Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Hey Randomdude, the government doesn't pay a dime of my families healthcare cost. I work, and I pay premiums for health insurance which I split with my employer. After that, I pay out of pocket for anything not covered by my insurance. The government doesn't pay a dime of it, not now, not ever.
The costs are amortized between the whole group. So, if there is an obese person in the group the others will be subsidizing them. For example, say you have a group of 10, 9 of which are healthy and one of which is obese. The insurance company may charge $400/month for the health people and $600/month for the obese person. For a total of $4,200, but this is then divided by 10, namely $420/month. The 9 healthy people pay $20 a month to support the obese person.
Nothing in this thread has anything to do with the issues in 1984.
Tax policy is currently used throughout the economy to create incentives to do such and such. For example, there is a domestic production tax deduction. Anybody that is against a tax on unhealthy foods because the government is trying to get people to do X, should then be against a tax deduction that tries to give businesses an incentive to do X. In this case, domestic production.
Our entire tax code is built around these sorts of tax policies. Sometimes I wonder if I live in the same country as some of you guys....
You're absolutely right about our tax code. And I'm against 95% of it. Taxes today are seemingly more about behavior modification than generating revenue for essential government services.
Get rid of all of these incentives and punishments.
I've stated mnay times on many threads that I'm not a fan of government intervention....BUT.....when large numbers of people ignore studies that a specific activity ( EG: eating fatty foods ) and refuse to exercise common sense and good judgement, then it becomes the responsibility of a good government to implement taxes, laws etc to discourage those behaviours. I honor everyones right to eat a pound of lard right out of the can if they want to, or to smoke a carton of cigarettes if they want to, as long as they don't not expect a handout form everyone else. That means no health insurance ( read user-ids post #101 ). Pay for your medical bills out of your own pocket.
I bet most of you complaining about the possibility of a tax on fatty foods are completely unwilling to forgoe health insurance and pay your own medical bills. You seemingly want to have freedom to do as you damn well please, yet you are unwilling to be responsible for your poor choices. You rant against socialism, yet you partake of the benefits that socialism provides when the benefits are to your advantage. Do you realize that ANY insurance IS socialism?
However, why is it that in Canada there are people that actually have something like tour trips to the US to take care of some of the medical needs because they have to wait in line for too long of a time?
What is the waiting time? Keep in mind that a cat scan can be a life saving test but it would be worthless if you have to wait too long.
Some wealthy Canadians do come to the US to avoid lines. Why is this though?
Could it be that poor Canadians are actually getting the preventitive care they need, while poor US citizens largely only go to the doctor when they are dying of a heart attack?
If every American was getting the care they SHOULD be getting, the US healthcare system would be just as clogged up as any socialized system.
Instead, we have a system in which about 50 million people only see a doctor on their death bed, and many millions more rarely go to the doctor because they cant afford copays or medicine, dispite having some sort of health insurance.
Wow, thats the solution right there. We can free up bed space for the wealthy, by cutting poor people completely out of the healthcare equation. JOY!
Im sorry, I think 10 poor people getting some level of care is worth the trade off of some rich person bitching about how they have to be treated like a common folk.
Hey Randomdude, the government doesn't pay a dime of my families healthcare cost. I work, and I pay premiums for health insurance which I split with my employer. After that, I pay out of pocket for anything not covered by my insurance. The government doesn't pay a dime of it, not now, not ever.
So, you are going to be employed at that job forever, and they are going to always provide you a group plan. Good luck with that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by treasurekidd
Think of things in terms of your car insurance. You insure your car for catastrophic loss, be it in the form of your liability in an accident, damage from said accident, or theft of your car, and that's it. Your car insurance doesn't cover oil changes, new wiper blades, tires, brakes, or any other routine maintenance. When your car breaks, you pay to fix it, simple as that.
New engine- $3000, Open Heart Surgery- $100,000+. If a new engine costs $100,000, there would certainly be insurance for that engine, and the maintenance involved.
Quote:
Originally Posted by treasurekidd
Sure, car repairs are expensive, but the fact that we have to pay for it ourselves out of pocket means that mechanics and auto repair centers have to compete for our business, which is why a 30 minute tune and oil change cost about $100 and not $5,000. If cars cost $5,000 for oil changes and tune ups, no one would be driving, and the mechanics would have no customers. Can you imagine what car insurance would cost if we tried to include coverage for all these other everyday routine things that cars require to be roadworthy?
1. It is not cost effective to insure the maintenance on a $3000 part. No body would buy that product, ever, especially since most new cars already have a warranty on the drivetrain for 5+ years.
2. The wages of automechanics, who do not require a doctorate by the way, can be easily controlled.
3. Hospitals have prohibitively high start up costs (which are not shared by auto mechanics), which means most areas end up completely dominated by one or two major medical centers. There would be no "free market competition" for your open heart surgery. You would be ambulanced to the closest branch of your local medical monopoly and charged whatever they want. Ironically, those with insurance are the only ones that have some sort of barrier to this, because their insurance often caps the allowable charges.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
