Give me three good reasons someone should profit off the sick-

[nosmokes]

-and i'll rethink my insistent stand on SINGLE PAYER UNIVERSAL COVERAGE.

[Uben]

1. That's easy

reason 1: See reason 2

reason 2: See reason three

Reason 3: See reason 1

I think that about explains it!

[timeforpeace]

37. 1. Cost of research 2. Wages for healthcare workers 3. Delivery system costs

[AwakeAtLast]

38. All three of those are overhead, not profit

The markup on all three of those is profit.

[TorchTheWitch]

2. there isn't one much less three

[virgogal]

3. Ummmm---to earn a living?

[Naturyl]

9. Sorry to break Godwin's law, but....

Would that have excused the SS officers at the camps, too? Didn't they need to "earn a living?"

I don't mean to confront you personally, but I have very limited patience with the "making a living" argument.

[virgogal]

15. Several nurses in my family and they certainly don't spend

their days taking care of healthy folks. They take care of the ill,they get paid.

Your SS comparison is specious,if not downright ridiculous.

[Naturyl]

22. So how does that make for-profit health care okay?

Would they have to work for free under single-payer?

The need to pay bills does not justify the existence of a system that harms people. For-profit health care is not morally okay just because someone relies on it for a living.

[bobbolink]

25. Are they making MILLIONS per year, like the CEOs?

I think you really know just how superficial your argument is, and are just doing it to divert people.

I hope YOU'RE getting paid enough.

[earth mom]

28. Watch the movie "Sicko" and you'll see people make good livings in the medical profession in

other countries.

Do doctors deserve to become millionaires off of the pain and suffering of their patients? HELL NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Naturyl]

31. Yeah. I love where Michael Moore asks the UK doctor...

If his car must be an "old beater" because he works for the government. They cut to a scene of his car and it's a brand-new luxury model.

Then they show his house.... nice by any standards.

[earth mom]

36. There is nothing wrong with making a good living. It's gross profiteering on the back of other

peoples pain and suffering that I object to.

[tavalon]

35. There will always be some sick people

However, the OP was talking about the absurdity of hospitals and health insurance being for profit businesses. As a nurse, if healthcare was non-profit, I would still have a job and I wouldn't feel like I was part of a bloodsucking machine.

[obliviously]

39. Why of course hospitals

are like nazi death camps.Are you for real!

[GReedDiamond]

12. I'm pretty sure that physicians working within non-profit...

...healthcare systems are able "to earn a living."

So, that is not a valid excuse.

[readmoreoften]

17. You need to learn the difference between PAYCHECK and PROFIT.

A PAYCHECK is something people get for a service given. Doctors and nurses get a PAYCHECK for dealing with sick people.

PROFIT is something that remains after all the PAYCHECKS have been given out and all the bills have been paid and all the reinvestments put back in a company. It is usually collected by scum who don't render services to anyone but themselves.

[RoccoR5955]

26. Making a living is okay, but execs are making a killing

and that's just wrong.

[BuelahWitch]

42. As post 38 says, that's overhead

If the CEOs could get away with paying them minimum wage to increase their profits, they would.

[BlooInBloo]

4. Opportunity cost. Doctors could be doing something else, instead. Next question.

[hedgehog]

5. There's a difference between making a living and making a profit.

For example, when I see a hospital advertising its luxurious set-ups for sleep studies, I suspect a profit motive is involved.

[BlooInBloo]

6. I don't think "profit" means what you think it means.

[hedgehog]

14. Unless health workers are going to take a vow of poverty

and subsist on charity, they need to be paid. I don't even begrudge the doctor being paid enough to afford a boat. the question is, how big a boat?

[Naturyl]

11. Indeed they could.

One of the other things they could be doing is working under a single-payer system, where sickness is not exploited for profit and doctors are actually rewarded for making their patients healthier.

That is, of course, if Americans (including doctors) would actually fight for such a system.

[nosmokes]

18. Doctors could be paid handsomely even in SPUC. n/t

[BlooInBloo]

19. I agree. That's why the OP is entirely irrelevant. I just answered the question given.

[bkkyosemite]

7. Well let's see=

1. To gain lots of profits
2. To kill people by denying access
3. To have lavish vacations and bonuses.

And just had to add a #4.

