European countries are also much smaller, have much smaller populations, and much higher taxes.

Because your not just paying for their well being with crime and fire, but yours as well. There is no plausible way for a privatized police force or fire department, and since there has to be someone to put out building fires (unless we want not only the building on fire to burn down, but all the others surrounding it as well), and someone to enforce the law (for obvious reasons). These are services that society MUST have and there is no way to privately do them that I know of. So just because the police and fire departments aren't visiting my house, doesn't mean that I am not benefiting from the work they do everyday.

Health care, however, is completely different. I see absolutely no reason why I should pay for someone to go in and get a doctor visit because they've got a bad cold.



I fail to see how this is a convicing argument to tell me to fork over more of my money to the government. If anything, I see it as an argument that I'm paying too many taxes.

Uh, you pay for your health care, too...

I've never understood the irrational fear that Americans seem to have of socialized healthcare. To hear people talk about it you'd think it was the only thing separating them from THOSE DAMN COMMIES.

Between that and the not-switching-to-metric bit, its like they've made it their national identity to be as non-progressive as possible

It's stupid to associate 'progressive' with national health care. What exactly makes it so progressive? Christ, if we raise taxes any more in this country I'll have police, fire, sparkling roads, health care whenever I need it, and not enougn money to buy food.

...speaking of which, all you people who say healthcare should be a RIGHT and not a PRIVILEGE, I don't see your countries handing out food. And last time I checked, food's more important to life than health care.

...speaking of which, it all comes from the same place in the first place, so who gives a ****? Tax people then give them food, OR, let people buy it themselves.

The fear is that it would be yet another thing that would contribute to an already overly paternalistic government telling us what we need, and that we have to pay for it, when really we should have the choice.

You do have the choice, but at the moment most of you would choose wrong because you've been brainwashed by republican idiots.

You get the choice when you vote, that's the whole bloody point of having a vote.

Then maybe you should get a better job like all those damned poor people.

Of those saying the US can't afford healthcare, the country nearest to the US in terms of GDP per capita that doesn't have universal healthcare and isn't trying to implement one is St. Kitts and Nevis with a population of <50,000 and 27.6% of the US' GDP per capita.
The next nearest country of a reasonable size is Libya with a whopping 23.7% of the GDP per capita of the United States.
On this issue the US draws level with pretty much the entirety of Africa, Turkey, Macedonia, Belarus, Papau New Guinea and many other damn poor countries.

If it's that the US is too big and has too many people, we could in effect treat much of the EU as a supra-union of nations in which live ~495 million people compared to the USA's ~303 million (We have 64.6% of your per capita GDP across the EU). Healthcare is universal throughout the EU and with an EHIC card (available for free), I can receive free healthcare in those countries too in the event that I have an accident, fall ill or even if I need medication for a chronic illness while travelling. None of us are dying from starvation due to taxes either.

UHC is certainly implementable in the US.

Are they idiots because they are republican? Or are they republican because they are idiots? Either way, you've made the same mistake of assuming people who disagree with you are idiots.

I never said that republican -> idiot or idiot -> republican. I said that there are people who are both republicans and idiots who have brainwashed you.

Also, it wasn't a mistake.

Also, the NHS isn't funded by income tax, technically.

There are alot of people here who have never been able to not afford health care. That much is obvious.

You should probably move to antartica, where there are no lowly peons you need to be concerned with helping.

I love how he says this as if he actually doesn't believe it.

How sociopathic do you have to be to think that people who can't afford medicine shouldn't be able to get it. "Oh sure, we can treat your disease... wait, what? You have no money? Go die on the street then."

But he is right in that if health care is a right and that it should be provided for everyone, then food should also be provided for everyone. It's extreme, but true.

