Let me get this straight about universal healthcare?

Question

Correct me if I'm wrong:

They want to use MY tax dollars to finance a program that pays for healthcare for those who will not work and help themselves? We already have medicaid and medicare for seniors and the disabled. What else do they want? Lemme guess..... the poor? Get a freakin job and leave my paycheck the hell out of your socialist utopian nightmare.

Answer 1

No, that's not how it works--let's start this way:



Your tax dollars already go to fund medicaid which is insuring the unable(sadly also the unwilling, those who don't want to work). Universal health care is funded in itself since the participant is insured via a job or school, can make his choice, but will pay for the premium---It will work just fine, because those who have health care will see a much lower premium. I am from Europe, that's exactly how it works over there and it's been working ever since I can remember--no one is left out, no one.....

You still have a choice, because you can choose your insurance coverage. The difference will be that you cannot be rejected because of pre-existing conditions or be slapped with a higher deductible, or higher premium. So no, there will be no additional tax dollars to fund health care....

Answer 2

I have to tell you getting Medicaid is not as easy as you think. I'm 22, haven't had health care in over a year and have had to struggle to get medicaid when I had THREE operations last year which were needed. 2 kidney and tonsils. I was told I made 'too much money' and I only make $800.00-$1000.00 a month and that doesn't count if I miss work b.c. I'm sick. If I don't go to work, I get no money and my job (I'm a Daycare provider) gives no healthcare. I had to work for $20.00 a week (for gas) for 3 months in a row so I could get medicaid. My fiance and I struggled to pay for a car loan, food, gas, rent, and other items of life. We still are struggling b.c. I just got back to work full time last month. Even then I missed 3 days due to a car accident. People make it sound easy to get health care in NY and it's really not, it's very hard and right now I have none. I need to go to the dentist in March and pay a huge bill for 2 fillings (I've delayed going since I turned 21 when I first started having issues). Obviously that won't be cheap, but I make ''too much money'' so I should be able to afford it right?



I agree, tell certain people to get a job and stop being lazy. However there are people out there (such as myself) which deserve to have health insurance and don't get it.

Answer 3

Guess what medicare is not helping seniors that much. These people have worked hard all their lives and after they pay for medicare, their deductibles and medicine they still DO NOT have money for new underwear and heat.

Those who do not work and help themselves have medical care that pays for EVERYTHING already.

Where universal health care is going to come in is for those who work minimum wage or low wage jobs, college students, people who fit through the cracks.

Here's how universal health care is going to help you.

Everyday people who are seriously ill walk into the emergency room with no insurance and no way to pay for their care. The hospital ends up eating a loss for that treatment. Clinics end up with accounts they can not collect on too. Guess what YOU are the person who pays for people who can't pay their medical bills. The hospitals and clinics must make a certain amount to stay open so they make up for uncollected accounts by charging higher fees. That costs the insurance companies more so they charge more.

Here's how having universal health care is going to help you.

People who have insurance are going to go to the doctor sooner and their condition will not be as bad and expensive to treat. They will not be missing as much work and paying more taxes.

I will give you a couple of examples of how someone not having insurance has cost YOU.

My friend's husband had trouble swallowing and ignored it because they did not have insurance. When he finally did go to the doctor they found he had cancer. He got on disability and got a medical card. He got a lot of treatment that he wouldn't have needed if it had been caught sooner. He died anyway. Then his family ended up qualifying for food stamps.

Then there is the 12 year old boy that died last week. Parents work low paying jobs but they make enough that they didn't qualify for state aid. They were hardly getting by and could not afford insurance. He needed heart surgery. Guess who is going to end up paying for the ambulance ride and the ER as they tried to save him? You.

BTW I was a welfare Mom for years because I could not find a job that had insurance. So the taxpayers were providing money, medical and foodstamps. I went to college durring that time. A little over 10 years ago I was able to find a job with insurance. I've worked real hard and no longer recieve any state aid.

Answer 4

While this is the intuitive response, an examination of the details reveals that Universal will SAVE most working Americans, not cost them. Take the amount that worker spend each year on premiums, copays, deductables, etc and put that into a general fund for Universal. You still get the same health care you've always received except you don't have to change doctors when you change jobs. The system can provide you with same care at a lower cost since none of your monies are going for advertising, stockholder dividends, bloated executive salaries, and the huge buearocracy health care provideres must currently maintain to handle the red tape of reimbursement for multiple payers. The savings from that lower cost goes to provide regular checkups and preventive medicine for the poor. As chronic problems no longer escalate to emergencies (so as to get free ER care) the cost of caring for the poor goes down. So your taxes go ultimately go DOWN, not up.



One way or another you DO end up paying for health care for the poor. The only questions is whether you want to do it the expensive way (private insurance and millions of uninsured) or the wise way (access to preventive care for all).

Answer 5

It's extended to EVERYONE. Which I think is a much worthier investment than keeping certain portions of the population alive. You don't have to be "poor" to not be able to afford healthcare. If you're one of the people whose job does not provide coverage, and you have to buy it individually, it gets ridiculously expensive, especially if you have anything that the insurance companies will consider "pre existing" conditions that will give them reason to bill you astronomically more, or refuse you outright.



Ideally UHC will cover everyone regardless of status.

It works in your benefit in a way. Your private health insurance coverage won't always help you. If you come down with something that the insurance company can get away with denying you. Like a transplant operation they think is "experimental" even though it's not. They'll let you die. And there's countless cases of things like that happening to people, so it's not a hypothetical. And it's actually much easier to treat a person on the onset of being sick, then when they come crawling in on their knees.



Or worse case scenario... a nasty epidemic cause by a bacteria that could have been controlled had people not been afraid of being denied healthcare at the risk of ruining their financial future.



