mysilentfury

The healthcare issue is something that’s hotly debated between Steve and I and all across the country. Being balls deep in a Sociology degree, Steve loves to challenge my beliefs and opinions and this issue always seems to creep up when we are discussing government. I usually hold steadfast in my belief that healthcare, at least the insurance part, should be privatized, but two things besides Steve being a smart ass bag caught (or were brought to) my attention to make start thinking otherwise.

The first thing was a story Steve had told me about his Dad having some sort of issue, and I’m sure he’ll correct me if I’m wrong, with breathing and was essentially changing colors. Of course Steve whisked him to the hospital where he was promptly told to wait until they could verify his insurance. WTF, mate? A man is a color other than the color he supposed to be and you’re worried about his insurance….effing wow, man.

The second was this. It’s an article that tells of a girl who suspected she was raped after passing out at a party only to realize when she woke up that she had cuts and bruises in the no-no area consistent with rape. The woman following the correct procedures after a suspected rape, visited her doctor who put her on HIV pills just in case. Several months went by and she lost her insurance and because she had been taking HIV pills, all the insurance companies she applied to shot her ass down because being on those pills raised to many questions about her health. Again, WTF, mate? A woman is raped and has taken the proper actions and she’s being denied healthcare so she can continue taking the proper actions? I don’t get that at all.

Now I’m not saying that I want to rush in a give everyone free healthcare, but damn, if that’s how things are going to work with it privatized, maybe we need to start looking else where.

If socialized healthcare were a reality right now, the two stories above would not even have happened. I’m not saying that nothing bad would’ve happened, I mean just look at the state of care in England or Canada, but the issue of insurance wouldn’t have even come up.

While it look excellent on paper, I have two, well three, main issues with socialized healthcare.

The first being the loss of jobs that will incur. I know that what’s being proposed right now is a sort of hybrid between private and social but that’s not what I’m talking about (I believe there will be heavy job losses there as well with companies refusing to offer health benefits because the government would be providing it). What I’m talking about is strait social healthcare. How would the government make up for literally thousands of jobs that would be lost for people working in the health insurance business right now? There’s no way that going to a social healthcare plan would add as many jobs as it’s going to take away.

The second are the people who don’t pay taxes. I’m not talking about the people who are out of work temporarily or the people who legitimately can’t go out and get money for themselves for whatever reason as we already have things in place for that, I’m talking about the people who are able to work and yet choose not to go out and get a job because they know they are going to get taken care of by the government. What are we to do about them? Do we go ahead and give them access to tax payer insurance, because that’s what it’ll be, or do we tell them to fuck off. My instinct is to tell them to fuck off. I’m sure that the Demo-nazis won’t like that because it’s not “fair”, but whatever.

And finally, are we going to ration it like England and Canada do? Do we want the Government to pick and choose what treatments we get and when based on things like age and sex? Do they know what’s good for us better than we do? I would tend to think not. Some would point out the fact that there are highly religious assholes, and probably some non-religious assholes, out there who would rather pray for the cancer in their child to go away rather than go see a doctor about it. I see that as another issue all together, but that seems to be, in my experience,  one of the prevalent issues regarding the Government’s involvement in the socialized healthcare business.

If those three things, and a few more that I won’t go into at this time,  could be better looked at in the realm of socialized medicine, I could consider getting on board with it. The state of healthcare in the country sucks balls and is in dire need of revamping. Is socialization the way to go? I’m not sure, but something has to give here…really.

-That is all…