Just in: A forum full of healthy 20- and 30-year olds, most of whom have never faced serious illness, exhibits little understanding of why socialized health care is beneficial to society as a whole. While unfortunate, it's also typical and fully expected.
Swish and Lune get it. Society shouldn't just toss a person out to the trash heap because he got permanently disabled at work and can't do his job anymore. How this nation treats the sick, elderly, and infirm is outright shameful. Medical bills are one of the leading causes of bankruptcy in the United States even among people with insurance. Many families are one serious or unexpected illness away from financial ruin. The present system we have in this country is hideously broken and in many cases, outright sociopathic. We can do better as a nation. We don't, because healthy people outnumber sick people and everyone's vote counts the same. Sigh.
You want all able-bodied people to work? Problem: The United States already has an oversupply of workers, and that problem will grow worse over time, not better. You think it's bad today, just wait a couple decades when automation starts eliminating truck drivers and warehouse workers and many service jobs. It's coming. What do you do with all these redundant people? Ignore 'em because you don't care if it isn't happening to you? I find that mindset distasteful. You either make work (TVA round two?) or accept that an increasing number of perfectly fit people simply won't be needed as part of a shrinking labor force.
Socialization of some form is the future, like it or not. The real question is whether we choose to maintain ourselves a nation worth living in, or wind up with some form of "Soylent Green" hellscape. Fixing our health care system is one step of many we'll have to take.
As an aside, I opposed the Affordable Care Act, and still do. It's at best a band-aid which fails to address the core problems inherent to our system.
Danth
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