If all citizens are to be treated by the USgov't as if they are equals, why do we provide health care for free

Question

to soldiers and Congressmen on a tax- free basis while we tax all other citizens and require the latter to pay for their healthcare. In other words: I am asking this Q: Is socialized medicine ok for citizens in Congress and in the Military, but not for the rest of the citizenry? What has happened to the concept of equality for all citizens? Shouldn't all citizens have the same access to medical care and treatment if we are all equal?(rhetorical Q as stmt)

Answer 1

Some answers on this claims that socialism has something to do with free health. I bet they don't know the different between Communism and socialism. So if you have free education in the USA. Does this mean you have socialism? Funny how people make such statements and yet have never been outside the USA! Free health works very well here in Europe, and not not all EU countries are socialist.

Answer 2

Health Care is expensive. If you don't have insurance you're screwed and even if you have insurance you might *still* be screwed. The way things are now stinks. My mother has breast cancer, and if it wasn't for her insurance and Medicare my folks would be looking at bankruptcy and possibly even losing their home.And if it wasn't for the Medicare which my mother paid into when she was working, she'd still be looking at some pretty gruesome bills. Frankly, for a civilized country like America, for a person to be sick and worry about bills that could bankrupt you or cause you to lose your home is really unacceptable. Sorry, but America is kind of cold hearted toward a population that's not insured. In my opinion this isn't about the government providing health care and/or denying health care it's about helping people in a segment of our society that are not being represented fairly or equally.

Answer 3

Actually there is nothing anywhere where everyone is to be treated equally.

Everyone is entitled to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Nothing there about equal.

It just means everyone starts out the same, with the same set of basics. After that, you have a meritocracy based system where groups and individuals negotiate for wages and other benefits in a free market. Soldiers and congressmen do a job and have certain advantages and disadvantages. If these people are not paid in a particular fashion, then the work they do is either not done or attracts a lesser person willing to work for less.

But please try not to compare Soldiers with congressmen. Not all soldiers are heroes and not all congressmen are weasels but....

Well, I am sure you get my point.

Answer 4

Many employers give their employees a health plan. Military personnel and Congressmen are government employees and are treated as such. This is a completely different relationship than that between a government and the citizens it governs as we employ them, they don't employ us.

If you want to treat everyone equally, then how can you be in favor of a program that will steal money from some citizens to provide health services to others? That is far from treating people equally. Or do you plan to tax poor people the exact same rate as rich? Nope, didn't think so. So what you are really asking, is "why don't we steal money from middle class and rich citizens and give it to poor citizens?". That does not even come close to treating citizens equally.

Answer 5

You've got a point there,smart. I've been saying that for years until recently when I read a commentary in the paper about what if the government did take over the health of Americans. One point was, Medical institutes, which operate to make money, will be paid by the government. So they will no longer compete with one another and health care quality will suffer. Plus, It will not be free. We will all have to pay for it through taxes. The middle class will foot the bill because the poor can't, and the upper class always find ways to get tax breaks. Canada has a government run health care system for it's people, but the citizens have to pay for it through taxes. And although theirs may be adequate for the people, it is not as good as ours. Ours need desperately to be over-hauled. But I wonder if the government can do it without making it worth. Remember when Ronald Reagan overhauled the income tax system? How well is that working for you and me today? Remember Katrina and Rita? Walter Reed? I don't know, man. I just don't know.

Answer 6

It's not socialism, it doesn't seek to make everyone equal and doesn't reduce incentive to work harder. The benefits enjoyed by soldiers and congresspersons are meant to provide incentive to work in those institutions. If you want those benefits, work for them! We are all created equal, but that doesn't guarantee you equal treatment. It just means nothing should make you less equal by virtue of your creation. You still have to WORK to earn things.

Answer 7

Good question. My take - Government employees used to be underpaid (long time ago) compared to average workers. To make it interesting to work for the Government, they got all kind of need perks at one point, similar like the Big Three in Detroit gave to their workers. Now, Detroit has to make profits or go bankrupt, but our Government can keep on giving, because the rest of us pays for it. So, now, we all work, to pay for the Governments excess and Detroit is slowly folding to the smarter Asian and European car makers.

Answer 8

Hey if we were equal we'd only work like 150 days a year! Get free airfare and go anywhere anytime and have cash to do it-heck no one would get sick!

Answer 9

You are correct. This is one very strong argument against those that say that Gvmt. run medicine will never work. I was in the military and I never had a problem getting service.

Answer 10

Good point, now here's somrthing to think about... America is one country The UNITED STATES of America, yet every state has different rules and regulation, for example, here in MD you are required by law to maintain vehicle insurance, but in NH you are not!! WTF?