Now understand i mean no disrespect but i suspect this is an issue that needs to really be discussed a whole lot more!i got an email from a friend a few days ago wondering about an issue that is near and dear to the hearts of many folks here in the States. Those who have been and continue to go to the polls to vote in Primaries and will eventually be voting in the upcoming general elections are probably going to need to settle this issue once and for all... here is the gist of what my friend asked...
" The whole idea that the American health care is run by insurance companies seems so bizarre. They are there to make a profit... how could that possible be beneficial to the people? And what if you can't afford it, are you just out of luck? To hear that people have to mortgage their house to pay for health issues seems crazy to me...."
Here is my response....
You wrote that you can't imagine having to "... pay for surgery"
[Dude], you have got to be kidding me?
Do we pay for groceries (btw gotta' have them...)?
Do we pay for clothes (again, gotta' have them...)?
Do we pay for a place to live (hmmm, gotta have them too)?
Why or from where do we get the idea that health care should be underwritten or "free" (and trust me, there is never anything free especially within a capitalist economic system or even in a socialist system... look at the condition of the countries behind the Iron Curtain at the end of the Cold War... somebody is ALWAYS paying for whatever commodities or goods are up on the auction block)?
Now, should it cost exorbitant amounts of money to have surgery? I don't think it should, but we usually don't concern ourselves too much for paying top dollar for great food, clothes or a house... right?!? But for some still unexplained reason we believe that health care should be underwritten in a way these other things aren't.... I just want to know WHY?
And one other thing to consider is this...isn't one of the main points of capitalism to turn a profit? I am not sure that govt should be in the business of deciding which businesses are going to be turning a profit and which ones won't be or shouldn't be!
No matter what that businesses goods are... perhaps the reasons for cost prohibitive health care are a bit more complex than the bad ole' insurance companies being heartless and only concerned about keeping cost down by denying Aunt Millie her heart transplant and more about the intense govt. regulation and badly needed torte reform here in our nation etc, etc.
Anyway, I am probably way out of my league on this subject...
