Quote Originally Posted by thebigspendur View Post
You want a can of worms here?

it's easy to say the Govt should butt out of our lives until you wake up at 3AM with a crushing pain in your chest and you are rushed to the Hospital and you have no insurance. Should the hospital demand up front payment or say go out and die on the street? Why should the hospital be required by law to treat you if you can't pay ain't that Govt intrusion on free enterprise? I mean while you're laying outside the hospital your wife could go begging on the street.

What happens when the economy tanks and there is a run on the banks like in 1929 (no regulations then) and people are homeless and starving on the streets?

Or when the Tornado comes through your town and destroys everything and the folks are complaining cause the Govt doesn't act fast enough or not at all.

Or maybe when the sludge pond the coal company has been accumulating for 100 years breaks and sends a torrent of poisonous fluid down the valley killing hundreds and causing hundreds of millions in damage?

We could go on and on here.
I think maybe you misunderstood me...

Here in Canada, we pay higher taxes, but we do have a health care system that I'm happy to pay for. I've been at that hospital entrance at 3 AM, been admitted, gone through 3 major surgeries and probably have logged a lot more hospital and intensive care days than most. If I had to pay for that out of pocket, I would be living in a cardboard box right now, if I would even be alive.

The point of my OP was to just have a discussion. Personally, I believe government should, nay, has an obligation to administer health care for its citizens. I know, there's room for abuse, but overall its better than the alternative.

The tornado issue is a bit different. yes, I would expect that in cases of emergency our government would help so that I don't have to sleep on the street through no fault of my own, but after that, its up to me to rebuild.