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From: thinkprogress5
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  • It just ends up being cheaper.. Call it want you want.. its all about forcing the medicinal companies and hospitals to do collective bargaining with the people.. A libertarian would love a national Health "union".. These American "libertarians" are probably just using it as a badge.

  • Maybe Rand Paul is up-in-arms against the idea because it could means a smaller pay-check for him.

    OK, snarkiness aside, Canadian doctors are not obligated to take part in Medicare. Our country has private clinics and the government allows it. If physicians don't want to care for somebody, no communist police is going to put them behind bars (though their job is at risk).

  • @WheresPoochie but the citizens still pay for the public system whether or not they take part in it. This is welfare. Why is paying a doctor bill the responsibility of anyone other than the person who saw the doctor?

  • @jbthetrainer Universal health care is based on the principal that it is a citizen's duty to help ensure the health benefits of his/her neighbors.

    Is it perfect? Heck no. Is it mandatory charity? Well, you can think of it that way. You can call this socialist discourse many negatives things but you can't call it a selfish pursuit. Public opinion (though deterring) would tell you that the Canadian majority really don't mind helping others get treatment.

  • Rand Paul is not even fit to be the janitor of that clinic, let alone the physician.

  • I've never heard of such a thing happening in any country which has Universal Healthcare. This is really sad, because the USA is the only developed country which has no Universal Healthcare. If the government put the war money into healthcare, the USA would have the best healthcare in the world. Not only this, but the mess the USA has right now concerning healthcare and dodgy insurance companies is even more expensive than Universal Healthcare, it makes no sense that this madness doesn't stop.

  • AMERICANS KNOW NOTHING ABOUT SINGLE PAYER HEALTHCARE SO WHAT EVER AN AMERICAN SAYS SINGLE HEALTHCARE IS SOCIALISM IS COMPLETELY GROUNDLESS!!!!!! Most ameircans are brainwashed into biased american right wing conservative propaganda

  • @harrisonconstantinou Shouting won't solve this, lets have a reasonable discussion. We'll start with just 2 questions: 1. Does a doctor have the right to refuse to help someone who demands to be treated? 2. Do I have the right to decide that I want only to pay for my own medical expenses and not pay into a collective pool for everyone else?

  • Its funny people don't understand his point because they don't understand freedom or the philosophy of liberty and just to make this clear health care isn't "free" nothing is free someone is paying for it one way or another, and the UK healthcare system is going into bankruptcy

  • @jsbobo36 don't believe everything you watch on FOX everything that they said about the UK NHS was a lie and the people who they tricked into doing the interviews later came out saying that they were either misquoted or that FOX made what they said up.

  • Ron taught him well

    give him a couple years and he'll be a great candidate for president

  • Leave the country if you think you'd be a slave under UHC. Oh wait, every first world country in the world has socialized medicine except the US. Somalia has a place just for you!

  • @mikareler Do you really believe the healthcare industry doesn't benefit from the gigantic regulatory complex?

  • @FloMonKish The state of Kentucky.

  • @QuarkToo Thank the government for that.

  • @johnnypeps of course i would help. we just don't think if someone was dying at YOUR doorstep, and YOU said no, that men with guns should get sent to your home to put you in a cage.

  • Rights are something natural that you are innately born with just by being human. You have the right to own property, the right to sell or give what's yours, the right to use your abilities however you wish as long as it does not harm others. You have the right to live and seek the means to sustain that life. The right to do with your property what you wish as long as it does not harm others. Those are your rights, but to say you have a right to a doctor's help is absurd.

  • It's like listening to an adolescent Randroid.

  • Hey guys, I'm an Australian with a neutral look on the world's politics but to the left in my own and I'll say this about my countries Universal Healthcare system versus your current system, in my country no one dies because they cannot afford medical treatment, I'll say that again just in case it didn't sink in the first time, in my country no one dies because they cannot afford medical treatment.

  • @KaineTECH And the retard is you, you can't even talk about your thuggish history of theft, colonization, murder, and slavery and how you defended it and still do, all you can do is avoid talking about it and create some hogwash about "NEGATIVE comparator" just put whites as the labor and we'll see your tune change quick, there's the reason why they brought in slaves from Africa and exploited the Mestizo and that's because they know their own laziness.