4. To bribe Congress and the Senate. (which is a felony and Congress and Senate need to be arrested for taking the bribes.)

[TheBigotBasher]

8. You can have single payer

and a private system.

In the UK the NHS provides almost 90% of care. There is a small private market (and of course the World famous Harley Street) that provides care at the luxury end of the market.

[necso]

10. It's (generally) easier to make money

where people don't have a lot of options.

When sick or suffering, people (generally) aren't in a good position to bargain or wait around.

Suffering, pain and fear (of pain, suffering, disability, death) are (generally) powerful motivators.

That is, because it can be profitable.

[Naturyl]

13. Three GOOD reasons? No can do.

I can give you about fifty evil ones, though.

[Buzz Clik]

16. If you're talking about health insurance, I totally agree.

[Ewellian]

41. Health insurance companies

don't profit off the sick, doctors and hospitals do. Insurance companies profit off the healthy.

[Buzz Clik]

44. Some doctors are overpaid. Most are not . All are overworked.

I want all doctors to be the best and the brightest. Pay them what it takes.

If you enjoy what mediocre wages bring to a given profession, then you must think our public educational system is wonderful.

My brother runs the books for six hospitals. Only one has ever made a profit.

Nurses should be paid more.

[Ewellian]

45. I agree that doctors and nurses

need to be paid well. My point was that the way the system is set up, health care providers make more money by providing more services to sick people. The insurance companies don't profit more from sick people. They make more money collecting premiums from healthy people.

I think parts of our public education system are wonderful.There are many talented, dedicated teachers in public education in spite of the mediocre wages.

[jody]

20. The same reasons someone should profit off the healthy. Do you believe profits are immoral? n/t

[nosmokes]

23. Many profits i believe are wrong, yes. like war or child sex or destroying the

planet. Or profiting from orphans and widows and the sick. I believe it is immoral and unconscionable.

on edit: I also believe prophets are wrong.

[Naturyl]

24. Agreed. All profits are not created equal.

Being charged through the nose is hardly the sort of "voluntary, un-coerced transaction" libertarians and capitalists like to pretend is the morally acceptable basis of a free market. Health care transactions are *massively* coerced by the very fact of sickness, and are not "voluntary" in any but the very strictest and most legalistic sense. Dying due to inability to pay should not be considered a valid "choice." Paying for health care is not "voluntary" when the alternative is to drop dead.

Yes, profiting form such coerced, forced, non-voluntary transactions is deeply immoral.

[jody]

29. How do you propose to determine the "profits" that are allowable for goods & services? n/t

[nosmokes]

33. That's above my pay grade but I'm sure a group of doctors and nurses and

supervisors can work out a pay schedule. They managed it elsewhere. But I'm pretty sure we could save some money w/ loan forgiveness. Can you imagine the debt a doctor is carrying when s/he gets out of med school and finishes an internship?

[jody]

40. Thanks. n/t

[RoccoR5955]

27. When profits exploit those in need of something vital, the answer is YES! n/t

[jody]

30. Who determines what goods and services are "vital"? n/t

[Posteritatis]

34. If someone's guaranteed to due due to their lack, that's a good starting point. (nt)

[jody]

46. Thanks for your interesting perspective. n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

21. Let me put my truthiness beret on ...

1. The free-marketeers say that any restriction on any industry's profit is a restriction on the whole market

2. making a profit is not unConstitutional

3. God desires material prosperity for those He favors

???

[PurityOfEssence]

32. The god of the market must be supreme, some people don't deserve to exist, poor people are unsightly

It really is deplorable, isn't it? The salient issue here is that private enterprise must drive EVERYTHING. It is a religious belief, and it can never be seen to be counterproductive in any situation.

It is also more important that a very few make gluttonous profits than that the multitudes are allowed to survive.

Here's the best argument to use against conservatives: "why do you hate business?" Why should our corporations be at such a horrible disadvantage when competing against corporations from all other advanced nations?

It's a religion, and like all religions, it defies any logic or change.

[rug]

43. 1. Fear of losing benefits keeps workers docile.

2. Checks population growth.

3. Easier than selling water and air.