A little while ago I was talking to my friends about volunteering at the local soup kitchen. My mom goes there one night a month to serve dinner to the homeless in the community. It astounded me to hear some of the remarks from some of my friends. I couldn't believe how grossly misinformed one of my friends really was.
She said that there is no reason to help the homeless because they are all lazy bums who won't just get jobs so they can live normal lives. Wow. That's pretty harsh.
Yes, there are homeless people who are homeless by their own bad decisions, but does that mean that we should throw away all compassion? Does that mean that we should not give them a second chance in life? Should we just let them die of malnourishment, or by freezing to death? Of course not.
Many homeless people are homeless as a result of losing a job, or having a major healthcare crisis. Thanks to our lovely US healtcare system, people can become homeless after acquiring a disease such as AIDS or Cancer. Michael Moore's movie, Sicko, highlights this. The insurance company will deny certain claims and the patient has a choice: pay for their own healthcare by any means they have (which can mean selling their house and belongings), or letting the illness take over them until they die. No American citizen should ever be faced with this dilemma. Unfortunately, there are tons of people facing these problems. People die each day because they can't afford necessary medical attention.
What is the answer? Moore proposes free universal healthcare, like they have in Canada, England, France, etc. I see this as a good choice. But even if that is not the answer, something needs to be done.
On a smaller level, people should individually take it upon themselves to help the homeless. Donate old, outgrown clothes instead of throwing them away. Donate a few cans of food. Volunteer at a local homeless shelter. Simply speak kind words to homeless people you may see around town. Pray.
I decided to write this as a sort of response to the girl who mentioned getting 2 coats for Christmas. Especially with this present holiday season, give a little to the homeless. I'm sure you can spare at least a few dollars. And it doesn't even need to be monetary support. Like I said, just donate some old clothes. They will be so grateful. Consider your Christmas wishlist: how many of those items are you really going to appreciate and how many will be forgotten by the time February comes around?
Free Universal Health Care means ridiculously higher taxes. Take a look at how much is taken out of the British and Canadian pay checks every month. That's to pay for their "free" universal health care. How are those people who are barely getting by with what they have now going to get by with even smaller paychecks?
And another thing... I'm not sure you should be using Michael Moore as a valid source. He's famous for skewing things (don't ask me specifics, I don't know them. I just know in general.) so that they fit his arguments. He is grossly one-sided in his arguments and doesn't take anything into account that does not help his personal cause. So using him, at least in my opinion, only lowers the value of your argument.
Yes, I think we have to have compassion. But free Health Care and Michael Moore are not the ways to get there.
----
If You Swear That There's No Truth And Who Cares, How Come You Say It Like You're Right? [Bright Eyes]
http://progressiveu.org/143541-how-to-survive-the-2008-elections
You're right - he is famous for skewing things but because of that many people brush off his ideas. He has valid ideas even if he does take them too far sometimes.
As far as the high taxes, I don't see Canadians or Brits complaining about them. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think there's more homeless in the US than in Canada. So we must be doing something wrong. Here our homeless are homeless because of a lack of funds for healthcare. There is something severely wrong with this picture.
I still see universal healthcare as a viable possibility. Hillary Clinton tried to promote it years ago, but the insurance industry squashed that before it could become anything. The insurance companies are killing our sick citizens who just need some medicine, surgeries, etc.
The fact is that we NEED to have some alternative other than the way things are going currently. Whether or not it includes universal healthcare doesn't matter to me. What matters is that changes need to happen SOON.
I really think that at this point, Universal Health Care would not be the perfect, Utopian solution everyone thinks it would be.
No, the Canadians don't complain. But we're not Canada. Think of all the people in the health insurance industry who would lose their jobs, go into debt, maybe become homeless!
Think of the shortage of nurses we already have... and then imagine that all of a sudden EVERYONE went to the hospital because it was FREE!! Think of all the nurses we would need then! And we thought there was a shortage now...
And then there's the wait times. You aren't guaranteed a spot in the hospital/clinic/whatever just because you're offered it for free. No, you have to wait for everyone else who is there waiting for the doctor. First come first serve, just like it is now, only if there was free universal health care, there would be a crapload more people waiting in those waiting rooms.
And for the record, I put Michael Moore on the same level as Al Gore. He "presents good ideas," yeah... ideas that everyone else has argued for how long? He just skews it and makes himself look good so he can make lots of money and cult-followers.