  • @ZionismBitestheDust I don't *HAVE* a thuggish history of theft, colonization, murder or slavery. My family has never owned slaves, murdered, or oppressed anyone. Blaming me for something that happened generations ago and wasn't even perpetrated by my bloodline is ludicrous. Don't talk about things "I've" done just because I'm white, and I won't blame you for the bicycles, televisions and car stereos that go missing.

  • @KaineTECH You do have it because everything you have is a result of slavery, thuggish history, murder, and theft you weer born hundreds of years after it happened but you profited from it just the same and fell no shame profiting off of it, you're actually happy about it, feel superior because of it enough to dismiss it off hand. Those are things you are not just "done" a thug who dismisses the blood thirst and slavery that resulted in your things that you place value in, talking about it.

  • @KaineTECH Your thuggish history doesn't go away because you dismiss it, you are caught in your little white world and perspective, you are the most murderous people on the planet and you want to spit on people about a TV with your lies, your media is just white supremacy repeated back to you, you ignorant slavers don't know anything and drink the blood of the people you exploit then turn around with some high horse judgement of others, its catching up to you now and its funny.

  • @KaineTECH Another typical white thing to say, when a white excuses slavery "We're not excusing slaver", when a white praises their militant and thuggish culture "No we are peace lovers, we don't conquer we never gained anything from mass killings of people who's land we coveted, nope not us" The criminal doesn't admit to the crime and thus proves what? That they didn't commit the crime? No that they deny it, that's all.

  • really services that provide for the peoples welfare is slavery? doctors are paid to treat people, isnt it the best interest of our country to make sure the people have affordable healthcare and that we are healthy? and really how is a service paid for by tax payer dollars a form of slavery in which the doctors themselves are paid to do such services?

  • @evb4mvp what he means is just that, if health care is a right that means that it NEEDS to be granted to you. If health care is a right then it would be okay to FORCE a doctor to treat you against his will. Since it's wrong to FORCE a doctor to treat you against his will then health care can't be a right. That's all he is saying.

  • @FreedomFighter1131 slavery - a state in which a person is owned as property and forced to work. no one owns a doctor and no one forces them to become a doctor. doctors become doctors because they want to treat people and make sure theyre healthy. if you are provided it by the government its your job to call a doctor, any doctor of your choosing to seek treatment you need. they get payed by the government to treat people who request and/or need treatment, no one is forcing them to be there.

  • @evb4mvp okay u ignored my statement I simply showed how services are not rights. Anyway 2 questions: 1. Here does the government get the money to pay the doctors? and 2. Do you have a right to negotiate with your doctor without any third party involvement?

  • @FreedomFighter1131 i did answer your statement but anyway

    1-the same place it gets money to fund other programs, taxation.

    2-you have a right to choose your doctor. with a UHS system going to a doctor is free, no payments up front like our current system. eliminate the middle man or 3rd party, insurance companies, who jack up the prices to be able to see a doctor.

  • @evb4mvp if a doctor is getting paid by the government and the government is paying them by taking money from everyone else then there is no solitary interaction between you and your doctor because the government is already there as a third party paying the doctor on your behalf. This a. creates and incentive for doctors to use the lowest quality care at the highest prices and b. gives the government the incentive to create restrictions and rules and terms for you and your doctor to follow.

  • @FreedomFighter1131 who exactly says that you do not have solitary interaction between your doctor? there are laws specifically title 2 of the HIPAA which protect your privacy as a patient.

    do your have proof that government run healthcare tries to provide the lowest quality and highest price?

  • @evb4mvp when You need to go through the government for payment or insurance companies or when doctors need to check restictions on what they can perscribe then that is 3rd party involvement, thus no one on one between u and the doctor. government run health care is free from the law of compitition because it holds a monopoly. All monopolies by definition have an incentive to provide the lowest quality at the highest price because no one can undercut them or provide a better product.

  • @FreedomFighter1131 the reasons why there are restrictions on medicines is to make sure they are safe, that they will not cause you to OD and die. such regulations are made for patient and doctor safety. trying to profit on saving peoples is both unfair and just plain wrong. you are just making a statement about government healthcare being low quality, is there proof of such?

