Saturday, August 15, 2009

How to pay for health care

The more I hear people lament that any kind of health care reform is tantamount to socialism, the more it irks me to know that these same people will vehemently defend a corporation’s right to deduct expenses from their taxes. If Scroodapeep, Inc. decides that it needs 12 forklifts to operate its warehouse in New York, they get to write off half that cost as a business expense. That means that half that money, they do not pay taxes on. All because they have to have those forklifts in order to make their business run. Well, folks, I have to have a clothes to wear so that I may work. I also have to have a car in order to get to work. I have to have a license to drive that car. I also have to have gas, maintenance, safety and emissions inspections, registration and insurance in order to drive that car, to get me to work, so that I may earn a living. I cannot write off any of these expenses. That same corporation, if it chooses to supply health insurance to its employees, can write off that expense as well. If I, as a private citizen, have to provide my own health care, I cannot write off any of it. Why are we, the people, subsidizing large corporations in this way? I say, if your company needs a forklift (or 20) to operate, then maybe you should pay for them in full. If this means that you cannot make a profit, perhaps you do NOT actually need that forklift. Or any other piece of equipment, for that matter. It is seriously far less my job to buy your forklift than it is yours to help make sure I don’t have some communicable disease.
It is also funny to me that some of the same folks who will argue against a national health care plan on the basis that it will ration care, or that you will wait months for needed procedures, will also argue that ANYONE can go to an emergency room, regardless of their ability to pay, and wait months for needed procedures. Apparently this is a far more palatable solution.
A lot of these same folks will also argue that government run insurance will ration care. Apparently none of these guys has been sick lately. Sure, if you have insurance now, you can choose any doctor you want to. As long as he/she is on the approved list. You can have any procedure you need done. As long as you have met your exorbitant deductible and that procedure is on the approved list.
I seriously don’t have argument against those who believe that people who can afford health care deserve to be healthy while those who can’t don’t. I think that has something to do with being a sociopath. Fascist? Same thing?

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