When you hear the words “Affordable Health Care,” no two people are going to be envisioning the same thing. We have health care, but we don’t have health care with unlimited funding. Affordable health care is a political rally point, it means something different to each age group.
Insurance is a method used to cover unforeseen events in our life. A group of people realized that they needed fire, life, car or health insurance, and as a group would figure out the cost that all of the members would bear to help the unfortunate ones. This isn’t something you could purchase after the event occurred. But if the rules were to change, to where you could file for insurance after the fact, it becomes rather obvious, that each and every person in the plan would never draw more than what they put in. The insurance becomes meaningless, it fails to offer the protection desired.
When your health care costs exceed your ability to pay for them, health care is no longer affordable. The purpose of insurance is to avoid being put in this situation. There comes a point in many people’s lives, where the cost of medical treatment is not justified because the high cost of the treatment outweighs its short term benefit (with or without insurance).
What we need to realize is that health care is not really that affordable, it never has been. Once we destroy the insurance aspect of it with a government plan, paying extra doesn’t entitle you to more; it is expected of you to pay more if you earn more. And conversely paying less, is an "entitlement" if you earn less.
I have a solution that is a thousand years old and might not be received well. How about if everyone over the age of 18 has to pay two month’s wages in taxes each year or work for two months for the government? Rome built a very extensive road system using this tax plan. Notice you can’t plead poverty; you show up for work or pay to have someone work for you. This would be quite fair, working people today pay taxes well into May of each year.
Everyone has the right to enjoy living in this country; and if you don’t have the dollars to pay your fair share of taxes, the Federal Government could\would make it possible for you to physically work off your debt. The thing that makes me chuckle, is the fact that the people who can’t afford to pay for health care, have given our government the information necessary to implement a "labor in lieu of taxes," plan. Kind of reminds me of Roosevelt's Social Security plan that laid out the infrastructure for an income tax that was eagerly and immediately leveled at the Hoi Polloi.
Let’s get rid of the free ride, everyone will pull on the rope, so we as a nation can benefit. Of course those that still think that “This is still the greatest nation on earth,” don’t need to pull on the rope--they're probably too busy smoking it. I’m just not sure who we are fooling here, nobody wants to pay more taxes and everyone would like unlimited health care. But would they want to work an additional 2 months for guvernment health care? Prosperity isn't what lies around the corner, Reality is lying in wait.
6 comments:
In Britain "affordable" just means 'subsidised by someone else'.
I smiled at your idea of a Corvée. Quite what the state would do with an army of unemployables, I'm not sure. Here we could set them to picking plastic bags out of hedges I suppose.
Hi dearieme
Your definition of affordable rings true.
"Corvée" is a new vocabulary word for me, and surprisingly, it has a lot of history backing it.
Here in the US, there are a lot of people that work "under the table," that pay no tax and make a decent wage. Considering that the government would only credit them $1,000 per month for two months, might make them decide to pay the $2,000 rather than pick up plastic bags as you suggest.
When I was a student sharing an apartment with 3 others, everyone paid one fourth of the bills that were due each month. It was tough to loan your roomy the money to pay the phone bill, because it was money you couldn't spend until the roomy paid it back. The idea that you couldn't come up with the money was never even suggested, people back then were responsible.
With the ability of governments to harness the use of computers, we may see a zero sum game in the future. You pay no taxes, you get no benefits.
What I would like to see with the present system, you pay no taxes, you lose your right to vote.
All the voter does is determine how government spends the taxes collected. Our preoccupation with brain surgery and rocket science has left us "Street stupid."
And I almost forgot, Happy New Year to you also.
"This is still the greatest nation on earth,” don’t need to pull on the rope--they're probably too busy smoking it."
Funny how everyone else is wrong and you 0.01% doomers are right!
Nice call on crude there buddy, it's $60/barrel just like you predicted. Nice call on the DOW too....
Yeah, yeah, i know, the depression is right around the corner.
It's really too bad you don't see the greatness of the U.S.
To each his own and time tells all!
Hi Anon 7:37
If you want a handout, I'll agree its the greatest nation on earth. People all over the earth come here to retire if they have no pension plan in their home country--and don't forget Medicare.
You're not poking fun at my call on a real estate collapse back in 2006 any more--of course that wasn't you, it was some other Anon wasn't it?
40 million people on food stamps and you don't see a depression?
The stock market is going nowhere. True, certain stocks are up astronomically almost past absurd valuations. People move in herds, just like they did in real estate.
As for the price of oil, the cost of pumping it out of the ground has increased from $1.20 to $3 per barrel. So a jump from $30 to $90 pretty much reflects inflation. But remember, the Arabs need x dollars to run their economies. As the amount of supply increases, prices drop and the Arabs have to pump more, which will drop prices even more.
If it's any consolation, we can both be right, but not at the same point in time.
Well Jim The idea of getting people to work for their entitlements so as to pay for their Health care sounds like a good idea. Unfortunately there is an army of people that want to eat their cake, but, like Marie Antoinette would rather some else bake it. I live in Canada home of free health Health Care and y/o/y spending increases at rate far above inflation. Nobody here wants to admit to problem either, but as old saying goes "ignorance is bliss". As for Anon 7:37 I'd like to say I'm a Doomer as well. That said I don't believe the Zombie Apocalypse is coming any time soon. Don't worry your beloved DOW JONES is going to QE to infinity. There is a day of reckoning coming it might not happen in our lifetimes but come it will. Just ask the Emperor in 476 A.D. when he faced the Hordes at gates.
anon 737
"If it's any consolation, we can both be right, but not at the same point in time."
Thank you, but i dont post here for consolations.
Just like you, I am prepared, I have the food, the ammo, the gold, and etc....
But I realized a while ago that the "great depression" is a low probability event and while I'm prepared for it, I'm also involved in the real world.
You make valid points sometimes but you are not the federal reserve and you don't dictate policy.
You can be prepared for the worse ans still make money in the current conditions, and that's what you have been missing on!
and don't say you haven't because you have stated your "three year" rule before. In 1929, blah blah, and then in in 1932 blah blah.
Well it's 2014, and yes the market will crash again at some point, but till then, there is a lot of opportunity to make money.
You are not the only one who called the top in 2006, I know many people who sold into that RE rally. The same guys are buying to sell into the next rally but unlike you, they recognize that markets go UP and down.
Good luck to you.
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