Now the real question is: what's the best policy? Rather: what would be the best thing for the most people in the long term? Is letting people who have the audacity to be poor die slow, pain-filled deaths or live disease-ridden lives be good for society? Should people be terrified at the prospect of getting sick or losing their jobs lest they lose the insurance their families need, and possibly lose their life savings trying to pay for some emergency? Maybe it is, I don't know. But I rather doubt it.
To the people who are moderately comfortable and perceive that they're safe from this type of fate, or simply haven't had anyone they care about go to the poorhouse or die because their insurance dropped them: if you are bitching about the price of healthcare knowing that not doing anything costs lives every single day, then I honestly hope you all the best. Heaven forbid that you suffer the fate you're consigning so many others to.
But if that's how you want to be, why stop there? Why not jump on the what-me-worry, gun-toting, world-ending, tea-bagging bandwagon and slash Medicare, the Veterans Administration, highway maintenance, police and fire budgets, food stamps, subsidized housing, and in fact any government program that might possibly result in someone that's not you directly benefiting.
Take it even further: anything that doesn't pass the Sean Hannity welfare sniff test should be abolished until not one of the undeserving underclass has a dime to their name. Yeah, let that happen. You'll find out quickly that it's easier and cheaper to pay someone else to take care of the needy in bulk than to have the needy get it directly from you. You'll also find that getting a doctor will a slightly more expensive proposition when hospitals don't have many customers and need a private security force to keep out the dying and desperate.
Why would you want to live in a country surrounded by sick and dying people?
You see, the reason we have things like welfare and [a form of] public healthcare is because very intelligent people long ago noticed two things:
- not everyone is wealthy, and
- people usually will not do the right thing unless compelled to do so.
Likewise, their government will not do the right thing unless compelled by the people. If you don't like the solution then come up with one that's not euthanasia by another name. But if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. Quit being part of the problem.
