Private VS Public Medical System

[Krylo]

Frankly, if there's stuff that you can live without, then why should the government plop down the money for it. I think that the US government squanders enough tax money without having to pay for everyone's health care.

Does anyone else see the intense irony in this statement?

Up until now I've stayed out of this, because I don't care too much either way. Both sides have their ups and downs.

But that statement right there just made me stop and forced me to reply.

Many many many people can NOT live without health care. Did you even stop to think before you typed that? Do you realize that influenza is one of the most deadly diseases if people can't get the proper treatment for it? You remember the whole SARS thing? More people die of the flu every year than have died to SARS at all. Why? Because they don't have health care and they don't bother taking care of themselves.

I could go on about how easy it is for the cold to move into pneumonia which you then NEED health care and antibiotics or you have an even better chance of dying from than the flu. So on an so forth.

And that's just common diseases. We aren't even touching on cancer patients who can't live without health care. Heart attacks. Hell, let's just point out another common one. Appendicitis. Without health care we'd lose 7% of our population just to that. Maybe it doesn't seem like such a large number, but that's a little over 1 in every 20 people or 138 members of the forums.

Really... health care isn't something people can live without.

Further: Comparing health care to auto insurance is like comparing a flat tire to a broken leg. It's idiotic. Sure, the financial aspects work out about the same, but if my car gets totalled I borrow someone elses, wake up early to walk to work, or use public transportation (taxi, bus, etc). Lacking all of that, I call the 'welfare to work' program in my city and THEY'LL provide me transportation to my job. If I fall off a cliff and get my body totalled without health insurance I'm probably going to die. Game over. No borrowing someone else's body. No paying 15 bucks every morning to get to work. That's it.


Again, both sides have their ups and downs, but the people arguing against it in this thread haven't been providing very good arguements. If The Tortured One had stuck with the economic aspects, then he'd have been ok... but comparing something you NEED to LIVE with something that's USEFUL to get from point a to point b?