Someone's not a "co**sucker" merely because they disagree with you.
That's personally offensive.
It is also a juvenile position to assign a motivation of "wanting the government to baby you", which betrays a lack of investigation of the issue, and/or knowledge of history, just because you believe that healthcare is a critical enough issue, that it should be universally available to all citizens of a country.
Both are offensive. Both are soundbites, used in place of substantive discussion.
Before the advent of government oversight of medicine itself, about 100 years ago...
Those promoting the creation of the Food and Drug administration itself would, I suppose, have been labeled the same sort of "cocksuckers" and "babysitters" for anyone not wanting to address the real problems it was designed to solve.
Medicine, 100 years ago, was not regulated.
Entrepreneurs, the backbone of our economic prosperity to be sure, but also, very often, NOT paragons of morality and decency, would, in an effort to create wealth... for themselves, put just about anything, in a bottle and call it "medicine". The ingredients, not always readily available from a family farm or in a small community, sometimes, actually worked and relieved symtoms of their disorders and ailments, but other times, and far too often, it could KILL YOU. Arsenic was placed in "medicine" and other benign things like "Mercury". You may die that day, you may just get deathly ill and die months later, long after the traveling medicine man had moved onto the next town.
Our "evil" "babysitting" government became alarmed at the number of citizens getting ill and dying, from the complete free reign these businessmen had in putting "God knows what" in a bottle, and marketing it as a "cure all" with "proven benefits", etc...
Many lives have been saved, due to the evil government's strict regulations of not only "medicine" but our food and beverages as well. People died all the time, from how meat used to be processed alone. Government standards for these things, through the law, so they can be punished by law, have made our food supply and medicine supply, among the safest in the world.
Things can go too far, of course. Which is why being vigilant as citizens is important. But to tar and feather things like "government oversight" in such general terms, does a disservice to us all.
It's funny, how people will condemn how "absurd" reforming our healthcare system would be, and yet when someone wanted to sue the "evil" cigarette industry for false advertisment, supposedly resulting in deaths of millions, no one mocked that at all, when THAT was a worthy target for such mockery. Only a fool could believe that cigarettes would not be harmful to health, when it's number one side effect is hacking your lungs out. People have known for thousands of years that you can die from smoke inhalation, and here we are PURPOSEFULLY putting it into our bodies, but... "No FAIR!!!! I didn't know this was bad for me! I thought hacking my lungs out was a sign of health!!! SOMEONE PAY ME!!!!"
THAT is absurd.
It is NOT absurd however, that a COMMUNITY, which is ultimately what a tribe, city, state and country are, should insure that it's citizens have access to affordable care that can save their lives.
When people have to make decisions about whether to maintain a place to live for their children, or have a necessary operation for themselves, SOMETHING IS WRONG!
Because of how medical insurance is set up, HMO's and all the rest, people are literally FORCED to make unhealthy and even life threatening decisions every day in this country, between saving their health, or losing their homes and feeding their families.
A typical example is that you may have a set amount that once paid, you are good for the rest of the year, meaning, no more out of pocket payments if something else went wrong with you that year. This leads MANY people, who need operations SOONER, rather than later, to realize "Hmm... the doctor said I need this surgery right away, but it's only two and a half months to the end of the year, and if something else goes wrong with me, I would have to pay a large fee again, and in this economy, I just can't afford that. What if something WORSE happened to me, and I couldn't afford it? Whereas, if I wait for two and a half months to have this surgery, and have it in January, I will be covered for the WHOLE YEAR next year, without paying any more out of pocket. I better take my chances, and wait two and a half months to have the surgery!"
NO ONE should have to make that kind of decision, when they are supposed to be INSURED.
Since time began, citizens of COMMUNITIES have always given aid to their fellow tribe members, for the betterment of the tribe itself. They are part of the community, they help fight rival tribes, they produce for the betterment of the tribe... they are there for us, we will be there for them.
But in today's ISOLATION existence, we could live YEARS to a neighbor next door, that we never even bother to find out about or even introduce ourselves to. We are ISLANDS in the midst of crowded cities. No wonder crime is rampant and people have a selfish and self-serving attitude toward the health and even SAFETY of others.
You take care of you, and I'll take care of ME. PERIOD! Which is what leads to someone screaming for help while being murdered on their own doorstep in New York and NO ONE even calls 911.
When you don't "KNOW" someone, it is easier to victimize them, or let them be victimized by others.
It's their problem, not mine!
This is not about lazy "cocksuckers" or "people in need of babysitters"
It is about COMMUNITY, and the wholeness of our COMMUNITIES.
So much would improve...
If only we began to think of ourselves as COMMUNITIES again.
^ Without ^