Is Universal Health care the ethical thing to do?

Question

I think that allowing 47 million people to live in a country as rich as the U.S. is unethical. What do you think? Answer as you wish.

Kel that is just not true, we currently are ranked number 1 in cost and number 14 in quality of care.

Leogirl that also is a falicy, the chairman of General Motors has said that $1500 of every new car that is sold goes to health care for its employees, I would assume that this is true in other industrys as well, so you are paying for health care for others whether you like it or not.

the 47 million that do not have access to affordable are the ones that fall between the cracks. They are not eligible for medicaid.

Sway, the 47 million while it might be a minority is a very large minortity in a country of 300 million. This number is growing everyday as people lose their jobes to offshore compitition.

Answer 1

Yes, I do. Though I'm not sure that just throwing more money around will fix anything. Certainly, privatizing vast segments of the health care system hasn't helped anything.

Something is completely out of kilter with our medical system. We seem to be paying the most and getting the least. Where's all the money going to?

US Rankings
1 - Per capita total expenditure on health
1 - Health care funding > Private per capita
3 - Health care funding > Public per capita
1 - Health care funding > Total per capita
8 - Growth in health expenditure per year
2 - Consultation with doctors
31 - Life expectancy at birth
29 - Healthy life expectancy at birth, years
1 - Child maltreatment deaths
4 - Child injury death index
1 - Obesity
9 - Death from cancer

Answer 2

As I watch the people I love who are without health care due to its cost, I say YES! universal health care should be mandated by law.
I cannot believe the ignorance that is surrounding this issue. Largely, the conservatives are afraid universal health care would hurt their pocketbooks. That is a selfish point of view, as selfish as it is untrue.
Education in this country is sorely lacking, the thieves can't see the forest for the trees.
Here's a word to the confused. Universal health care would probably be less expensive than the soaring costs of what's happening now.
When a poor person goes to the hospital and cannot and therefore does not pay the bill, the hospital or doctor absorbs the costs. Who do you think ultimately pays the "skipped' bills?
Incidentally, the poor ill visit the hospital and take the only treatment option available to them because they too value life. Often they don't pay for the treatment because they cannot afford to do so.
Do you think people who are surviving, not living but surviving on under $6 an hour who have the same bills as everyone else are able to sock away money for medical emergencies? Are you kidding me? Where would that money come from? Their inheritances? Now then I must remove my tongue from my cheek.

Who pays?
YOU DO!!! Get a clue! The lack of universal health care is costing the selfish millions of dollars, uh, billions of dollars.
Get it YET!?!??!!
Sheesh, this has got to be what the civil skirmish of the 19th century was like.

Answer 3

Universal or nationalized health care is inefficient and immoral.

Currently I have the choice to buy health insurance or not. If it is nationalized, then I no longer have a choice. Currently I have the choice of United Healthcare, Blue Cross, Humana, etc. If it is nationalized, I no longer have a choice. The lack of choice is oppression and slavery. It is evil and unAmerican.

Under nationalized health care I pay x dollars in taxes. It doesn't matter if I eat right, exercise, wash my hands, and never get sick, I am still forced to pay taxes. This is money I could be using to save for retirement, get an education, feed my children, or whatever else. Instead, the money goes to people that don't wash their hands after they go the the bathroom. It goes to people that smoke 3 packs a day, drink and drive, drive without a seat belt, play sports and get hurt, try to recreate stunts in the Jackass movie, eat Twinkies and soda 3 meals a day. The people that make good decisions have their money stolen to pay for people that make bad decisions. How can anyone think that such an inefficient and immoral system could be a good thing?

47 million people without insurance is a problem. However, stealing from the 253 million with insurance is not the answer. Two wrongs do not make a right, find a solution that does not involve stealing from and punishing the success full.

Answer 4

We need some kind of universal health care like Canada's or France or the UK's. It is ridiculous the amount of money paid to insurance companies and then to the Doctors. Part of the problem with our health care is that too many people cannot afford coverage and use the ER's as their primary doctors...and cannot pay. Medicare and Medicaid are not the answers either. We need to really research what Canada and France are doing. I would gladly pay more in taxes if it meant that I didn't have to pay insurance companies (who are the ONLY money makers in the health care industry) and knew that everyone could get proper medical attention when ever they needed it from birth to death. It seems as if we are so money orientated that we have lost sight of the most important thing HEALTH CARE.

