[ExI] anti-capitalist propaganda, was: retrainability of plebeians

[Damien Sullivan]

On Mon, May 04, 2009 at 06:49:47AM -0400, MB wrote:

> I've been very pleased with my health care. I've been able to choose
> my doctors, I've been able to get appointments when I needed them,
> service was speedy.  And yes, there have been medical problems,
> illness which was hard to diagnose, frustrating to treat.

And how do you pay for that health care -- pocket, or insurance?  Is the
insurance through a large employer, or individual?  If individual, did
you have "pre-existing conditions"?

The system works okay once you're in it, and assuming the companies
can't find a way out of paying for you.  Where the US falls down is
getting people into the system.

Except, wait!  We have a crude form of socialized insurance: not
Medicaid, ultimate, but emergency rooms -- they have to take you in!  Of
course, treating emergencies is expensive and relatively ineffective
(compared to preventive care), and the unfunded mandate means ERs are
closing.  Great insurance or deep pockets won't help you in a trauma if
the nearest ER is more than your untreated life expectancy away.

The fundamental social choice is "if someone's found naked and bleeding,
with no proof of insurance, do we treat them or let them die?  If they
have killer flu or resistant TB, do we let them run around or treat
them?"  As a society, we've chosen life.  We just do so crappily; given
the choice, universal health care is the most efficient way of
fulfilling it.

If you want to fend off universal health care, convince your fellow
Americans that poor sick people -- including children -- should be
left alone to die, helped only by private charity or crushing debt.

-xx- Damien X-)