Posted by
The Hermit Crab on Friday, July 24, 2009 11:43:49 AM
With the American health-care system of today (which is not broken, or over 80% of Americans wouldn't tell pollsters that they're satisfied with their own health care), if you get a diagnosis you don't like from one doctor, you can get a second opinion. If you get payment for a procedure partially or wholly refused by a health insurer, you can pay for the procedure yourself, or try to raise funds to cover the costs. Civic organizations like the Knights of Columbus, the Rotary Club, the Kiwanis Club, and multitudinous other organizations regularly raise money to help people with large or unexpected medical bills. Also, rich philanthopists sometimes pay for the health care of others. I remember the rich men who paid for artificial hands for men who had had their hands chopped off by Saddam Hussein's torturers. I thought it was a wonderful end to a tragic story.
As I understand the government hostile takeover of the health system, such practices would not be allowed, as they would be considered a waste of health care "resources". What kind of cold-heartedness can give birth to a plan that refuses treatment to a sufferer, or that refuses to allow good-hearted people to help those in need by if effect rendering it illegal?