Everyone in the United States gets educated whether or not they want to be, by law, and by the generosity of U. S. taxpayers. We aren’t always happy with public education so some of us pay for private education or we educate our kids ourselves with home schooling. The folks who participate in private education and home schooling still pay in to the public system. Should it be abolished? Because it is socialized education?
I guess I feel the same way about health care. I think everyone should have access to public health care. I think that when I was a poor single mom raising my two gorgeous and healthy children that I should have been rewarded with some health care (at least). I thank God that I never broke a bone or had a kidney stone. My kids and I would have suffered as many do when a health tragedy strikes. If I had not been able to work and go to school because of an illness or accident, I would have lost my jobs and been kicked out of the nursing program. I was really, really lucky and that is all.
This is America. Many claim we are the most powerful and wealthy country in the world and yet we have “indigents”. We set up free clinics for them because they don’t have insurance and their children are hungry. Other countries ie: England, Japan, France, Switzerland, Germany; have systems where there are no health care indigents. Everyone qualifies for health care. Why are we so opposed to this? — the cost?
OK, so, lets define “indigent” deficient in what is requisite. Lacking food, clothing, and other necessities of life because of poverty; needy; poor; impoverished. (I looked it up on dictionary.reference.com)
They are really, really unlucky. I wasn’t exactly indigent, but, damn close and if any kind of physical anomaly had befallen me, believe me, I’d have fit the description. My nursing program required us to volunteer. I chose the Salvation Army. We provided health care for the homeless with a retired cardiac surgeon. We did good things for a lot of people and sometimes they were grateful and sometimes they were just wanting the free socks we gave them. Some of these people were alcoholics or drug abusers and some were just really, really unlucky. One fellow had a broken ankle. We gave him a prescription to get an x-ray and have an orthopedic surgeon look at it at the county hospital ER. He had no way of getting to the hospital to get this done. I’m not sure the hospital would have done it after he got there. Free clinics can only do so much.
So, then we have to define “requisite” essential, necessity, requirement.
What are the essential requirements of an American life? Food, shelter, clothing, good health and an education. Some might add a car that runs vs. a sweet ride, a cell phone vs. an I-phone, a PC vs. a Mac — well, you see what I’m getting at. Some of us think that access to health care is as essential as access to an education. Some do not.
I’m doing OK now, I am able to afford insurance, and my children are insured. I have a lovely home, a nice car, my children are adults and still gorgeous and healthy, and I have an income that provides for essential needs.
(Aren’t they gorgeous kids? The best thing I’ve ever done in this life)
I whine like everyone else that the more I make the more they take. Who are they? What are they doing with my money after they take it? Isn’t that what we all piss and moan about? What is this going to cost me? I do not like it that my money was spent killing Iraqi people, some don’t like the idea of their money being spent on a revised American health care system. I believe that health care and the health of this planet is more important that killing people in other countries. Our current President seems to agree. I feel a little better about where my hard earned money is going.
