At a recent Health-Care town hall meeting sponsored by Maryland Senator Ben Cardin (D), things got a little testy. It seems one member of the audience wasn’t too keen on being forced to pay for health care because his salary was so low. He had this to offer:
“I decided not to get the health insurance. That’s working out for me because I’m able to save that extra money and give it to my family members and use it on myself. Senator Cardin, I want to know are you going to tell me an individual…that I have to buy health care or else you’re going to fine me $2,500 every year I don’t get it? Our founding fathers assured us we have a Bill of Rights and I want to see you uphold that . . .”
Senator Cardin’s response was basically that those who do not pay for health insurance will be fined. He tried to play this off like the person who asked the question was some leech on society. Sen. Cardin asked what would happen if you had to go to the emergency room because you got sick, who pays for that, he asks? Well, Sen. Cardin, not all of us our deadbeats. Some of us who don’t have health insurance go to the emergency room and then actually, you know, pay the bill. Indeed this very thing happened to me in law school. To assume that everyone is going to skip out on their bill just because they don’t have health insurance is plain arrogance. The fact of the matter is that all insurance is a gamble. If I’m in my 20s, and I don’t have a high paying job, I’m pretty healthy otherwise, I might very well decide to skip out on insurance if I think it is a reasonable risk to assume that I won’t have anything catastrophic happen to me. There are always clinics and low cost options for health-care, and we can talk about making those more available.
One of the primary issues I take with Obama’s health-care plan is that this kind of wealth transfer was never envisioned by the Constitution. The Bill of Rights guarantees that we should be able to live our lives relatively free from government interference. I should be free to live my life without health insurance and not receiving a $2,500 fine from the government if I so choose. I wonder if there are any valid Constitutional arguments to be made here. This is more then just an income tax, this is something entirely different. The founders never expected our federal government to go to this kind of extent or to wield this much power over it’s citizenry.
July 22nd, 2009 at 1:36 pm
[...] this choice anymore. It will essentially be illegal to not carry health insurance, and I will be fined thousands of dollars a year if I do what I’m currently doing. And the really galling part of this is I’m one of [...]
July 22nd, 2009 at 5:46 pm
It tends to make a lot of good people despondent and at the least susceptible, when they read, watch and listen to the maverick storm of media ads, thumping down President Obama’s health care initiative? Much of the rambling artifacts are the Simon and Lois ads of the Clinton administration, heavily armed against any revisions in this issue that wealthy insurance companies and subsidiaries won’t tolerate.
They insulted the senior citizens with their propaganda and bald faced lies about the European government run health care system. Being originally an Englishman myself, I guarantee in the 1960’s, we had a unique form of medical services, inclusive of eye and teeth. Even government run medical care in Australia was exceptional. It did plummet down somewhat, when business starting recruiting foreign labor from the commonwealth and Northern Europe. Many were out for a free financial ride and got it, along with their large families that British citizens have to support with their limited pounds sterling.
Just as the anti-governmental health care extremists have been pounding the airwaves, the open border, globalist is now subjecting the American people to a torrent of inflaming immigration polls. But like all polls they can be intentional manipulated, in exactly how the questions are worded? Sure they can keep their co-pays, deductibles and pre-existing small-print clauses, squeezing every penny from a hurting economy, but tell the–BLOODY TRUTH!
It’s a sad fact that you cannot trust the Liberal slant regarding this searing problem, although not all Liberals are favorable to another AMNESTY? The Democratic leadership, hiding liberal views behind closed drapes tried to annihilate any good, workable illegal immigration enforcement laws. In an earlier session of the Senate an error was made with E-Verify, so it’s was fortunate to survive Sen. Reid and Pelosi’s notion? Anything that has an impact on removing illegal immigrants is intercepted by business oriented free traders.
GOOGLE—illegal immigration–to find out their sinister intention, to just throw open the gates, ports and airline entrances to cheap labor, that also become the downfall of the European Union. the polling I have seen has been calculatedly –ENGINEERED–to get results, that they can brandish around, declaring the majority of Americans believe in a path to citizenship and open borders? Already the Democrats are ready to flag the Save Act, 287(g) local police enforcement to weaken these laws.
Currently both issues have heavy fallout, and you the voter should let your Senator or Representative know your opinion on either matter at 202-224-3121—BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE. Both have massive consequences in costs and quality of life in your future and generations to come.WE MUST SAY NO AMNESTY! SEAL OUR BORDERS AND NO MORE FREEBIES TO ILLEGAL ALIENS. THEY ARE THE CRIMINALS, NOT AMERICANS WHO SACRIFICE TAXES? GOOGLE–NUMBERSUSA for details our government and the media have a nefarious talent, for keeping facts under wraps?
July 22nd, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Deport all the illegal aliens immemdiately. Shut down the border immediately. Shut down the internationally flight. Only allow the domestic flight in the US.
July 22nd, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Sir,
Your obviously haven’t read your founding fathers. Jefferson in a letter to Adams, was proud of legislation that he introduced in Virginia that forbade the transfer of an estate to one descendant, it had to be split among all of them. He thereby rid Virginia of the idea of an aristocracy. Check out your history before you make blanket statements. Wealth transfer was very much on their minds.
July 22nd, 2009 at 8:17 pm
Also, read Thomas Paine’s Agrarian Justice, or just about it, it called for redistribution of wealth. Who more than Thomas Paine, was a founding father.
July 23rd, 2009 at 10:04 pm
Poll Still Finds Public Support for Health-Care Reform: While a majority of Americans still think health-care reform is needed now, some of that support has wavered slightly as Congress wrestles with the details of producing a reform package, according to the July Kaiser Health Tracking Poll. Fifty-six percent of Americans continue to believe that health reform is more important than ever, despite the country’s economic problems. And by a better than two-to-one margin (51 percent to 23 percent), Americans think the country would be better off if Congress and President Barack Obama enacted health reform, the poll found.
Aside from the savings created by the prevention and wellness program, medical IT, foreseeable potential stem cell effect, mental stress relief and massive job creation, ending subsidies for the private insurers and payment reform and so on could be enough to meet the goal of deficit-neutral.
Public school, public insurance policy, and public clean energy act are the natural parts of life in the free nations.
Thank You !
July 24th, 2009 at 6:19 am
[...] Health Care Town Hall Turns Angry: Obama Healthcare, You Pay or be … [...]
January 16th, 2010 at 4:45 pm
Health reform is our best bet for economic recovery, but not this bill. We need a single payer system.
January 21st, 2010 at 12:09 pm
Great idea for a post, health reform is seemingly dead.
February 3rd, 2010 at 2:57 pm
I worry about the Obama Healthcare Plan. Will it cause bad changes to my loved ones well being? Do the advances counterbalance the bad aspects?