Quote:
Originally Posted by Jess is Write
Benjamin Franklin founded the country's first hospital. The colonies footed the bill to provide medical care to settlers who needed it, and the colonies paid for the funerals of those who died. This country was founded on everyone being able to see a doctor when they needed it, regardless of their income.
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Actually, Benjamin Franklin did NOT found the first hospital, he helped found it. It was NOT funded by the state because there was no such thing as a state back then. PRIVATE DONORS gave money to start the hospital and the doctors lived there because they were NOT paid. This country was founded like you said but not at the expense of taxpayers but rather at the expense of willing donors. Being funded on Charity and being funded on taxes are VERY different.
Of course I'm against UHC. I'm against the government being in health care pretty much at.all. Health care costs do rise all the time and I believe it's due to government regulations mostly. I don't see lowering health care costs to be attributed to putting MORE government into it. That's not how you cure a disease, by putting more disease into the patient.
Everyone finds it easy to say, "Well, you have great insurance and that's why you are against UHC." No, not hardly. You can call me selfish but when you use your OWN personal issues to describe why we need UHC, what is that? Unselfish? Not quite. (I'm being general here, no one being called out specifically). If we could get past the whole "you believe this because YOU" and actually debate facts, it would be a better debate overall. Again, just my observation that I felt I needed to throw out there.
I'm sure there are AWESOME sides to UHC but there are AWESOME sides to private health care. Same goes for AWFUL. I like to give credit where credit is due though. Most of the awful sides to private health care have a government regulation or two to blame. Your insurance is too expensive? Could it be because the government regulates how insurance companies can compete? Your prescription med costs are through the roof? Could part of the reason be the awful mandates the FDA puts on private pharm companies? I could go on and on.
I'm sure there are tons of angles I can debate this (the Constitution, the downfall of the American public due to being reliant on the government, the failure of so many government social programs, the huge amounts of waste in every government program, etc, etc) but I'm not sure how to do so at this point. I see a tax debate going on but there is NO WAY we could model ourselves exactly like any other country. If you really want an idea of how our government would do with UHC, go live on a reservation. Grow up on a reservation. You can compare our system to Canada all you want but truth is, our government does not run Canada. You can get a better idea of health care run by the government completely on an Indian Reservation. I, for one, do not want to turn this entire country into a reservation. The Federal Government can't fulfill it's obligation to a small percentage of the population, what makes you think it can fulfill ANYTHING to the entire population?