Health Care As a Privilege: What the GOP Won’t Admit

[Luddly Neddite]

Health Care As a Privilege: What the GOP Won

Opponents of the law have endlessly invoked “socialism.” Nothing in the Affordable Care Act or any part of President Obama’s challenges the basic dynamics of market capitalism. ...

This is not in dispute. What is being disputed is whether the punishments to the losers in the market system should include, in addition to these other things, a denial of access to non-emergency medical treatment. The Republican position is that it should. They may not want a woman to have to suffer an untreated broken ankle for lack of affordable treatment. Likewise, I don’t want people to be denied nice televisions or other luxuries. I just don’t think high-definition television or nice clothing are goods that society owes to one and all. That is how Republicans think about health care.

 

[Warrior102]

Buy your own health care, you knuckle dragging welfare case.

 

[dblack]

Health Care As a Privilege: What the GOP Won

Opponents of the law have endlessly invoked “socialism.” Nothing in the Affordable Care Act or any part of President Obama’s challenges the basic dynamics of market capitalism. ...

This is not in dispute. What is being disputed is whether the punishments to the losers in the market system should include, in addition to these other things, a denial of access to non-emergency medical treatment. The Republican position is that it should. They may not want a woman to have to suffer an untreated broken ankle for lack of affordable treatment. Likewise, I don’t want people to be denied nice televisions or other luxuries. I just don’t think high-definition television or nice clothing are goods that society owes to one and all. That is how Republicans think about health care.

This is how people (Democrats and Republicans alike) think about everything. Outside of our various safety net programs, poor people are "denied access" to anything and everything they can't afford to pay for - including many of life's necessities (food, shelter, clothing, health care, etc...).

So let's look squarely at the argument the 'health care is a right' people are really making. You can't make this argument, and retain any kind of intelligent consistency, without also arguing that people have a "right" to everything they need.

 

[Katzndogz]

Health Care As a Privilege: What the GOP Won

Opponents of the law have endlessly invoked “socialism.” Nothing in the Affordable Care Act or any part of President Obama’s challenges the basic dynamics of market capitalism. ...

This is not in dispute. What is being disputed is whether the punishments to the losers in the market system should include, in addition to these other things, a denial of access to non-emergency medical treatment. The Republican position is that it should. They may not want a woman to have to suffer an untreated broken ankle for lack of affordable treatment. Likewise, I don’t want people to be denied nice televisions or other luxuries. I just don’t think high-definition television or nice clothing are goods that society owes to one and all. That is how Republicans think about health care.

This is how people (Democrats and Republicans alike) think about everything. Outside of our various safety net programs, poor people are "denied access" to anything and everything they can't afford to pay for - including many of life's necessities (food, shelter, clothing, health care, etc...).

So let's look squarely at the argument the 'health care is a right' people are really making. You can't make this argument, and retain any kind of intelligent consistency, without also arguing that people have a "right" to everything they need.

Health care is a right. You can pay for any kind of health care you want. You have a right to eat, that doesn't mean someone has to take you to lunch. You have a right to housing, but that doesn't mean you get to demand that someone else move you into their property.

Liberals believe that they are denied something when the fact is, they aren't entitled to it free with no effort at all on their part. Liberals don't want to be human beings, what they really want is to be a household pet.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

You have a right to eat, that doesn't mean someone has to take you to lunch.

yes, if liberals were honest they would say, we have a right to your food and your healthcare.

That said, I'm sure if we switched to a capitalist health care system we would be the richest in heath care for the same reason we are the richest in everything else.

 

[waltky]

Obama's win may cost him the election...

Analysis: Victory for Obama now, but what of election?
28 June`12 WASHINGTON – After the health care law passed in 2010, President Obama and his aides celebrated the passage of his signature achievement with a toast on the Truman Balcony at the White House.

When the Supreme Court announced its landmark decision Thursday that upheld most of the law, the response was more muted. That was because the political impact on November's hard-fought election is at least mixed. The court decision that lets the signature achievement of Obama's first term stand avoided what would have been a calamitous rebuke for the former constitutional law professor who had staked so much of his presidency on passing it.

Still, Republicans can argue to voters that the only way to repeal what they call Obamacare is at the ballot box, a message that is sure to energize those who most avidly oppose the law. "The Supreme Court gives Obama a legacy and gives Romney an issue of now greater potency," says William Galston of the Brookings Institution. Obama praised the decision in the East Room, the same spot where he signed the law with such high hopes two years ago. "It should be clear by now that I didn't do this because it was good politics," Obama said. "I did it because it was good for the country."

Even after some of the most popular provisions of the law have gone into effect — helping seniors with prescription costs and allowing young people to stay on their parents' insurance plans — most Americans have yet to embrace the law: 52% in an ABC News/Washington Post poll last week said they have an "unfavorable impression" of it. When Mitt Romney, the likely Republican presidential nominee, spoke to reporters a few minutes before Obama did, his podium was festooned with a sign that declared, "Repeal and Replace Obamacare." "It's obviously a big policy win in terms of the Affordable Care Act," says Phil Musser, a Republican strategist who was senior adviser for Tim Pawlenty's presidential bid. "But this will mobilize the hell out of conservatives in the fall."

Mike Franc of the conservative Heritage Foundation says the financial impact of the law on the middle class will probably become a key Romney talking point on the campaign trail in the coming months. "It won't be the only talking point," he says, "but it will probably be the first one." The money started rolling in almost immediately after the decision. The conservative group Americans For Prosperity announced it was launching a $9 million advertising blitz today to make the case that Obama "forced through the largest tax in American history." By evening, Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul announced the campaign had received more than $2.5 million in contributions.

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As Obama Fails Again, Voters Have Only One Choice
6/29/12 --- Despite Democrat, Republican and media attempts to create a meaningful and controversial wedge, in practice we operate an incredibly narrow political spectrum in the U.S.

New boss, same as the old boss. This old adage of political frustration has never rung more true than it has during Barack Obama's tenure as president of the United States. The first real hope for true social liberals since the late, great Robert F. Kennedy quickly turned into little more than just another political hack. If you label yourself a liberal, gag on the thought, and stop being so kind. Don't call Obama pragmatic. Don't say he reached across the aisle. Don't tell me he compromised. Stop with the euphemisms.

Obama is not a liberal. There is no such thing as an American liberal. You have moderate Democrats and moderate Republicans. Together they form the middle. Liberals and conservatives, in the true, non-media-generated sense of the words, simply do not exist. Political hacks litter the landscape. If you want national health care, your dream died with Obama. Folks who favor a national, single-payer, public option, Canadian-style health care system lost the moment Obama folded like a house of cards on the matter.

When we stopped debating the public option, we entered into a meaningless discussion driven by blowhards ranging from Sean Hannity to the now-canned Keith Olbermann, respectively at Fox News and MSNBC. The anti-national health care side scored a major victory when the public option died but, of course, they will never admit it. They need to create the perception that, thanks to so-called liberals, "socialists" and Obama, the sky continues to fall. This is how they compete to win elections.

At the end of the day, health care coverage in America has always been tied to employment status and/or how much money you have. Obamacare does little to change that in any meaningful way. Your job and your income continues to dictate the circumstances and cost of your health care. Bottom line. End of story.

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[Skull Pilot]

Health care and health insurance are two entirely different things.