Quote:
Originally Posted by TheMercenary
Medicare is for old people, Medicaid is for poor people.
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Well, that's one way of looking at it. Actually, some, but not all, poor people get Medicaid. Most poor people get Medicare. Some, but not all, elderly get Medicaid. Almost everyone over 65 gets Medicare. So, it is Medicare, NOT Medicaid which is the constant.
But what interests me goes beyond the difference in Medicare vs. Medicaid. What interests me most is those 47 million Americans with no health insurance at all, even "-caid" or "-care."
I mentioned that those with no insurance at all must resort to a very expensive hospital ER visit. In many cases, the law requires the hospital to treat, at a high cost, whomever darkens the hospital ER's door. Well, should these laws be changed? Taxpayers and/or private health insurance consumers are the ones paying for these costs.
Do we, as a people, write off 47 million fellow Americans? If so, why? Is it a matter of eugenics and/ or xenophobia? Is it a matter of the bottom line and what we will and won't tolerate as a society? Do we figure that the people who get treated in an ER are either illegal immigrants, or homeless alcoholics, or poor white trash trying to beat the system? Where are the statistics on THAT?
Are we willing to throw 47 million people to the dogs in our cities and towns with no medical care, what-so-ever? Some of those people would die. Let's get real. We kill convicted murderers. Shall we also kill wetbacks for daring to transgress, the old man who DOESN'T have Medicaid, the young mother of two trying to escape an abusive situation, the Afro-American "welfare queen" PLUS her children, the white trash drunk passed out on a park bench, etc., etc.?
In a different thread, RK mentioned the HUNDREDS of billions that Congress is planning to appropriate to Defence Department. A large percentage of this will go to conducting our current wars, where both enemy soldier AND civilian will be killed. WE are willing to spend billions killing others in the name of the defense of the United States. How do we best spend our money defending ourselves at home?
THAT is my question. AS a society, how shall we determine who lives and who dies and for what end?