Voluntary Charity is the Solution For The Uninsured
One frequently asked question is, "Who will pay for the care of those who need it but cannot afford it?"
The short answer is, "Anyone who wishes to do so."
If someone
incurs an unfortunate random hardship (even though it is no fault of
his own), it does not create an automatic obligation for anyone else to
pay for it. Depending on the exact circumstances, I might be willing to
voluntarily donate my own time/money to help him out. As a physician, I have gladly provided discounted or charity care to patients more time than I can count. The same is true
for nearly every other physician I know.
So
if someone developed a bad disease that would cost him $100k, and
either didn't get insurance or couldn't get insurance, then he
essentially has to rely on the voluntary charity of others. His need (genuine as it may be), does not create a right to someone else's property or time.
Furthermore, the very fact that such examples tug at the sympathies of
normal decent Americans also means that those Americans will be
forthcoming with voluntary charity. In general, Americans have
been extraordinarily benevolent about voluntarily donating their time
and money for innocent victims of natural disasters, disease, and
man-made harms (such as 9-11 or the Oklahoma City bombings).
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OV Social
No disrespect but please how arrogant are you! Unfortunately people are not that generous we cant give ever person in need help from charity! I'm sorry for getting a little upset but we need to find someway to help people in need!
The Humble Conservative,
nguiney14
It is impossible for "voluntary charity" to take care of the medical needs of 50 million insured. I, too, am a physician, and I donate time to those in need. However, it makes almost no dent in the needs of the underserved.
I don't know if it is a "right" or not, but it does seem to me it is a moral obligation to offer health care coverage for everyone.
As long as we as physicians are paid by the service for what we do, most of us will maximize our incomes by cherry picking from those who have the best insurance. To manage the expenses of my office, I am almosst obligated to do so.
I would much rather work for a salary with benefits and retirement , serving those who have the greatest need. Most Canadian physicians are not unhappy.
The question FIRM ask is who should pay for the health care of those that can't afford it? But the question is who is paying those cost now? We are. Universal health care will just put some control over thouse cost.
We have universal health care . What we don't have is a system that rewards financial foresight and healthy life-style choices and wise decisions about when to see the doctor . The working poor are the ones who suffer, sometimes facing bankruptcy because of sheer bad luck. It's hard to pull yourself up by your bootstraps when your rainyday fund gets raided to pay the ER because you can't bear to see your 12 year-old going to school with untreated pneumonia.
I don't know that I agree that free health care is a right. It is, however, prudent. It would raise productivity, it would improve school attendance and performance, it would increase saving among the working poor, which would also help the economy .
The downside--re-allocation of tax dollars. Perhaps an increase in taxes . Decline in profits for health insurance companies. The economy is already in turmoil, let's do it now.
But the question I was trying to get at was, when the ER writes off a bill, who pays that bill? One way or another we all do. So all healthcare reform will do is re-allocate the money that is already being spent, just more efficiently.
The United Nations states under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that everyone has a right to, among other things, medical care. It is absurd to say that impoverished people who are doing all they can to feed themselves and their family should be denied health care . It is equally absurd to believe that all 50 million of these people living in the United States can be helped by "charity work." Millions more impoverished americans who have insurance but can barely afford it are also harmed by the current health care plan.
Take this scenario for example: A poor Vietnamese immigrant develops a cough. He doesn't visit his doctor because he does not believe his condition is serious, and cannot afford a regular visit to the doctor. He waits and waits until he eventually coughs up blood. He finally visits his doctor and finds out he has a serious case of TB that has severely damaged his body. He has to pay more for extensive treatment and becomes more impoverished.
With a government funded insurance program this scenario would not exist. The man would visit his doctor free of charge. He would be diagnosed early and would receive free preventative medicine . And he could still feed his family.
Every industrialized country in the world (except the US) provides their citizens with free health care. We need to wake up and realize a government run insurance program is the only way to solve our current health care disaster. We must put special interests aside and help our citizens.
Health Care is a right. If you disagree with that you disagree with the United Nations' and the United States' definition of Universal Human Rights.