Police, firefighters, Police HQ, Fire Department and trucks....Doctors and hospitals?

[The Straight Story]

I don't need no stinkin' card to show the fire dept when they show up if I need. No proof that I can pay, I don't pay more because my house is older and the wiring is not as good as newer homes (ie, more fire risk).

When I call the cops because someone is breaking in, I don't have to stay on the phone and read a 12 digit number and hold while they look up my information to see if I am covered.

We as a society decided these functions were necessary enough for all people that we each chipped in for them. Even if you never use them, you pay for them just in case you will need them.

And those two services have a primary goal to serve and protect you - to save your life and put at risk their own lives for yours.

Which says to me society has long felt your well being is important enough to make them available and 'free' to use (free in the sense there is no bill as it is prepaid by your contribution).

Are you waiting in long lines for cops or firefighters? When there is a huge forest fire does it get ignored?

Yes - health care is a much bigger endeavor. Yes, it will cost more. But in the end, a healthy society not living in constant fear of being able to get care will be a much better and more productive society. A better cared for society will thrive more than one where it's citizens are suffering and unable to function due to lack of care.

It is time for a change. Starting at the local level and moving on up.

It is complicated, it will be a work in progress and won't ever be perfect. But a step in the right direction today is one step further we will have traveled tomorrow to our destination.

[havocmom]

1. Thank you

:thumbsup:

[annabanana]

2. You Bet! It is instructional to frame it with the cops & firemen..

I encourage all DUers to remember this when faced with the bogeyman of "socialized medicine" by some clueless RW media-echo.

[The Straight Story]

4. One point to me is that:

The government - which is basically the people joining together for a common cause - can do some things remarkably well (like...the Military).

In fields dealing with the safety/welfare/common defense we should all be covered and all pay for it.

Health care is abnormal in this regards in our society. All we have done point to we the people wanting certain areas to be run as a co-op by and for the people. No matter how rich or poor you are you get defense, fire, police protection - and no one is billing you or making you show proof that you have it. You live here, you have it.

[Warpy]

3. The debate should be about health CARE

and not health care FUNDING or health care COST. That's the corporatist, pro insurance company profit way of framing the debate and I'm sick of it.\

We need to make sure they don't fucking get away with it.

We don't have a duty to die to increase anyone's profit.

[The Straight Story]

5. Well said (nt)

[JeffR]

6. Well put

:kick:

[MissWaverly]

7. yes, I was just saying this yesterday

nobody should die begging for health care, health care is part of the outgrowth of having a society,
even natives had their "doctors" to care for the sick. If we provide water and sewer lines and roads
to travel through our country, health care is equally a essential element of having a healthy society,
look at how cholera is gaining a foothold in Iraq, they are holding up the water purifiers at the
border on the pretext that they might be used for explosives. (Well, they might be used to save
the lives of thousands of people.)

[The Straight Story]

8. Well said

The sad fact that so many die in this country from poor health care is one of our great shames as a civilized society in the 21st century.

[MissWaverly]

9. That's true

Look at how many people who are considered the truly great have died young due to a chronic health problem,
What we would give to hear another Mozart concerto or to see another Van Gogh. Who knows what we are
throwing away with our current system. The inventor of a workable energy source, a playwright,
a doctor capable of finding the cure for Parkinson's Disease.

[LWolf]

10. I agree.

I start by supporting HR 676.

Is there anyone who has not been hit hard with health care costs, and with life-limiting choices, because of the cost or unavailability of needed care?

Health care for every last human: equal access to high quality care when needed, without having to forgo paying the rent, buying food, keeping the lights and the heat on. It's a right, not a privilege.

In my book, anyway.

[EFerrari]

11. The thing is that the police and the FD protect property.

The powers that be don't see people as a resource worth protecting.

[Mythsaje]

12. They're going to fuck us...again...

And there are people who are going to stand there and cheer while they do it. People who are ostensibly on "our" side.

:banghead:

Why is it that so many of us are content with "good enough" when it's NEVER really good enough?

[The Straight Story]

15. Indeed they will, sadly

I think some people see 'good enough' as the best we can muster.

It IS a process, but some things are bigger than that process. Who in our party is willing to say they favor a trickle down effect on this issue? Those are people I want out - because when it comes to health care, to me, I am not comfortable voting for anyone who wants to cut corners.

Either you are for us and our health care, or you are for corporate interests.

The health and well being of our citizens should not be the issue it is now. Nationalize health care and get people the care they need, or look me in the face and tell me and my family that they are nothing more than dollar signs and their health is secondary to the (once) almighty dollar.

The left needs to stand NOW for all people here. If they don't....well I can ask is why?

[hvn_nbr_2]

13. And I don't have to ask a potential employer if they cover me for the good fire...

department or the crappy one.

But part of me sez, you shouldn't have posted this. You're giving them ideas. Privatization of police, firefighting, and courts. Yeah, that's the ticket. Great for Blackwater stock.

[eridani]

14. Yes! Like fire and police protection, and transportation infrastructure--

--health care should be a public good. The economics of all of these things are similar as well. It would be way more expensive to have three city fire departments competing with each other. Studies clearly show that hospitals behave the same way economically. Given the same population, the more hospitals a town has, the more expensive health care is. Fires and heart attacks are statistically predictable from population demographics--those numbers don't increase if you add hospitals and firehouses. Both happen to few people as a percent of population, and are extremely expensive. That's way sane societies came up with the idea of spreading the risk, and offering such protection from tax money but free at the point of service.

[uppityperson]

16. Don't forget schools too. kick

can't rec since over 24 hrs old. kick anyways