Tea Bagger - "Person Who Cannot Afford Health Care Will Just Have To Die"

[OmahaBlueDog]

30. Suzuki's are nice bikes, and I'm glad you wear a helmet.

Helmets are common sense, more than anything.

"do you just support laws that attempt save money by creating restrictions on dangerous activities that don't effect YOU?"
Why didn't you just say "Yes"?

Because the real answer isn't "yes." First of all, you assume I do nothing dangerous (not necessarily true). Second, the fact that tax payers and insurance carriers end up on the hook for these activities. To be sure, that's a two-way street. The avid runner may look at an obese man and say I shouldn't have to pay for your bypass surgery", but the obese man can say "I shouldn't have to pay for your knee replacement or ankle injuries from running. I think for the sake of everyone, requiring reasonable precautions (seat belts, air bags, bike and motorcycle helmets) is reasonable.

By the way, a bicycling helmet saved me from severe head injury, and seat belts have most likely saved my life once and saved be from severe injury once.

"That's the price for the government going into the healthcare business"
I refuse to accept your assertion that totalitarian government intervention in every aspect of our lives is the price we have to pay for a reasonable health care system.

A few things here. First, there's a far cry from "totalitarian government intervention" and sin tax increases. Governments know that taxes on cigarettes have reduced smoking, saved lives, and cut costs. That same logic will invariably be applied to snack food and soda -- maybe even red meat. Second, big corporations are already sticking their noses into the lives of their employees from a health-consciousness perspective, so its logical to suppose that government will do so as well since they have been appointed market manager. Employers aren't engaging in "totalitarian intervention". At this point, mostly, they are just nagging.

"And if MY taxes have to pay for the results of YOUR dangerous activity, the it effects ME. "
You sound just like a tea bagger. If it costs YOU money, it must be opposed

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Whenever anybody disagrees with anybody on this board, the next accusation is that one or the other sounds like Ted Cruz. The irony here is that it's usually my conservative friends who lecture me about helmet laws and the nanny state.

Look, I suspect we have more common ground than not. I've voted for Democrats since I could vote. I will likely do so until my death from something caused by long-term consumption of Diet Coke. You are here at DU, so you are most likely similarly inclined. The whole logic behind the ACA and making everyone purchase insurance is that we don't want to keep putting taxpayers on the hook. Based on current projections, it will save the feds a ton of money.

I support Universal Single Payer. Selfish people are one of the biggest obstacles in it's implementation.

There are pros and cons to single payer. I've heard Canadians who love their system; I've heard Canadian health care horror stories. Ditto England. To me, it's like they are all in this huge HMO -- which is better than nothing. Ireland's system is interesting -- everyone gets a government backed plan like ACA bronze, and the private market offers upsells. That's really what I'd like to see here.

If you are counting physicians and hospital operators as "selfish people" then I'd agree with you.