Flame — HabitableZone

Flame » in reply to A good argument can be made

Government health care
TB — (archived)

In America, there is already extensive State/Federal government health care for the poor. It's called Medicaid, and the Federal share on this alone comes to about $290 billion in 2010. There is already extensive government medical care for the elderly, Medicare, which in 2010 will spend $453 billion.

This does not count state care programs, private charity programs, donations by the medical industry, veteran health care, or anything else.

People talk like we have no government health insurance at all, when in fact in any given single year, the Federal spending on government health care for those who need it the most easily exceeds the total cost to date of the war in Iraq since it started in 2003.

I don't know where people get the idea that HHS programs like Medicare and Medicaid do not include extensive preventative care programs. I don't know where you live, Frank, but pick a subject (health education, immunization, screenings, whatever) and look around to see what the poor can get right now.

Here's one listing.

Here's the Medicaid main page. This is what the needy can get. Right now.

The entire foundational premise of this debate is, to put it as mildly as possible, not factual.

This debate is not about health care. It's about power. It's not about targeted programs to pick up people who are falling between the cracks. It's about taking a population and health care industry that is currently independent of the State, and correcting that "oversight."

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