And Rob, why should he have to care about someone else? What's a good reason for it (other than "we need to be humanitarian and care about a fellow man!"). Where does it say he has to? I don't care about him, his health care, his schooling, or anything for that matter (sorry Recuscant, haha). But I have every right not to care, and in no way should have to fund his activities. I don't want people to have to pay for my activities, but hey, if this system makes you, well, I'm gonna take advantage of it. Does this make me a *******? Hell yes. But I should have the choice regardless



That doesn't solve the cost-shifting problem at all. 60% of the country may vote for *candidate*, and *candidate* will implement UHC. There is still a lot of the country that wouldn't want to buy into UHC, and voted against it. Frankly, they shouldn't have to. But it's the system we're in.

Why should you be such a completely heartless buttmunch.

Even a huge ******* such as myself contributes to charity and supports free health care even at my own cost, etc.



There really isn't an excuse to argue against standard free health care unless you're a heartless dick.

Half of you have never been poor, you've always had health care available to you.

1. I give to charity (Edit: As long as it's not a government charity, cuz I know all the money never gets to where it's supposed to go, plus half the time they aren't even doing anything charitable to the people they are giving the money to). You know why? I WANT TO!! ITS MY CHOICE! I'm choosing to give to charity. I'm not being forced. I'm choosing. I know plenty of good people who have never given to charity.

2. For god's sake I never called for the abolishment of UHC completely. I just said people should have the choice. Just like giving to charity, I should have a choice to support UHC or not.

Your reasoning sucks something fierce.

Because if you don't, they die.

You also have the Jobseeker's Allowance, state-funded unemployment benefit so that no-one has to starve in poverty. Not exactly giving 'food' through taxation, but it's essentially the same thing.

As a nation becomes more wealthy, it should use this wealth to provide serivces for its citizens. You should be proud of the serivces available to you, because there are many people in the world that aren't so lucky.

But those lowly poor unbathing heathens should just all get high paying jobs so they can get the health care they need!

/silverspoon

No, you have it confused, Rob. Captain silverspoon believes that the government should provide everything for its citizens.


Big deal. And after they're gone, my quality of life has improved slightly.

/me once again reads the first post of the thread only

Wow... wait, that's about as random as getting "BANANA" from looking at a video related to the Bahamas. Or not!

Uh no.

Captain silverspoon thinks poor people should suffer because captain silver spoon has never lived a hard day in his life.

dot dot dot

So you don't support making your country a more egalitarian society? By the sounds of it, in your perfect world of everyone paying for everything on their own, everyone would get stuck in the social class they were born into. The whole point of paying for schools, health, books in a library, police, fire dept etc is so that during those times that you need it, it's there for you. And it's there for everyone because it's believed that everyone has a right to those things regardless of how much they can earn. Life can throw you a ****ty hand sometimes and it's good to know that your life won't be completely wrecked because you had a bad accident or snagged a disease, or your parents were too poor to send you to school in La-la no-tax land.
Please explain to me why you think people don't deserve those things because they're poor?

Holy stat, Rob is the most reasonable person in this thread since I last read.

How do I react to that?

Oh look, the ****ing douchebag thinks he made a point. Did saying that make your day? God knows you have nothing else to look forward to.

The fact that you're all upset is pretty telling. I'm willing to bet if you were a working single parent and your kid got sick, you'd have a lot different opinion on healthcare, and what rob said. Instead you probably fit his comment like a key.

If you didn't on some level agree it wouldn't make you so mad. On the internet.

How much do I have to pay for that type of analysis? I ask because it's so obviously brilliant.

I don't envy you, being a person that gets so upset over internet.

Oh tell me more about these internets Rob, I'm so dying to know! Maybe you could enlighten me in your infamous, witty style that we all adore so very much!!! OH PLEASE LET IT BE SO!!!

I'm going to make threads like this more often.

Internet fights KICK ***!

Except for the fight that was Massassi Vs Reid the furry, right?

Hypertension can cause kidney failure.

Except for I ****ed your mom, right?

I love how kirby can't seem to get it through his thick skull that poor doesn't always mean you're for socialism and rich doesn't always mean you're for capitalism

Impossible.

My mom isn't a furry.

She's certainly hairy enough.