Alright, so I know there's a huge amount of controversy surrounding this House Resolution. And trust me, I am fully aware that many things need to be changed with our government and society before this bill can be successfully passed. I just think it seems like a good idea.
When you pay taxes now, where does your money go? War in Iraq? Social Security that my generation will probably never see? I just think it'd be nice if we got something back for paying taxes (And I don't mean a refund, either). Are you aware how hard it is to get a medical procedure approved by one's private insurance company? I think it is really sad when people have to fight with their insurance company to get them to pay for chemotherapy because the insurance companies claim that it is "experimental." I'm pretty sure you have better things to do when fighting cancer than to argue with your insurance company and spend valuable weeks trying to get a procedure approved.
And that's if you have medical or health insurance! God forbid you're one of the 100 million Americans who are uninsured or under insured (That's equivalent to the population of 14 states in the US, just to give you an idea). People who are uninsured are thrown to the curb, (literally) thrown into taxis and carted away to the nearest free clinic. Most of these people aren't even competent enough to know what is going on or where they're being taken. The only thing the hospital has to do is make sure the patients are stable enough to be moved. This is why you have such a large number of people in an emergency room at any given time. People go to the ER for slight illnesses because they know that the ER cannot refuse to treat someone because of lack of health care. Think of how much the number of people in the emergency room would be cut because anyone could see any doctor they wanted to. The emergency room might actually be able to be used for, I don't know, emergencies?
[[Side note-- just so you know, prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, the terrorists who are completely for the killing of innocent people, get better health care than uninsured US citizens. Full health, dental, and medication all for free. Pretty sad, right? Now I bet you wished your tax dollars were going for free health care for decent people and not terrorists, huh?
"Detainees receive medical, dental, psychiatric, and optometric care at U.S. taxpayers' expense. In 2005, there were 35 teeth cleanings, 91 cavities filled, and 174 pairs of glasses issued."
"Ten Facts About Guantanamo,"
Department of Defense, September 14, 2006.]]
When people try to dispute this I don't think that they're putting themselves in the shoes of others. What would your life be like if you had to choose between heart medication and food? Paying your medical bill or paying your gas or electric bill? This House Resolution is not going to make us a socialist society. People don't like the idea that they're paying for someone else's health care. Eventually we're all going to need an eye exam or a visit to the dentist or a trip to the ER, so wouldn't it be nice to know that instead of worrying about paying your medical bills you can worry about recovering?
*I know some people are against this. These are just my opinions based on some of the research I've done on this. I don't think a lot of people know about the benefits of this House Resolution (or know of this at all) and I'm just trying to spread the word.
It might help you get more comments if you either 1) summarized the resolution, rather than alluding to its purpose or 2) gave a link where people could go and read what exactly it does (or would do, I guess).
~C
Check out the latest entry in the Between The Lines column!