If a child, even if they are illegal immigrant, shows up in an emergency room with tuberculosis and nobody is giving them treatment and then they are going back to the playground and playing next to our kids.
So, I think there is a basic standard of decency where if somebody is in a death situation or a severe illness that we are going to provide them emergency care. But nobody has talked about providing health insurance to illegal immigrants, I want to make that absolutely clear.
Obama basically contradicts himself — care for severe illnesses or life-threatening situations is what health insurance is for! Every time you go to the hospital, you are arguably in a life-threatening situation.
The best part is that one second later he says that his plan does not provide health care to illegal immigrants.
I want to point out that I am not particularly opposed to universal health care, I’m just what the President said.
MikeN,
Same reason as smoking, the person making the choice to smoke or use high energy light bulbs is affecting others with their behavior. Choosing to stay with expensive private companies that offer worse coverage than the public option hurts no one but oneself.
Second hand smoke causes cancer. Similarly, drinking is legal, but drinking and driving kills others, so it is not.
Air pollution alone kills 70,000-130,000 people in the U.S. alone every year. And, climate change is worse. Ocean acidification may turn out to be still worse.
So, it’s about who you’re affecting.
That said, I would rather see a stiff carbon tax than specific laws about light bulbs. Associate the real cost of carbon’s damage with the emission of carbon and people will make intelligent choices automatically.
#57 — How about non-profit organizations, as in Switzerland? I’d be OK with that.
I’ve always been skeptical of the whole “Christian Nation” deal. But I must say, that if they gave “Usury” the same emphasis as they are now giving “Sodomy” I’d sign on in a nanosecond.
It seems to me that for-profit insurance is tantamount to usury.
(Oh, and I wouldn’t want Uncle Sam to be the “non-profit” insurer)
#73 – Somebody,
I’d be OK with the Swiss system. It’s one of a great many better ways to do things than our present system. Of course, no system is perfect. But, our system is literally the worst in the developed democratic world. Nothing else even comes close to being as bad as our system by any measure one chooses.
#76 – Somebody,
And yet, who do you know who has opted out of medicare? Who do you know who turned down their social security check? Do you know anyone who uses netflix? How has their experience been with the U.S. mail?
So, I think we’re fine with socialized programs in the U.S. once they are in place. We just always resist them going in. Try to take away medicare and medicaid, you’ll have as much trouble as if you try to expand them to include the rest of us.
Perhaps we the idiots don’t know what we want until either A) we already have it or B) a corporation runs a huge propaganda campaign to convince us that we want it their way.
Note that we always fall for the latter. How else would you explain McDonald’s?
#54, Further proof that liberals have zero respect for individual rights; it’s all about the collective.
The reason why Republicans have been losing seats in Congress is because they’ve become as bad as Democrats in regards to fiscal responsibility. After Bush was elected, they got drunk with power. They assumed a Republican president would never veto legislation from a Republican congress . . . and they were right. Bush couldn’t find his veto pen if his life depended on it. It it weren’t for the war in Iraq, he would have been a one-term POTUS just like his father.
Are you serious….whenever you go to the emergency it could be considered life threatening?????????Are you serious…..I guess you are either born with common sense or you don’t possess it….It cannot be learned….He did not contradict himself….What he said made a lot of sense ……If you go into an emergency room they will see you according to the seriousness of your illness…if you are shot……thats not the same as having a soar throat…..If you have tuberculosis thats not the same as having a common cold…..There are exigent circumstances when it comes to being ill…..and there are those circumstances that will not require as immediate attention as others……You can go into the emergency room now and get treatment ignoramous….the only difference with insurance is who pays the bill…..My Gosh…..They will let anyone publish an article no matter if they can think or not………if you want to go into the hospital with no insurance you will get treated then it is on you to pay the bill….If you go into the hospital with insurance the insurance company will assist you on paying the bill….