  • @evb4mvp That might be the intent behind the restrictions but all they do is prevent and slow the progress of medical science and restrict other very good treatments. You say profits from saving people is wrong, but what is really wrong is not profiting from using your abilities. Profits are what you earn through ability. A doctor deserves payment not just to earn a living but to get luxuries because of his abilities.

  • @FreedomFighter1131 can you explain why the US is ranked number 37 in the world in quality healthcare behind many nations who have successfully been using socialized systems? like with any job today government or private employees are always compensated for their work. in our prifit driven industry we see people who are dying since they cant afford basic healthcare where in other countries like canada or france or england they would get the same treatment and not have to worry about paying.

  • @evb4mvp in canada and england people are put on priority wait lists which can take months before they get seen or treated. The government has no buisness forcing everyone to get insurance when some people don't want insurance and it also has no buisness taking from everyone (most who have low health costs) and using it to pay everyone's medical bills. Especially when it has to borrow billions of dollars to cover the differance.

  • In our Nhs the doctors heal the sick, they are employed by the state at good wage and treat all those who appear at the A and E...

    Yoiur American system according to this... Creature R paul is backward and may i say it.. third world.. Give me money less i dont treat you..

    Americans stuck in the 17th C,,, LOL

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  • The simple fact that idiots like this, who's only concern is a lust and greed for wealth and power, and ensuring their pathetic confederate idiots can exercise a lust and greed for wealth and power regardless of consequences, are still being elected is both disgusting and frightening.

  • This is why, when I go to my job and my boss asks me to do an assignment, I reply, "Fuck you! I will not submit to slavery!" How dare doctors be handsomely paid to do their jobs?

  • @EhSteve11 To say that doctors are employees of the government is factually incorrect. That's why it's called "private practice"

  • LOL the CONservatives are payed millions of dollars by the health insurance corporations to make up horseshit like this.

  • @kayddle I know what he's saying. My original comment still stands.

  • LOL.. Is this guy a doctor? health worker?? Pity the poor sods who think he is able to tie his own shoes, wipe his own arse! The guy is mentally retarded.. Really makes me worry about this  so called "super power"

  • The draft is slavery.

  • @hbxcskier - In the U.S., no it isn't. The 13th amendment abolishes slavery and involuntary servitude. The Supreme Court ruled that compulsory military service is not involuntary servitude. It has to do with the intent of the law. Congress did not intend the draft to be involuntary servitude.

    "The intent of the legislators constitutes the law."

    US Supreme Court

    Steward vs Kahn 78 US 504

  • @B17Boy So Paul's comparison is just as invalid then.

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  • The hyperbolic rhetoric is getting out of control. "They're going to kick down my door in the middle of the night and drag me away to force me to treat you". What a fucking drama queen.

  • @2ndAsstJizzMopper ah, ok, insults when you don't agree - gotcha - typing slowly now for ya: "you're going to enslave me" (Slavery) compared to right to healthcare

    yeah, still an analogy to me

  • I live in the UK and our NHS costs the state half as much as the healthcare in the US, and it is free, and it is ranked higher by the World Health Organisation (UK = 18th, USA = 37th)

  • @Aviator9999 Because the governments involvement in our health care has made prices skyrocket and unaffordable...

  • @Aviator9999 nothing is free. someone has to pay for it. Just not you, right?

  • @Aviator9999 Have you used the NHS lately? I am glad I haven't, some of my relatives haven't been so lucky. Those numbers are probably skewed for the US as many people aren't insured - mostly due to their own choices. A major reason I will be leaving these not so happy lands is that I do not want to grow old relying on the NHS. It will no doubt be the death of me.

  • America has universal defence, universal policing, universal fire fighting, universal customs, universe post, but universal health care thats communist!!

    Seriously America the fuck?

  • The government has every right to take money out of your pocket and use it to put every child through school, and the government will do that to you forever. And there's nothing you can ever do about it, because lawmakers don't interpret the constitution as conservatively as they did when it was drafted, and they never will again, and I'm very glad about that. If you don't like it, maybe you should move to a Libertarian paradise like Haiti, where you'll really get a sense of a low-tax nation. :)

  • @2ndAsstJizzMopper I believe in rights not covered by the constitution.

