But this here blog, well it's like a private conversation...which you, gentle reader, are welcome to walk away from.
So I'd just like to say that I sure hope the Supreme Court strikes down the Affordable Care Act tomorrow. Because it sure has been aggravating to not pay any co-pays when I take my kids in for well-child checks. And I think it is despicable that kids in this country with pre-existing conditions can get health care. I mean, that just should not happen in this day and age. And we were warned about what would happen with this nonsense. I called to make my kid a doctor's appointment the other day and I had to wait a whole week and a half to have her seen! They might have said they could see her same day if she were actually sick and didn't just need a well-child check, but I'm ready to be done with all this health-care rationing. That has gotta be unConstitutional!
Sigh.
But now in all seriousness. We all know that hospitals are required by law (Constitutional!) to treat you if you show up in need of treatment. They have to. They can not say no. It doesn't matter if you march in announcing "I am uninsured and don't plan to pay you a dime ever!" If you are in labor, or in need of medical treatment, they have to treat you. But the government can't make you have insurance right? (Constitutional?...UnConstitutional?...tomorrow will tell...for now.) So who do you suppose pays for the folks who, whether by personal choice or not, don't have insurance and show up at the hospital doors? That, my friends, would be you. And me. And everyone else who DOES have insurance and pays taxes etc. It seems only logical that if we can't require people to have insurance then we can't require hospitals to treat you if you don't have any way to pay them. Right? "Sorry that your dear dad is having a heart attack. Please stay outside on the sidewalk. We only treat insured patients here. Thank you." Or maybe little Timmy is bleeding from a head wound from the car wreck you just got in (you know, while driving your car, which you are required by law to insure). Quick! Pull up a youtube how-to video and stitch the poor little guy up!
Maybe that doesn't sit quite right with you. Maybe a person's a person no matter how small (or rich, or poor, or uninsured). Maybe people deserve to have medical treatment because they are members of this human race with us (and some are winning that race and some are not). Maybe it isn't little Timmy's fault he was born with a genetic condition that is going to make his entire life much harder than mine or yours. Why should he get to have insurance? And when he doesn't have insurance (because no one will take him), why should a hospital have to treat him? We know he can't pay. Which means you and I are gonna have to pick up the costs one way or another. And he ain't my kid. So it ain't my problem. Because I've got insurance. Thanks to my job (which I hope I still have tomorrow). And I shouldn't have to pay for sick people that can't bother to insure themselves (because I'm healthy...today).
Because America is not a country for the weak. Literally. We don't want you.
And maybe someone once said to give us your tired and poor. But we're done with them now. And the wretched refuse of your teeming shore? - shudder -
(And please...I paid good money to sit through a semester of Con Law so I am quite aware of what is in the Constitution and what isn't...whether this is ruled Constitutional or unConstitutional tomorrow has nothing to do with what the Constitution does or does not say.)
And now that I am writing to an empty room I shall bid myself adieu.
