Heh, we are waaay off subject, but I'll carry on anyway. I am a Marine and have government provided healthcare. It's not that it's really bad, but that I have had bad experiences with it, and have no other options. I would much prefer to keep the money allotted for the system and purchase my own health coverage, but that is not an option for me or anyone else in the military.
I am not saying or advocating, "if you can't afford it, you don't deserve it" in any way, so please if that is what you have gotten from it, that is not the intent of what I said. I'd even go as far to say that I would support a government tax on companies that don't offer a sponsored health care plan for their employees (and, obviously if they do, they are exempt from the tax). So, let me clarify it:
Yes, it needs to be re-evaluated, but I'd be willing to bet that those in favor of it/pushing for it (federally socialized med) will do it in a way that takes near complete control of a citizens ability of choices/options of the service. And I have a problem paying that taxes for it.
I can only provide a generic example of people leeching off of it, and this is taking into consideration that there is ALWAYS *that* 'group or person' that takes advantage of it. I am originally from Texas. In Texas, there is a welfare program that provides people on welfare with a 'Lone Star Card'. This 'Lone Star Card' provides money in the form of a debit card to people on welfare. I have heard stories of people using it to pay for lunch when they take their friends out to restaurants, etc...so I did a little google search. Here is what I found:
http://lonestartimes.com/2007/04/06/...me-without-it/ Besides how digustingly descriptive the author was with how nasty the human being was physically, it shows just what happens when people are given too much leeway on a social service. No, not everyone who uses this card is using it incorrectly, or like said beast was, but it goes to show what happens when people are able to take advantage of such programs designed to help people get out of the financial hole they may be in. You'd bet that there will be people taking advantage of a similar health care system. Oh, surprisingly, that's a pretty recent article of this incident too. Here is what the card is actually supposed to be used for:
http://www.hhsc.state.tx.us/provider.../EBThowto.html
*EDIT*
I also just remembered I saw something in the news about cities in the U.S. that are paying for free sex changes for 'people who were born into the wrong sex, without choice', and cities that are moving towards getting tax funds to offer the same service. The whole morality/justification/idiocy of that as an idea or valid argument on why it should be funded by other citizens is a whole different debate, but the thing is....there's absolutely no freaking way I want my taxes to go paying for something like that, and I am quite certain that a lot of those...democrats that support and almost condone this type of activity, would be supportive of something like this integrated into the socialized health care system...that is pretty leech like. "Well, I can't afford it, but you should pay for it..."!?!?!? Convincing a country that we should pay for them to have these procedures. Not to mention all the people who will try to use their legal powers to 'get what they deserve' for misdiagnosis, etc... Yeah, it would be nice if people weren't so damn immature and grew up and everyone used the already implemented services properly, but it just isn't the case, and ultimately in my opinon, it'll only get worse with more systems being implemented.