  • @ShaelRiley Somalia, not Haiti. FTFY.

  • @rehsabthgir Do you think that high taxes to pay for Medicare, Medicaid, and social security is what seperates us from Somalia?

  • @EhSteve11 There's a fair number of things. That's not the point. ShaelRiley was looking for a 'free market' example. Somalia is a better one than Haiti.

  • @rehsabthgir Is a constant warzone truly a market?

  • @EhSteve11 It can be a very lucrative one, if you are in the right business.

  • rand paul doesn't seem very bright...

  • @2ndAsstJizzMopper well, are firefighters and school teachers slaves?

  • @2ndAsstJizzMopper so you didn't hear him? he said by having right people can come in and conscript him.

    which isn't exactly the case

  • @2ndAsstJizzMopper the right to free healthcare would mean that you would have right to beat his door with the police and use force to conscript him to help you. this is what he said and it's false

  • @jwbrown1969 Putting "you clear have no understanding" in your post makes neither you nor Rand any less of a kook. It is as simple as that.

  • @2ndAsstJizzMopper Thank you. That was an interesting collection of words. I have no idea what they are about, but they are interesting.

  • @2ndAsstJizzMopper So we have something in common.

    But I don't waste my time refuting obvious claptrap.

  • Holy shit. The guy is certifiably nuts...

  • @2ndAsstJizzMopper I didn't think "The aliens are watching us! Oh no, that policeman is a reptoid soldier! RUNNNNNNNNNNN!" needed refutation.

  • @2ndAsstJizzMopper The fuck are you talking about?

  • @unpopularchunk Parameters that wide actually invite more violations than any other perspective. Thats what I don't think you understand. The codification of laws and obligations to balance society, ensuring the highest degree of personal autonomy requires it. Otherwise, the only freedom you'll have is the freedom to starve to death on the side of a private-highway.

  • This guy is a fucking nutter. He also thinks his audience are idiots. The Right have taken over the craziness that used to be the forte of extreme left wingers.

  • @unpopularchunk Thats the essence of a democratic society. The establishment and implementation of codified laws and obligations that can widely be agreed upon by society. Fire-fighters, Police, teachers and even the DMV are all part of our established constitutional democracy. If you don't want to pay for fire fighters or cops, move to Somalia.

  • Commieforrent, if you presume the state owns everyone, move to the USSR.

    oh, that's right...

  • By the same reasoning, if you believe children have a right to an education, or citizens have a right to be protected by the police, you also believe in slavery. Derp.

  • @2ndAsstJizzMopper Do you really think the people he's referring to, that claim a "right to health care" etc, are actually going directly to him and demanding his services for free, with no 3rd party gov't involvement? OF COURSE there is a 3rd party! It's the people that want to fund & run the "universal health care" at taxpayer expense that Dr. Paul is arguing against here. What "two-party transaction" involving enslaved doctors are you talking about?

    "Ridiculous" (snicker snicker ha ha ha)

  • @2ndAsstJizzMopper Did you read the highly acclaimed academic work of philosophy by a Harvard professor that argues in favor of that "silly myth"? (Anarchy, State, and Utopia by Nozick) I'm sure you worked out a thorough and logically rigorous refutation of that argument before deciding it was a "silly myth."

  • @2ndAsstJizzMopper I'm not saying he's right because he's from Harvard, I'm saying he's right because I am convinced by his argument, a summary of which I linked to. My point about authority was that if it were just a "silly myth" then it wouldn't have taken an entire philosophical monograph to argue it--or if it had, then it would have been torn apart in review. If it were really a "silly myth" then you could provide a simple and logical refutation of it here. Not holding my breath.

  • @2ndAsstJizzMopper So you are arguing for anarchism as against minarchism, then?

  • I wish Rand Paul would say the same thing about education.

  • Rand Paul=Corn Pone Nazi=Inbreeding run amok!!

