Here's the thing in the US. If you work hard, you might be able to get a decent paying job that helps provide health insurance. The average level of insurance has dropped dramatically over the years though.

I work for one of the top 4 big banks here and have what is considered top notch benefits, yet my health insurance deductible is $3k/year and my out of pocket maximum is $6k/year. The average newer meds are $75/mo. I take 8 different meds daily.

My point is, that even if you are not poor or on SSDI, the cost of medical care here will put you in the poor house at the very least, and it may even mean you that you don't seek help when needed or take meds when rx'd to save money which in the long run makes your health worse. Chances are that you'll end up on SSDI thereby adding to the national debt. However, if we had universal healthcare, that would not be as likely to happen leaving you to remain a productive, tax-paying member of society.

It's simple mathematics that everyone seems to be dancing around.

Healthcare should be a right but unfortunately... Maybe this November when we vote we can begin to rectify this situation. I'm tired of paying higher premiums for insurance because peoploe don't have coverage. We are the best country in the world yet our children and our elderly can't see a doctor.

I'm Canadian and it's a right from the time you're in your mother's womb..
I really feel for my American friends... I never knew how bad it was until I came to DS..
I wish they'd stop the damned space program and put the bucks into medical coverage.. How many times do people have to go to the friggen moon...x

For another thing, my company only makes me pay $5. for my insurance. However, for anyone adding the family plan to include a spouse or even just one child, they take 380.00 every two weeks out of their checks. seriously???? Like most of the employees who have to do this barely have money left for gas to go to work to make more money, to pay the insurance costs, much less rent or food. National health care would be much better in the US, just my opinion.

I should not complain, I am on SSD and through medicare I have extremely decent coverage. My $50,000 surgery bill was knocked down to $645. However, I only get $782 a month to live on, so where the hell am I supposed to get $645???

I'm with Cammiecat..
If you live in the U.S. ...and believe it should be a right..VOTE.

On the other hand..if you believe it should be a privilege..
...please don't..:-) :-) :-)

Hugs...jc

I'll be controversial and say it is a privilege but I hope people will hear me out as to why and where it leads to.

If you look at the declaration of human rights it's not there. There are rights to education, work and other things but I didn't see healthcare.

I'm in the UK, part of the NHS. I regard it as a privilege.

However, I reflect I have paid for this. Those that are unwaged may not have directly paid but their spouse, siblings, parents or children have.

The privilege part is that my forbears in relative recent history set up the NHS in 1948 - pulled all the previously private doctors (some kicking and screaming) into the system. Sure I pay but I recognise all the efforts made to argue for it's set up, all the bureacrats, nurses and doctors that make the thing work.

given the enormity of wealth generated by modern industrial & technological economies, i believehealth care has passed from the point where it is a previlege to the point that it should be a right - after all, with the amount of money in the world today we CAN afford to insure everybody - and feed everybody, & house everybody, & educate everybody. to not do so - to continue to treat these things as privileges of the more wealthy, is simply unfair.

I was thinking globally. You can argue it's a privilege to live in the 1st world, not a right.

Think global
Act local
Talk pirate

Ay, Matey..
Point taken..
It's a privilege that should be extended to all..
If we want to maintain our status as a 1st world country.
Aaargh.....jc

We have always purchased our own health insurance as we are self-employed. There's a reason our daughters are 1.5 years apart -- full maternity coverage is spendy. We carry a fairly high deductible because, quite frankly, we don't believe every sniffle should be paid for by somebody else.

We are extremely demanding of the healthcare provided by the medical field and yet we are pretty complacent when it comes to our own personal healthcare (diet, exercise, lifestyle habits.)

So, is heathcare a right or a privilege? I think both.

I sort of get what Pirate is saying, the problem is that the people who need care the most usually can't work and pay into the system.

That's the irony of it all. The homeless schizophrenics or people with severe disabilities- what are they going to do if they can't pay in? We should just toss them on the heap?

I don't know if I technically regard it as a right (although I worked at a Free clinic where that was their slogan) but it's a compassionate obligation that we have as a society. I mean, children don't pay into the school system but we have to educate them and all that. There has to be a concept of the greater good of society, not just the individual. Everyone is part of a larger group; in the US, we tend to be very individualistic and say "you're on your own, pal", which is pretty fucked up when you're talking about kids, disabled people and the elderly.

also if I may soapbox a little more, when a country fails to invest in infrastructure for a higher quality of life, when people become really harshly divided into haves and have-nots you no longer are a first-world country.

To me, that's the definition of a first world country= a higher average standard of living due to a good infrastructure. And infrastructures cost money.

Basic healthcare and preventative care should be a basic Civil Right.

Silly things like puffing your lips or enlarging certain places on your body is fluff.

I'm basically of CammieCat's overall position.

of course there already is that BS in the current medical system.

i can get a Rx for Viagra thru my insurance easy - but God forbid that a woman might need some health care!