Heather :: Ah, but despite parents’ best efforts to instill a healthy appreciation for things… nothing works like a good ‘ole “theory to practice”. Our coworkers have a bunch of these stories.

Try to teach the kid that [fill in the blank] cost money… kid nods head then continues wasteful behavior. Take partial cost of [fill in the blank] out of kid’s weekly allowance… watch kid magically transform into a savvy resource manager. Wow, it’s a miracle!

..may be saying “thank you” is enough, is fair.
not yet equal between 3week and 15minute
but when they go away after got (without greeting)
may they just stolen

I agree that HMOs sucks at making medical decisions… but letting doctors call the shots without checks and balances will only result in them piling up monstrously high bills for the patient (meaning for the taxpayer who’s subsidizing this little dance) because then the doctor has just covered their behind the best they can. To avoid malpractice multiples of every test will be run for every patient. Not cool. Sooo… it comes back to the stupid lawyers (doesn’t it always?).

Also, people should be able to pay for a better doctor if they wish… or just pay for a better care facility or whatever. This happens in socialized health countries on its own… but because everyone is paying taxes for health care already usually only the really wealthy can afford to pay for super doctors on TOP of what they’ve already shelled out to Big Brother.

Narbhflaith :: You bring up a good point. The single mother whose husband left them for the paperboy, and is now having to rais the triplets on her own with a part-time job, is definitely an exception and these types of situations should be helped in some fashion.

What I’m not for (and you’d agree) is to just help whoever says they need help without putting a discerning eye on things.

Personally, I would just become so bored. I would have to do something, anything. And, what in the world do they do all day that makes thier life worth living.

Now that I have said all that, a little disclaimer. I am in no way knocking those who are single parents raising kids and thier income just doesn’t cover it so thier supplementing with welfare and other government services or such. I am oly saying that if your perfectly or even somewhat capable of work. What makes them stay on the couch like a sloth, slacker, bumm, (insert your own word or phrase).

These type of people annoy me.

Waraxe,

If they can’t send you the memo, I wouldn’t do the work either.

Uhmm… logical fallacy? Personal health care (as in preventive measures) and the health care industry (as in post-illness care) are two totally different things. You’re right: there are very few exeptions to things that should be free. Health care should be one of them.

Let me put forth a couple of images here:

- European fatass. (Not many of those, are there?)

- American fatass. (with almost 30% of the population considered “obese” — hmmm.)

If your argument (when applied to the health care industry) held any water, then we’d see a lot more European fat-asses, wouldn’t we? I mean, what’s stopping them from eating 2 Big Macs and super sized fries over at “Chez McDonald’s”? Here’s what’s stopping them: because of free health care, the government now has stricter rules about what companies can pass off as food. As such, meat saturated with pesticides and antibiotics isn’t found on the European markets. Additionally, food portions tend to be smaller in restaurants, which is one of the primary sources of excess calories in the American market. There are also concerted efforts there to ensure that people exercise — since the gov’t and people now both have a positive financial bottom line associated with personal care, as opposed to the negative bottom line faced by most Americans with health club fees — as well as efforts to ensure that people eat better, both by government regulation of the food industry and social betterment programs.

There is a cost associated with bad health habits: it’s a shorter lifespan and a miserable life (which, I suppose would be rewarded by a shorter lifespan). Free health care does not lead to bad health habits. While it may lead to increased cases of people asking for more medication, it is proven that people won’t suddenly become garbage-eating monsters. In fact, the opposite is true.

The good associated with “free” health care (paid for by tax payers — which, by the way, you’re already paying for) outweighs the bad in numerous ways, such as a longer, healthier lifespan for the general population (as has been proven over and over and over and over and over…). Additionally, the crony system currently in place — which rewards companies for keeping people chronically sick instead of giving them a cure — could be eliminated if the world’s largest economy suddenly switched from feeding pharma companies and health provider bureaucracy to a system in which doctors call the shots, and not business managers with no medical experience.

Overall, I highly agree: people will never appreciate something when its free. That’s why freedom isn’t free, why success is something you have to fight for, and why products and services should cost money. However, being in a hospital because you’re sick is hardly “free” — you’ve paid with your health to be there, and that’s a very high price to pay. The only difference between that system and what we have now is that under that system people who are legitimately sick and who cannot afford health care under the current system could get the care they need. (Besides, like gigabit Internet, at over 1.4 trillion per year, we’ve already paid for that system. We just haven’t gotten it.)