----
If You Swear That There's No Truth And Who Cares, How Come You Say It Like You're Right? [Bright Eyes]
http://progressiveu.org/143541-how-to-survive-the-2008-elections
Just in reply to the wait times....they're pretty bad as it is. You go to a hospital and you could be waiting in the ER for 3 hrs before being helped. Many people in Canada say there is no problem with the wait times.
America is such an unhealthy country. The countries with universal healthcare are promoting prevention of illness. All we do here is help treat current illness. If there was prevention, there would be so many fewer sick people, therefore enabling shorter doctor wait times.
And it's not only the ER. I rarely go to a doctor's appointment and get in at the time that the appointment was supposed to be.
Your perspective is a bit one-dimensional. There are actually people who prefer to be homeless. Usually they are anarcho-primitivists and/or freegans who are fed up with the idea that there is no other way that they can avoid buying into the system, so they squat, don't pay taxes, dumpster dive, and live an otherwise successful life.
As for those who aren't homeless of their own volition, there are a lot of things other than healthcare that has screwed them over. For instance, our spiraling inflation caused by having a minimum wage (thus driving up prices and keeping them there) and a centralized banking system (allowing banks to conspire to screw over the American public). Everyday, the value of the dollar decreases in value, making it ever the more difficult for those unemployed and without a home to get themselves back on their feet.
As for health insurance, I think the entire system is fucked up. The idea that you have to consult any doctor other than the one whose patient you are is absolutely absurd. That is to say that both privatized and universal healthcare are fucked up systems.
Also, that people pay premiums (or in a universal system, taxes) and are subsequently denied coverage doesn't make sense. If give someone money for the purpose of them reimbursing you for a medical procedure and they balk on the payment, that's theft. There's no other way to look at it; it's theft.
Thus, I support health insurance accounts. A separate account recognized by hospitals which you put money into for the purpose of using that balance for a medical procedure.
--Mike
Check out the Topic of the Week
http://www.progressiveu.org/weeklytopic
As for the people who like to be homeless, I would assume that it is a small percentage of the many homeless people nationwide.
And yes, I agree that there are many other reasons that people are homeless. Healthcare just seems to be the most major reason in my mind that needs to be changed. This could be from a purely selfish viewpoint because I got a serious illness in August and it made me realize how screwed up the healthcare in this country really is.
Your Funeral Guy
R.Brian Burkhardt
http://lowercostfuneral.com
This is the place where you can start to have problems go away.
Here is why, A surgical .procedure on your colon can differ on the cost from one part of the country to another...By $2500.to be exact and you cannot price for low cost or quality.
Here in IL the state gives me the lowest quality heath care for free. Would anyone in their right mind choose low quality health care???
Why are not prices placed in a sane price range.?Why is there large differences in quality of health care? Why are there large differences in reasonable and customary charges? Insurance companies need regulation before we can bring universal health care into reality.
Government needs to regulate Health insurance in a sane fashion. Universal Health care could be brought about by step by step changes in Heath care, Free markets can be insane,so step by step regulation is the way to start.
Universal health care is, to me, one of those ideas that sound great on paper but no one has quite figured out the execution.
As an aspiring physician, I am much more interested in the prevention of disease than the treatment of it. (Clearly, I'd also like to treat people though.) Changing our focus to prevention could EASILY lower health care costs in this country.
One reason I do support implementing some sort of national health care plan is that I believe that no one should have to live without health insurance in this country. America is one of the most prosperous countries in the world, yet we can't provide quality health care for all of our citizens? Perhaps if we put our tax dollars into something more productive than spreading democracy over the world...we could begin to figure out ways to provide for all of our citizens.
Healthcare through out the world will fail .and men women and children will suffer and man will stand before god for there wicked ways in causing so much suffering to the poor and needy .Amen
Rest in peace
yourfuneralguy
http://www.yourfuneralguy.com
I think Jesus if he were alive today would admonish people to help the poor by making their health care better.
Why would you think that Jesus was dead .do you not know the story Jesus Christ Lives .for if this were not so that man would perish after death .no more existence of man.learn the truth. Amen
Rest in peace
yourfuneralguy
http://www.yourfuneralguy.com
I believe Jesus Lives,
and watches what we write here!
rest in peace your funeral guy. :-B