  • I wish people thought of health-care as a right! Rights generally mean a check on coercive power. People consider the "right" to free speech as a guard against thugs keeping you from doing something. If health-care was a right like that of free speech then people could do what they wanted without the consent of rich people who win popularity contests (e.g. limiting your health related liabilities with people from other states, or choosing not to pay for hairloss coverage).

  • @3MARSAURELIUS : two decades.

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  • @tooltalk So, Paul is against getting paid for medical services if the check comes from the govt? It isn't the middle class and above only who use Medicare. So, why isn't he willing to provide "charity care" to those on Medicare? To him, it should matter whether it goes broke or not. He'll provide services for free, right, because he cares about people? At what point does a person because racist for being againt Obama? A racist comment is a racist comment-regardless of who you are for/against...

  • @tooltalk Well, he can't stop paying income tax if he is strictly a constitutionalist...if he refuses medicare payments, he only hurts the patients-not the govt.

  • @tooltalk How does he NOT benefit from roads and highways? Of course with his income from being a doctor and being in congress, he probably won't use SS or Medicare, but that doesn't mean since he's not using it, no one should be able to use it. No one will go to jail for NOT paying for any of those things. If so, all the unemployed would be arrested. I don't care if someone opposes or supports a war. That's what they do. I don't believe we are safer from the war in Iraq....

  • @rpierre777 : eh?

    Honey, not all roads and highways are funded by the federal gov't. In fact, most of our taxes don't go paying for highways, bridges, police, fireman or schools (the latter three usually belong to the state/city) - over 3/4 of all federal gov't spending ends in some form of warfare and welfare programs. So cut your BS with highway (or police or firemen).

    "No one will go to jail for NOT paying for any of those things" - every year, approx 300 people get indicted on tax

  • 3~@mickeysears Everything else in the Patriot Act expired. So, how was it "beefed up"? Open Borders has always been the "American Way". "Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free" is on the Statue of Liberty as an open call to foreigners. Gitmo is still open due to Republican opposition-not Obama policy. Remember how he wanted to close the base and hold trials in NY for the inmates?

  • 2~@mickeysears As far at wiretapping and the Patriot Act, these are the things he supports (these are from the Patriot Act):

    1) Authorize court-approved roving wiretaps that permit surveillance on multiple phones.

    2) Allow court-approved seizure of records and property in anti-terrorism operations.

    3) Permit surveillance against a so-called lone wolf, a non-U.S. citizen engaged in terrorism who may not be part of a recognized terrorist group.

    "Court approved" means warrant issued.

  • 1~@mickeysears The Tea Party pushing for less spending???? What exactly are they pushing to spend less on? They want smaller govt. What specific aspect of govt are they pushing to end? Contined expaned wars??? Obama ended military campaigns in Iraq.

  • @rpierre777 : well, you are demagoguing the issue here: there are now about 100K private contractors running the show - Bush' policy once liberal democrats riled viciously. Now that Obama is doing it, liberals pretend that it's no longer a problem. Go listen to Jeremy Scahill, okie?

  • 1~@tooltalk How? 1) I posed a question about the Tea Party and their intensions, 2) I pointed out the facts of the Patriot Act as it relates to Obama and warrantless wiretapping, 3) I pointed out how "Open Borders" has been the "American Way" since this country's founding and it NOT just an Bush/Obama policy, and 4) I pointed out why Gitmo is still open. So, how exactly did I "demogogue" the issue? So, it's Obama's fault the Republican's refused to close Gitmo? Obama only authorized court....

  • @rpierre777 : eh? You are all over the place - you are not answering the points I raised. How is replacing the troops in Iraq with private contractors any better? Likewise Obama's defense budget has been going up, not down. 1) honey, the tp was pretty clear where and what they wanted to cut, after all, this mvt was born in 2007 in response to Bush's warfare and corporate welfare politics. The mvt re-emerged again as a populist mvt against the gov't bailout of the banks, a policy

  • 1~@tooltalk Whether it's better or not is debatable. It just depends on how you feel about private contractors (to each its own). If this country is so concerned about being attacked, why would they want to decrease defense spending? That's like being concerned you're gonna run out of gas on a 100 mile trip, but only set aside enough money for a quarter tank of gas (then wonder why you ran out). Duh!!! Put more money in defending yourself and you won't to be as concerned with possible threats.