Are you SURE you don't want healthcare for the poor?

MaraDiaz

Worst TB outbreak in 20 years kept secret

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/state-regional/worst-tb-outbreakin-20-years-kept-secret/nPpLs/

Honestly, there is so much wrong in this story that you'll have to just read it yourselves. I wouldn't know where to begin quoting it.

TheRoadDog

I think the poor should have Health Care. I just don't want to pay for it.

MaraDiaz

I think the US should have a military and a police force, but I don't want to pay for that, either. My taxes always have.

bathsheba_c

I think the poor should have Health Care. I just don't want to pay for it.

You already are; you just don't realize it. And funding it through taxes is much cheaper since a) people get medical care before the problem gets expensive, b) people get preventative care to stop future problems, and c) people don't use emergency rooms, which cannot turn them away legally, as their primary form of medical care.

fbmandy55

The issue is the poor people who can't afford insurance and don't qualify for medicaid are still NOT going to be able to afford the insurance that they are now forced to buy...

MaraDiaz

The issue is the poor people who can't afford insurance and don't qualify for medicaid are still NOT going to be able to afford the insurance that they are now forced to buy...

No argument from me. The jobless poor might or might not get some coverage (not sure how that's supposed to work), but the working poor will get screwed over, as always.

rml_16

What I find incredibly funny is that anyone thinks the Obama healthcare plan actually has anything to do with healthcare or that the people opposed to it are opposed to providing health care to those in need.

MaraDiaz

What I find incredibly funny is that anyone thinks the Obama healthcare plan actually has anything to do with healthcare or that the people opposed to it are opposed to providing health care to those in need.

I already said I don't like Obama's plan, I think it shifts more of the burden to taxpayers and takes the obligation off of companies to provide a living wage, part of which involves medical care. I also think it allows healthcare corporations to continue to profit in ways they should not be able to from healthcare.

I tend to believe that most people who are against Obama's plan however are not against it for those reasons but are against it because they don't want universal health coverage of any sort in this country.

Also, could you please define 'most in need' and explain what you would cover and how you would fund it?

k8blujay2

We had a TB outbreak among middle class people right here in the DFW metro within the last year as well... So I really don't see the correlation. It may not have been the "worst in 20 years"... but it was still pretty damn scary and it really had nothing to do with economic class.

MaraDiaz

We had a TB outbreak among middle class people right here in the DFW metro within the last year as well... So I really don't see the correlation. It may not have been the "worst in 20 years"... but it was still pretty damn scary and it really had nothing to do with economic class.

The thing they're really worried about is non-compliance with taking the long series of antibiotics required to cure it. Stop taking them before you're clear, and you can develop a lethal, drug-resistant strain. And TB spreads most easily in close quarters like jails and shelters. Also, although I don't think the article mentioned this, those with compromised immune systems are much more susceptible. So I'm thinking someone with AIDS who isn't receiving medication is more at risk to be infected and then to carry and spread it.

macpatti

Why do we keep acting like the poor can't receive health care without health insurance?!

MaraDiaz

Why do we keep acting like the poor can't receive health care without health insurance?!

Because most can't receive adequate and ongoing care, much less preventative care for most issues, without insurance.

k8blujay2

Why do we keep acting like the poor can't receive health care without health insurance?!

Because somewhere somehow insurance = care.... Don't know how that happened but it did... must be some voodoo correlation thing... I blame Europeans. Too bad we can't barter chickens for innoculations anymore... :laugh:

summertime_girl

Why do we keep acting like the poor can't receive health care without health insurance?!

The poor can get emergency services. Care, including medications for chronic issues, no. And what about the lower middle class who doesn't receive health insurance working two 30 hour/week jobs, making barely over $10/hour, while paying for food and daycare and housing? What about them? They make too much for Medicare/Medicaid, don't have it through their employers, and can't afford it on their own.

k8blujay2

Why do we keep acting like the poor can't receive health care without health insurance?!

Because most can't receive adequate and ongoing care, much less preventative care for most issues, without insurance.

It is not required to have an insurance card to get preventative care... go into any health care clinic and you will get billed regardless of whether you have insurance... of course if you have insurance, you just paid for the preventative care before you went in via the premiums... Most people that I know that work in clinics would rather not have to deal with insurance... too much paperwork.

k8blujay2

Why do we keep acting like the poor can't receive health care without health insurance?!

The poor can get emergency services. Care, including medications for chronic issues, no. And what about the lower middle class who doesn't receive health insurance working two 30 hour/week jobs, making barely over $10/hour, while paying for food and daycare and housing? What about them? They make too much for Medicare/Medicaid, don't have it through their employers, and can't afford it on their own.

