" I don't want to pay for someone else's healthcare"

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

That's what one of the 6 Teaparty Patriots who were demonstrating yesterday against Health Care Reform, Big Government, Socialism, Chris Dodd, etc etc etc told me. They were stationed across the street from where we have a weekly peace vigil and I had to walk past them to get to and from the vigil.
A person from our group who has been very active in the health care reform movement went over there and talked with them. She came back and reported that we actually "have a lot of common ground". That's the same thing one of the other "Patriots" tried to convince me of when I walked by later. She said she didn't support war, just like me. Funny how she never once joined our vigil in the years its been held. She's a "small business owner" who "can't afford to pay more in Medicare taxes to cover other people ". I wish I had asked her if she provides her 2 employees with health insurance.


http://teapartypatriots.ning.com/page/health-care

[FreakinDJ]

1. Sucker - you already are

CBO estimates the average family in America pays $1000 per year towards "Unreimbursed Medical Expenses"

and if you wish to live in a country where they allow people to DIE in the waiting room for lack of funds, then I have a list of countries you can move to

[Matariki]

18. Exactly what I was going to say. If you are paying for insurance, you already ARE paying

for someone else's healthcare. It's what the whole idea of insurance is based on.

[FreakinDJ]

20. If you go to the Hospital you are subsidizing the uninsured

Hospitals overcharge to cover the cost of "Unreimbursed Medical Cost"

[stray cat]

2. How much would each of us be willing to pay to get health care for someone else?

a real numerical value that we would pay beyond what we currently pay?

[TicketyBoo]

4. There's no way to tell…

exactly what those costs are now. Chances are very good that we'd actually end up paying less, not more. That's the whole point.

[sandnsea]

8. How much are we ALREADY paying

but are in denial over. That's the real question. We're already paying this tab. Medicare, taxes, higher premiums and medical fees.

[LuckyLib]

12. Yup. A $200,000 trip to the ICU, covered by your insurance or Medicare, is

actually paying for someone else who has no insurance. (In addition to profits for the corporatists.) These morans need to get a clue.

[Posteritatis]

15. Sorry, I don't assign specific dollar values to people. (nt)

[bobbolink]

16. That's a very narrow view. That's asking how much human life is worth.

Are we really going to sink that low?

[shireen]

22. does it matter?

In a single-payer system, most people, in theory, pay the same extra amount in taxes. That's a level decrease in income across the board. The economy will adjust to that lower pedestal because the relative wealth between people will generally remain unchanged except that healthcare will cost less because the overhead will be lower, people will not go bankrupt due to medical bills, there will be more illnesses caught early and hopefully cured, and more emphasis on preventative care will create a healthier population. Oh wait, i'm wrong ... no bankruptcies, lower healthcare overhead, and healthier people will create a more successful society, narrowing the gap between rich and poor.

[rhett o rick]

23. The whole point of insurance is to spread the risk. When you pay your premiums who knows who will

use it. It is only the selfish like republicans that wont pay for others misfortunes. They will gladly accept benefits themselves but hate to see others get benefits. Sicko's.

[TicketyBoo]

3. Doesn't she understand…

that she's paying for lots of people's healthcare right now through higher medical bills and taxes to support the emergency rooms poor people use for primary care?

It makes sense to do it the right way in order to cut those costs.

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

5. That's the type of response I wish I had made yesterday.

I thought of a lot of good ones on the walk home

[rollingrock]

6. That's what private insurance is, genius

when someone gets sick, your monthly premiums pay for their healthcare.

[sandnsea]

7. They're all against the war now

I hear that all the time. You can't say anything bad about the Bush years because they'll just say they opposed all of that too. And then proceed to attack everything Obama does. It's just another sick cynical right wing ploy.

[drm604]

9. Then I gather they don't believe in insurance?

Everyone in an insurance pool is either giving more than they're receiving, or receiving more than they're giving (maybe a very few are just breaking even). That's how it works.

So if they have private insurance then they're either paying for someone else, or someone else is paying for them. Ask them if they're willing to give up their private insurance.

[scarletwoman]

10. Would someone please explain how insurance works to this numbskull?

Everybody pays money into a big pot ("premiums") and when a member of the group that's been paying money into the pot needs something paid for, it gets paid for out of that same pot that EVERYBODY has been paying into. So she's already "paying for someone else's healthcare" if she pays insurance premiums.

The only difference between a private insurance "pot" and a government "pot" is that the private insurer is skimming profits off the top. The government wouldn't be skimming off profits, which would mean more money left in the pot to spend on just plain health care.

sw

[2Design]

11. they charge you a lot of money - when you need it they kick you off the plan

and party on your money

[subterranean]

17. The other difference is...

In the private insurance pot, all beneficiaries are paying in. In the government pot, some people contribute little or nothing, yet receive the same benefits. Republicans think that's unfair. They basically believe that health care should be a privilege for those who can afford it.

[SoCalDem]

13. These people do not want to live in a civil society

They are Darwinists..

until someone in their own family gets sick and has no insurance.. they they cry like a whipped puppy and demand help..because "they pay their taxes, dammit"..

a complete intellectual-disconnect

[rollingrock]

14. When a Republican's house is on fire

they better not call the fire department.

[panzerfaust]

19. Here in this part of Texas we are on water restrictions

Because of the on-going and prolonged drought, combined with unrestricted commercial and residential building.

One of my neighbors has a well, and he has been using water from it to keep his lawn watered. More power to him, I say (we have xeroscaping mostly, thank you for not flaming).

However, he says that it is a rare day that someone does not come up and start yelling at him about breaking the water restrictions & how they are going to call the police. When he points out that the restrictions apply to the use of the public water system, and that he has a private well they (please remember this is conservative, property-rights, 'keep off my land' Texas) almost always start lecturing him on how "it is everybody's water", that it comes from the same acquifer, etc - as he says, "they sound like socialists!"

Of course, they are right. Now.

However those who come to complain to him are the very same conservative yahoos who have repeatedly voted down any STUDY (much less public control of) the acquifer & who fought (successfully) against limiting the construction of huge housing developments here!!

Now we are running out of water, and they are unhappy - when they, not my neighbor with the well - are the very ones who caused this situation to happen.

Conservative: thy name is Hypocrite.

[keep_it_real]

21. But you already pay for somebody's children going to public schoold in taxes

How do you like that?