(January 22, 2014 at 11:32 pm)Napoléon Wrote: So let me get this straight. The state actually expects the average citizen to pay sums like that? I mean I know you're supposed to have health insurance, but there isn't any law against not having it right? I really don't get America's welfare system. You guys live in the most prosperous first world country, yet the government can't even provide affordable healthcare for its citizens? It seriously baffles me that a lot of Americans actually think universal health care is a bad idea.
No shit. Years ago, I thought that and quite frankly, any reason I could give would sound pretty fucking stupid today.
I got a bill for over $80,000 for eight days in the hospital last year. Had I not been insured, my choices would have been to go bankrupt and stick the hospital (and their other patients) with the bill, or.... Well, I guess dying would be my only other realistic option. I wouldn't have been able to pay it off - I would have been still paying off my last medical adventure - possibly even the one before that.
We *already* pay for the uninsured - quite possibly in the least efficient way possible. That would not be my argument for single payer - simple compassion and empathy is enough for me to support it.
