5 Responses

1. Dale

   September 7th, 2007 at 4:37 pm

   1

   You speak of being informed in this post yet you are horribly ill informed in regards to health care. While in Scotland last year visiting with friends we inquired about their health care system and they love it. No waiting, no bills, no worries.

   One of them had worked in America for a few years - how we know her - and she was fascinated and horrified by the American health care system. She had coworkers who were afraid to leave their jobs to find another one due to insurance fears; something I am certain other readers here are familiar with.

   Our police departments, roads, fire departments, and Medicare are wildly successful, with Medicare being considered the most successful government programs in history. Just because it is national, as in National Health Care, does not make it bad.

   Quit with the loaded language - socialism - and get informed. If I want poorly developed theories I will listen to Rush Limbaugh and watch Fox news.

2. Dale

   September 7th, 2007 at 9:28 pm

   2

   Earlier today I put a response to this post that was critical of the poster, it has since been removed by the owner of this blog; apparently not a fan of criticism.

   In the above post is loaded language such as socialized in reference to National Health Care. This is a term used to conjure images of communism and a bleak future.

   There are many “socialized” (to use their language) programs in America that I dont think anybody can argue have been successful in comparison to their origins.

   Education, Police protection, Fire protection, quality roads, etc were all only available to the rich who payed for these once private services - if you did pay for fire protection your house burned down. Think about it.

   With the current state of health care soon it will only be the rich who can afford it too.

   As for people abroad coming to America to get service, those people are the rich of their country and can afford boutique services.

   This sentence is the best and ultimately denial:
   “The idea of working hard to make something for yourself is why this country’s economy has thrived over the past 200 plus years.”

   This country was built on the backs of slaves, stolen from the Native Americans and is currently exploiting the labor of Mexican immigrants. The person who wrote this blog has a very questionable knownledge of American History which also makes me question their economic knowledge.

3. author

   September 8th, 2007 at 12:07 pm

   3

   Okay Dale, maybe YOU should get more informed before you start criticizing my views and calling me stupid.

   First of All, this debate will NEVER go anywhere between you and I because there is one main difference between you and me. Based on your view of how this country was founded, you obviously hate America. So, just leave. If you don’t like it, go to Canada and England, but I bet you’ll come back here when you get a serious illness. Why? Because the best doctors in the world live here, that’s why.

   Sure, you’ll get free physicals and reduced-price prescriptions, but I care more about my LIFE. When I have a serious life or death situation, I want the best doctors in the world performing work on me. Do you know where those doctors are going to go if we get universal health care? They’ll go to central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Because they don’t want the idiots in the government dictating what they can and can’t do and how much they can do it for. THE FREE MARKET should control those things. THE FREE MARKET is why we have the most powerful economy in the world. And YES, it’s still the most powerful economy in the world. China depends on us just as much as we depend on them.

   Second, “socialism” or “socialized medicine” or whatever you want to call it is not loaded language.

   The definition: a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.

   There’s nothing loaded about that. It is what it is.

   Third, how do you want to pay for Universal Health Care? The democrats want UHC, but they have no clue how to pay for it. It’s not going to be tax cuts, it’s going to be MORE TAXES. It’s going to be 14% sales tax, increased income tax, and so on.

   Fourth, PLEASE give me some specific examples of why you think Medicare has been “wildly successful”. The program is being run into the ground just like Social Security. There are not enough people paying into the program to support the program, and it will only get worse when the largest generation of our time, “the baby boomers” become eligible for Medicare.

   Fifth, you need to stop listening to all of your liberal friends about the statistics about citizens without health care. Many of these individuals without health care are either eligible for Medicare and haven’t applied, CHOOSE not to pay for health care because they think that they’re invincible, or they are in transition from going from one policy to another. You can’t just take a snapshot of those without health care and then use that statistic for every argument about health care.

   Sixth, you don’t have the RIGHT to health care. You have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The US gives you the OPPORTUNITY to be successful, healthy, and live a great life. However, YOU control your own destiny. I am sick of people thinking that they have this god-given right for the government to take care of them. No, this country gives you every opportunity to prosper. We need to take some personal responsibility with health care. If WE THE PEOPLE, do something to reform health care, then it will get better. Let’s stop bickering about how no one does anything for us in Congess and let’s start doing something about it ourselves.

   i.e. implement more programs that promote better health, lobby for more tax cuts for those that do pay for private health care, and start SAVING money in HSA and MSA accounts for medical related expenses. Wow, what a concept. Saving money for future medical expenses. That’s crazy.

4. Rich Schmidt

   September 13th, 2007 at 5:27 pm

   4

   Personally, I’ve been a big fan of the free market for years, after encountering libertarian political ideas via the Libertarian Party back in college. I’ll be voting for Ron Paul for President in our state’s Republican primary next year.

   That’s why, when a new couple started coming to our church after moving here from Finland, I asked them about their country’s health care. They have what we’d call “socialized” medicine… and they loved it. Their taxes were not through the roof and in fact sounded like they’re at a level comparable to our own. They’d had surgeries and such, not just prescriptions & checkups, and these had gone without a hitch. It didn’t sound like they waited any longer for them than any American waits for a surgery (which is often not a speedy process in non-emergency situations).

   So while I’m still philosophically committed to the free market and libertarian political ideals, I’m starting to wonder how much of the anti-socialized-medicine talk I’ve heard is echo-chamber rhetoric and how much is based on actual research and fact.

5. Fernando

   October 5th, 2007 at 1:54 pm

   5

   Good answer, author!

   Dave accuses you of using loaded language and yet in the same sentence he spews the same tired old hogwash about Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, US being build on slavery and natives, bla-bla-blah.