I would hate to live in the State that you do, if this is true.

summertime_girl

I would hate to live in the State that you do, if this is true.

That would be true in every state, except for MA. Just look up the term "working poor".

MaraDiaz

I would hate to live in the State that you do, if this is true.

That would be true in every state, except for MA. Just look up the term "working poor".

Indeed. And clinics and hospitals and certainly doctors don't have to see you if you can't pay unless it's a life threatening emergency. We had a guy around here rob a bank recently. His reason? He wanted to go to jail so he could get medical care for his ruptured discs and a lump in his chest that he feared was cancer.

ItsCasey

The poor can get emergency services.

Sure, if you consider having a runny nose to be an emergency service. "The poor" go to the ER for everything, and that is not going to change with Obamatax. You know why? Because it's too much trouble to call a doctor for an appointment, wait for the appointment, remember the appointment, and actually show up for the appointment. They won't go to the doctor for preventive care. They'll wait until they get sick and keep clogging up the ER because the ER cannot, by law, turn them away, and they know it.

And what about the lower middle class who doesn't receive health insurance working two 30 hour/week jobs, making barely over $10/hour, while paying for food and daycare and housing? What about them? They make too much for Medicare/Medicaid, don't have it through their employers, and can't afford it on their own.

If you can't pay for insurance, you shouldn't get to have insurance. Life sucks. But you don't have a "right" to anything that has to be paid for by someone else. And I'd like to know how many of these people who allegedly can't afford health insurance are miraculously able to afford cigarettes and beer and $50,000 cars and flat screen TVs and cell phones and $200 jeans and the latest video game systems. If health insurance were that important, surely it'd be higher on the list. When you're paying your own bills and aren't relying on the fruits of other people's labor, you don't have to answer for what you do with your money, but when you're stealing from my paycheck, you most certainly do.

I am so unbelievably sick of the half of this country that pays zero taxes whining about how the half that does pay taxes is somehow not paying enough. We'd get a lot of this ridiculousness cleaned up in a hurry if everyone had some skin in the game.

summertime_girl

The poor can get emergency services.

Sure, if you consider having a runny nose to be an emergency service. "The poor" go to the ER for everything, and that is not going to change with Obamatax. You know why? Because it's too much trouble to call a doctor for an appointment, wait for the appointment, remember the appointment, and actually show up for the appointment. They won't go to the doctor for preventive care. They'll wait until they get sick and keep clogging up the ER because the ER cannot, by law, turn them away, and they know it.

And what about the lower middle class who doesn't receive health insurance working two 30 hour/week jobs, making barely over $10/hour, while paying for food and daycare and housing? What about them? They make too much for Medicare/Medicaid, don't have it through their employers, and can't afford it on their own.

If you can't pay for insurance, you shouldn't get to have insurance. Life sucks. But you don't have a "right" to anything that has to be paid for by someone else. And I'd like to know how many of these people who allegedly can't afford health insurance are miraculously able to afford cigarettes and beer and $50,000 cars and flat screen TVs and cell phones and $200 jeans and the latest video game systems. If health insurance were that important, surely it'd be higher on the list. When you're paying your own bills and aren't relying on the fruits of other people's labor, you don't have to answer for what you do with your money, but when you're stealing from my paycheck, you most certainly do.

I am so unbelievably sick of the half of this country that pays zero taxes whining about how the half that does pay taxes is somehow not paying enough. We'd get a lot of this ridiculousness cleaned up in a hurry if everyone had some skin in the game.

This might be the most disappointing thing I've read on this board so far.

And btw, can we assume you did not get a "free" public education since life should suck for those who can't afford things?

k8blujay2

I would hate to live in the State that you do, if this is true.

That would be true in every state, except for MA. Just look up the term "working poor".

I know what working poor is... don't be condescending.... I've lived it.... In the cities that I have lived in there have been places where the working poor can get adequate care without insurance... Hell, I work right across the street from one such clinic (which btw also includes dentistry and pediatrics). So while it may be true in your city or your state it's not true everywhere... I know the clinic I go to, they constantly work with the uninsured... again, they would rather see the uninsured because they don't have to deal with insurance companies. You could walk into just about any clinic here and be taken care of regardless of whether you have insurance... insurance is not nor should it ever be a requirement to recieve care... and people need to realize that ER's are the most expensive place to get care... particularly for the uninsured... I also live in a State where clinics are allowed in pharmacies (which are the cheapest place to get health care).... And people don't realize this but most of the time, clinics will take whatever you can give them towards paying a bill off (though working with their billing office is a better bet)... I don't know how many times I have had a rather large medical bill from a clinic and said "I can only pay $50 this week. I will pay some more when I get paid" and they were fine with that.