Answer 5

Wow..are you incorrect..there isn't any contemporary standard wellbeing care device so which you won't be able to blame republicans for some thing that would not exist. there is Medicaid this is wellbeing look after the unfavorable. Medicaid became originated interior the previous due '60s & early '70s to pay medical doctors for inner-city scientific care they had till now supplied at no charge in many cases sooner or later each week. the subject with Medicaid is that the vendors ( medical doctors ) & Recipients ( sufferers ) found out that they the two would desire to scouse borrow tens of millions of greenbacks from the goverment via Medicaid.---How do i be conscious of this ?---via fact I labored for the State as a Medicaid Fraud Investigator for 25 years---- Now, with appreciate to Hillary & Obama...their proposed standard wellbeing care plans are based upon a hundred and ten + Billion greenback Tax advance Plans which mightcontinual our economic device into yet another super melancholy. the answer IS: SAY NO TO OBAMA & CHELSEA'S MOMMA

Answer 6

I work for a medium size company and we have a very good health plan. Unfortunately it costs $1000 a month to cover myself and my spouce. It isn't worth that much to me.
Somehow we need to come up with a plan that ensures great healthcare at an affordable price. Them that can afford pay more than them that can't. Everybody pays something in copay or premiums or both. The bulk of premium goes to insurance companies. We will need cooperation from the insurance industry. I don't believe in a totally controlled by the government system for healthcare. It is already screwed up. Can you imagine bureaucrats in decision making positions regarding your health?

So private insurance too expensive, public insurance (total medicare) too expensive. Perhaps if they share the costs it will work for both. There should be an effort to get the lowest prices possible for medication and cost cutting everywhere without endangering the health and lives of patients. It can be done we just need the right combination.

Answer 7

By all means, it is not only ethical but necessary. The reason that health care has spiraled out of control is the number of uninsured who have skipped out on medical expense because of their inability to pay. Typically uninsured people are low paid, working people. They work for small companies that don't provide health insure due to skyrocketing costs. In turn the employees wait longer before seeking medial attention. When they reach the emergency room they are sicker than if they had health insurance. They miss more days of work because the delay in treatment. Because the employer has absentee workers, there is the loss in productivity. That eventually counted against the productivity of the national economy. Therefore, universal health care is good for the economic health of the nation.

Any questions?

Answer 8

I would hate to live in the states because of their terrible health care system....or lack of for that matter.
I'm happy that in Canada, we have a health care system, and although its still not the best when compared to other countries, such as Sweden, its high up there...

I couldn't imagine paying every single time I need to visit a doctor or get a checkup or do some blood work. Its terrible! It should be the government's responsibility to take care of its citizen's health care...

I feel bad for you guys in the states..its sad and unfortunate really.

Answer 9

Your stats are skewed. 47 million people is the number without health care at one point in time. It includes both people who are temporarily in between jobs (most will be insured in the near future) and people who can afford it but choose not to purchase it. The number of people who actually have no access to health care is closer to 2% of the population (~6 million people)

That said, the answer is not for the government to get involved. The governments only role should be to help people who truly can't help themselves.

To reduce the costs of health care, we must:
1) Limit medical malpractice suits.
2) Deregulate the health insurance industry.

Evidence supporting number 2: Consider California health insurance costs compared to New York's. New York premiums for single basic coverage are 5 times as expensive as California. And the difference between the two? New York is heavily regulated, California is not.

But based on our past discussions Answerman, I know that this was a wasted answer. All you want is for daddy government to take care of you and everything else.

Answer 10

No.

Right now everyone can get healthcare, regardless of financial condition, by going to an emergency room. If you want equal access to healthcare, regardless of cost, then you will get as a common denominator what we have now for the uninsured.

If you can pay a premium, you should be able to get better care than someone who cannot. Why> You have already subsidized the uninsured's health care cost in the taxes you pay to the State or local goverment that pays for the emergency room.

Consider that US doctors are the highest paid doctors in the world. If you want to lower health care costs, reduce their billings and their malpractice premiums, not create another bloated insurance program that we can't afford.