Wow,.. I'm actually surprised to see the resulting replies...
Except for Web,... we seem to agree that healthcare costs are beyond the reach of normal citizens without some kind of agreed upon control...
Just today,.. a TV health guru, 52 yr old, had a massive coronary, while exercising at the gym... this might bankrupt many people... and it often does in America...
We don't choose where or when or how to be assaulted by a health crisis.
Healthcare is the single most screwed up thing in the American governmental system.. the number one reason for bankruptcy...
Now,.. just for moment. set aside politics and consider this...
In most 1st world, civilized countries, healthcare is the number 1 most cherished thing citizens appreciate from their government...
Yes,.. it does cost money... but it gives benefits...
Reduced costs... because every doctor, hospital, etc, must participate in order to have customers...
Will it reduce innovation?.. NO...
Contrary to popular belief,... many innovations come from countries with NHS...
Will Doctors quit?... NO... believe it or doctors exist in NHS countries.. and they make very good livings...
..and costs are 1/3... through taxes for average people... the very rich pay more, the poor pay nothing or very little... in shared taxes... not based on unfortunate genetics or luck... just on ability to contribute...
How many people here, are working at their jobs solely to keep their health benefits?... a lot...
These people might have a great idea that would revolutionize some industry, or create some product that would employ thousands and make them billions... but they daren't risk losing their healthcare for their or their families sake...
It is stifling...and terrifying...
Other countries don't have this restriction...
Your money is yours... if you save... you can freely pursue a dream, without fear of financial devastation from some unforeseeable medical malady...
Consider The Donald... he has never faced this.... no medical crisis could ever take him down, from birth on...
...(it's like being born with bionic underwear)...
Risk is easy... when risk is limited to going back to where you started....
In America,... risk is going beyond back, to losing everything....
Security in health can spur entrepreneurship and innovation...
How many brilliant ideas have stifled by financial terror?...
How much of this,... is the rich keeping everyone else down?...
How much of this is them knowing their power is not in their superior intellects, or skills, but in their birthright?...
Really,... we aren't all stupid poor... some are terrified poor...
So many ideas are crushed by the need for security.
When you fight for freedom... it ain't about lower taxes....
It's about the freedom and security, including health,... to risk being a success...
Healthcare = freedom...
Fear = oppression...
Sounds kind of,... commie... and maybe it is, just bit...
...but it's civilized... in way that that the money empowered don't want you to realize...
The money you have accrued, should be empowering,... not causing anxiety.....
It's like,.. Bill Gates had one chance, when he was teenager with no responsibility in his parents garage, to create a mega industry...
Had he been 30... that window closed...
In most civilized countries.. with an NHS... that window is more open...
That is freedom...
It's not risk without penalty... but it is a more tolerable risk.
Back to square one,.. instead of.. up that creek without a paddle..
We are at an international economic disadvantage... without the security of a health parachute...
That's a hard math to figure... but how many ideas have you cast aside for security?...
...