law to treat anyone who comes there whether they can pay or not.
So why does Mary Anne and others like her feel that when we have Medicare and Medicaid as well as public hospitals that we need to take everyone else's private healthcare away and make it run by the government?
I would challenge people like Mary Anne to name one government agency that runs under budget and is efficient. You cannot name one. So why would the government do a good job in running health care for 300 million Americans? The answer is they would not.
Compassion is really helping people improve their jobs, earn more money and get their own health care that they choose. Compassion is not a handout and never will be. Help a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. Give a man a fish and he eats for one day.
Cliff Sarbel
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Ms. Watkins,
I lived in Florida for many years of my life and I believe you should expand your research on how the British and Canadians look upon their health care system. Check with Canadians in Zephyrhills, Fl., around the Naples, Fl. area, in the Disney World area of Orlando and along the beaches of Pinellas County. The lack of choice and speed of service mentioned to me did not sound like anything you have been told.
I never spoke with any French visitors, so I cannot comment.
Ken Whaley
sassee@comcast.net
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The real issue should be affordable healthcare not universal healthcare.
My partner is a self employed hard working professional who has trouble affording healthcare insurance. With his wife being an uninsurable diabetic he is forced into using the Access Tennessee insurance program which cost him approximately $600 per month. This combined with his premium of $250 per month equals $850 per month for insuring two people.
These insurance premiums also carry a $5,000 deductible. So let us do the math assuming that they have a bad year and both need substantial medical attention. $850 x 12 months = $10,200 in premiums + $10,000 deductibles = $20,200 out of pocket expenses for one year. I believe cost like this go way beyond people getting a job and working hard as Mr. Franks stated.
The argument of which is the best of the two evils, the government or the medical industry is a very good question as both have a proven track record of tremendous inefficiency. I'll leave that one up to the experts.
I am a native of the Netherlands and my comrades from Europe have never really complained about their healthcare system or high taxes. In fact I have been trying for years to get some of my acquaintances to move to the U.S.A. with no such luck. So for those who think that healthcare in the U.S.A. is fine and that a hard working professional should have to fork out a potential $20,200 in healthcare expenses for one year, please take off your blinders.
Being the medical and insurance industry cannot seem to solve any critical affordability problems we as citizens have no choice but to take the best of the two evils, the government.
Kevin Good
Cleveland
Hulahigirl@aol.com
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Ms. Watkins must have been in France last year at the same time that Fidel Castro's health took a big turn for the worse. Did he entrust any of his best specialists with his life, from one of these showcase socialized medicine programs? Heck, no. He sent to Madrid, Spain for a team of eight to run his way as fast as possible.
He might be a cold-blooded killer and a despot, but he's no fool.
John R. Smickle
Chattanooga
jsbottomfeeder@juno.com
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Me, me, me, me, me, meeee ... sorry, I'm warming up for my opera solo.
I sure wish I had the smooth, baritone voice of Jim Reeves as when he sang Welcome to My World. Be that as it may, some who complain about the cost of healthcare might do well to look around and see what others are doing.
Twenty grand in a bad year, but only 10 grand in a normal year, if there is ever such. The additional 10 grand could easily be handled by putting away a little cash, dinero, jingwa, or whatever else we want to call our personal funds, and use our own resources in case of an emergency. There are plenty of us who have high insurance costs due to our choice of career or employment. Please note use of the word choice. No one forces us to be in business for ourselves as a lawyer, doctor, engineer, sales rep, or other solo operator. If we cannot afford the costs involved with that choice, perhaps we shouldn't be in business on our own until we can afford them on our own. To do otherwise is nothing more than holding our hand out for welfare, for others to support us on our quest for the American buck.
"My partner" who "is a self employed hard working professional" ... if he cannot afford to stand on his own he really isn't self employed now, is he. Health insurance is nothing more than a cost, a cost of doing business. If we cannot afford the cost, then perhaps we didn't make the correct decision to go off on our own in the first place. Questions come immediately to mind when I hear or read such dire stories; exempli gratia, does the lady work outside the home in order to have a group health insurance plan available? Many couples do just exactly that, one works at building a business while the other maintains a real job so they have insurance benefits.
Just because someone chooses not to remain in the employ of someone else does not mean the rest of us should pick up the tab for his or her upkeep and maintenance, as well as that of their families. Their choices are their choices, and they need to bear the consequences of those choices. This brings to mind a comment recently made by a friend about wealthy white people with a sense of entitlement. Welfare is welfare. We either stand on our own or we need to go get a real job, there is no in between ... at least there should not be.
But perhaps grandpaw was right about the sissification of America ...
The American dream is doing it our way. We have no right to reach into someone else's pocket while doing so, especially when that pocket may belong to a divorced mom with a couple of little snots who isn't receiving child support from their father, but she's working to support herself and her children, at a job with benefits, and one she may not necessarily like very much, even if she has to hire a lawyer to take the state to task and force them to collect her money. A "professional" wouldn't expect someone else to pay his bills, and a "professional" who cannot pay his own bills can't be working all that hard, but that's just the opinion of one who does pay his own way.
Too many veggies on the menu is getting me down. I need ice cream, and chocolate, with coffee and a cigarette chaser. My way.
Royce E. Burrage, Jr.
Royce@OfficiallyChapped.org
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