The whole ME ME ME ME thing is what's seriously wrong with the world. It's not about being socialist, it's what makes more sense. Healthcare shouldn't be a "profitable" industry that preys on the weak and desperate. It's in everybody's best interest to keep the society healthy.

Answer 6

It's just another vote buying scheme. In reality, unless you toy with the numbers, there are not that many people without insurance in America. Most people say "47 Million Americans are uninsured" like there are people lying in the street just waiting for someone to come along and save them.



The truth:



47 Million uninsured

minus 10 million illegal immigrants included in that number

minus 17 million people who can afford, but choose not to purchase insurance

minus roughly 10 million who are transitioning between jobs and will have insurance in less than 4 months=



10 Million chronically uninsured Americans.



Divide that by a population of roughly 370 Million=



2.7% of Americans are truly uninsured.



But these numbers don't scare the people into voting for a democrat. Even with Universal Healthcare, I bet you can find 2.7% of the population that you just can't help. That's life.

Answer 7

My biggest concern about universal health care is not helping out those who are truly in need, medicare and medicaid does the vast majority of that anyway.



My biggest concern however is that the American government is not only vastly inefficient in handling their money (i.e. 1 out of 3 dollars actually gets to a welfare recipient) but that pork barrel spending is more rampant than it has ever been (i.e. Haliburton absconding with billion and billions of our dollars, many of it totally and completely unaccounted for and then leaving the country for the middle east).



Another great example of this is a bill that past last year of so ago. This story was cover in depth by 60 minutes. This bill had the longest vote in history and did not get past until after 4:30 in the morning with many congresspersons in tears from the arm twisting that was going on.



Basically what this bill said is that the American government could not negotiate price with the pharmaceutical companies. In practice they meant the government was paying three times the amount for prescriptions that the VA was. To me this is absolute and utter theivery. It is like taking every bit of money you and I have and on top of it saying we need to be in dept to them forever. With corporate welfare lobbyists controlling congress do you actually think anyone in their right mind should trust to government with the most massive government program since social security.



In any hoot this is exactly why I am voting John McCain. He is against, earmarks, pork barrel politics, and wasteful spending in general. He believe in only voting his conscience on behalf of the American people and never giving in to special interests.

Answer 8

Your tax dollars are already paying for those who refuse to work and help themselves. The plans being proposed now with even the playing field for the middle class Americans who work their asses off and still can't afford health care.

Answer 9

Amen ,but you forgot that the government is going to run the program and thay do such a good job with social security don't they ? So in reality where will the tax money really go and what restraints will be part of the insurance program ?

Answer 10

Universal health care is knotty problem to be sure. However, my daughter, a single mom working two jobs, cannot afford the health care plan offered at her work and cannot buy health insurance on her own because of pre-existing conditions. What should the answer to her not-unique dilemma be?

Answer 11

You are almost right.



You forgot illegal immigrants. They will also be included.



Melanie, What makes it "Universal" is that everyone in the Universe is covered.

Anyone who is here gets covered under Hillary's plan. Whether they pay or not.

Everybod wants it... no one wants to pay for it.

Some people don't like the word Socialist... but it applies.

It is a part of redistribution of wealth.

It flies in the face of a capitalistic Republic.

Some say it pays for itself without additional tax dollars. It isn't true. Even Obama and Clinton admit the additional burden... not just for the care... but the governmental buracracy to mange it.

Answer 12

many of these people without health insuranc edo work. You naive fool. I understand your argument against using your tax dollars but a healthy society will, in the long run, save your tax dollars.



The insurance companies like Oil companies have formed a flimsy monopoly which has taken the competitiveness out of the process hence causing insuranc ecosts to skyrocket.



I hate when people like you use the term socialism like it is equivical to Nazism. Are you still affected by cold war propoganda. Welcome to the new millenium.

If this country is as Christian as it says it is then this proposal should not be a problem.

Answer 13

i hope you are as upset about your freak in tax dollar being used to finance a misguided war, corporate welfare,etc, as you are about universal health care. the fact of the matter is that freak in republicans/conservatives scream about the redistribution of wealth only went it goes from top to bottom and never when it goes from the bottom to the top, as in the billion dollar give away to big oil. the capitalist nightmare is getting old, it is time to try something new.

Answer 14

You've hit the liberal socialist agenda right on the head.



If you are a hard working American that was brought up dirt poor, lived the American dream started a business, employed workers and now make $75K/yr...In Obama and HRC-land, you are now considered "rich" and should be FORCED to redeploy your money to those less fortunate whether it be their own fault or not.



Democrats believe that charity should be legislated and not voluntary. Big government at its finest.

Answer 15

I think that those that want Universal Health Care should have it....you know all the working people that are supporting Hillary and Obama because of this....



And those of us that have worked hard to obtained decent paying jobs that offer health care should be left alone.



If you want it....YOU pay for....not me....



I have worked to get where I am.....sorry some people are

afraid of work.





Let all those that WANT it....get it.... Let's see how many working people are willing to get into that mess.... Just how well will THAT be funded?

Answer 16

It is a delicate issue and cannot be dealt with and presented in detail on the election platform which if anyone tries to do will be just empty talk!

Answer 17

Some people genuinely need it, but you're right there are many who want freebie handouts. I find it interesting that illegal immiagrants migrate towards the cities that give the most "freebies" out. and by freebies i mean my tax dollars...

Answer 18

Yes. And you are are a parent and your kids don't have health care. Obama will tax you more (tax or fine, same thing)

Answer 19

Only Hillary is FORCING you to. Obama is focusing on reducing the cost, rather than keeping the plans the same, with his plan, you are not forced to take it up.