"Healthcare is Welfare".

[Buddyblazon]

I can't believe I hadn't noticed this before. Am having an discussion on our local paper message board (The Denver Post...actually not really discussing...just sort of ridiculing this winger...hey...I can troll with the best of them...be glad I'm on your side ;) ).

The discussion is over this article on how outgoing Governor Ritter and perhaps extending the state medicare rolls.

And it's just got this winger all angry. So he posted about a paragraph. And as I read it, I realized what these assholes are doing:

They're are attempting to make healthcare the equivalent of welfare.

Healthcare is Welfare

War is Peace


Seriously, these are the people Orwell warned us about. Carrying the water for their Corporate Overlords. This is how brainwashed people have become.

[TBF]

1. The sad part is that we've got some of these "wingers" in our own party.

They gotta go.

[Cleita]

2. Welfare is not a dirty word.

The concept originally was about the states' obligation to look after the well being of its citizens. The concept is that we are all in this together and as a democracy, those of us who are better off give a helping hand to those who need it. It was about looking after the "welfare" of children, the elderly and the handicapped and others that have fallen through the cracks of society, people who needed the help of those who could help them; children because we need to nurture them so that they will become productive citizens, the elderly because they have paid their dues to society in their productive years and now deserve our thanks and respect for doing so, and the handicapped and others who need the help of society to cope because we are human beings and can.

[Buddyblazon]

4. That would be all fine and dandy...

However, they've done a bang-up job over the last 30+ years of demonizing the word "welfare".

[eleny]

3. "...promote the general Welfare..." GASP!!!

http://www.usconstitution.net/xconst_preamble.html

[pnwmom]

5. Are you sure you're not talking about Medicaid?

Which, being for the poor, is a type of "welfare"?

Because you mention "state medicare rolls." The states run the income-based Medicaid program, while the Federal government runs Medicare (which is paid for through Social Security).

[Hello_Kitty]

6. All forms of public assistance are considered "welfare" even if they're going to people who work

Food stamps, Medicaid, free and reduced school lunches, etc. are effectively subsidies to low wage employers like Walmart but the general public thinks any and all public assistance is going to lazy people on the dole.

[jwirr]

9. UNTIL they need them their selves. Then they become great programs. nt

[rucky]

7. Look at that Healthcare Queen

takin' her chrome-plated walker into the doctor's office like it's her birthday or something. I bet she's living it up on the name-brand medications. And look at her breathing in that taxpayer-funded oxygen through her tank!

[area51]

8. What nazis believe

It's always interesting that nazis believe that health care should be rationed based on personal wealth, but not "police care" or "fire care", etc.

[BrklynLiberal]

10. Typical repuke mantra. btw: Aren't the states involved iin Medicaid, not Medicare???

[DavidDvorkin]

11. Welfare for arms manufacturers is okay, though.

[upi402]

12. I blame the media

Our local liberal paper just tanked recently. They took a corporatist slant in latter years and I stopped my subscription and stopped reading it. Then the other paper bought it. Then it killed even the facade of competition.

Until the 4th estate is forced to not act like a corporate propaganda organ for corporatism, nothing will change.
Chickens will continue to vote for Col. Sanders.

[Bandit]

13. Doesn't our Constitution say the duty of Government is to maintain

the General wellfare of the nation? In that regard health Care is Wellfare and the Government should be taking care of it for all citizens...

[Atypical Liberal]

14. Here is how to reframe that argument.

Most conservatives are against welfare. They resent paying for a separate program in addition to paying for their own services. This is why I believe health care should be the only option for everyone - Single Payer.

When you set up separate programs, one for the people who pay and one for those who don't, it breeds resentment for those paying for the separate program.

Instead, health care needs to be seen as what it is - one of the fundamental cornerstones of a civilized society that most people can't afford on their own.

As a society, we have discovered that there are certain things that it is best that everyone have access to whether they pay for it or not. We have socialized roads, socialized schools, socialized police services, socialized fire services, socialized libraries, and socialized military forces. We have these things not necessarily out of a sense of altruism or entitlement. We have them because a society that does not have them in place for all people cripples itself. This happens because you have people less able to contribute their fullest potential to society, and because it infuses a sense of desperation in people as they scrape for basic services. This desperation distracts from fuller contributions to society, and can even drive them to harm society as they turn to crime or other nefarious means to satisfy basic needs.

Ignoring humanitarian reasons, we have socialized police forces to help enforce law and order for everyone, not just the rich, so that portions of our society do not become lawless and chaotic and non-tax-paying nor otherwise income-generating. We have socialized fire forces so that private fire services do not turn a blind eye to burning properties not "covered" that in turn spread into uncontrollable conflagrations, costing even more in damage. We have socialized roads so that commerce and trade are enhanced. We have socialized schools so that we produce an educated work force. We have socialized libraries so that we encourage literacy among our people. We have socialized military forces so that all of Americas interests are defended.

The question then simply becomes: Is health care going to be a similar type of service that is a fundamental need of all people that most people cannot afford on their own?

We are heading that way. Today, according to CNN Money, 60% of bankruptcies are due to medical costs, and 80% of those people had health insurance. Health care costs continue to rise, so this will only get worse. Eventually we will have people in states of desperation willing to do anything to secure health care for themselves or loved ones. Will the chaos and cost of that desperation be more costly that providing some basic level of services? Almost certainly.