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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: neolib who wrote (237308)	11/9/2013 2:40:00 PM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541880

I think you can charge more where you can, even in a state system. And you could offer incentives- credits for preventive maintenance or healthy living. Unlike the car example, you are actually dealing with the lives of adults and children, not just with driving a car, which you can live without, if you live in an urban area, or even a suburban area with good bus service. I think Obama's health plan was probably a step in the right direction, but what we really need is single payer- medicare for all. And we need to build it so that 1. we have incentives for good behavior, and 2. as many disincentives for bad behavior as we can humanely put it, with the knowledge that no decent society lets people die because they are poor, but on the other hand it doesn't throw a fortune after people in the last few months of life. I think the move toward euthanasia in some of the European countries is actually a healthy movement. Spending billions on useless procedures that only prolong death is stupid. If you want to spend your discretionary income on that, whatever- it's a waste of finite medical care, but that's not something we can stop- but prolonging life should be the focus of a just and healthy system. Europeans understand that no system will be fair to everyone. If you are lucky, and very healthy, you subsidize others. I've had no auto accidents (not even any tickets) so I subsidize everyone else. I'm ok with that. I want people to have insurance. I see it as part of our social connection to be part of a wide net. I feel the same way about health insurance. If I pay more than I "should"- no problem. I'll simply see it as 1. my good fortune not to need healthcare and 2. part of my contribution to society, which I love, and which has treated me well. If you want to be an island, then you can go be one, in some trackless wilderness where government does not exist- but when you are part of a country, you partly rise or fall based on the health and welfare of those around you. Whether we are rich, or poor, we come in to contact with others, and for the happiness of ourselves, it's good to make sure the other folks in society don't become too deprived, or hopeless- because then they become desperate.