Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[JoelR]

^ I am not particularly familiar with the Healthcare in the US. But no insurance does seem very difficult as it is, let alone in a pandemic. So...they are not covered at all? So this is horrible of course. You will obviously choose to go into debt to pay for healthcare bills or if you can't even do that...probably die. Inhumain!

But what you describe there when people have no insurance is just out of this world.

I wanted to take a moment to address the issue of insurance in the US.  

This is going to be an unpopular and potentially contentious argument, so please bear with me. 

It's nice to say that we should offer healthcare insurance for all.  It's nice to say that every life matters.  But the fact of the matter is that medical insurance, doctor visits, medical diagnoses, prescription medication, therapy, drugs, and even the front-office desk assistant who answers phones while painting her nails all cost money.  Real money.  

Who will pay for everyone's insurance?  Will you?  Will you pay for the neighbor down the street who fills her shopping cart with sugary drinks, fatty snacks, and whose idea of exercise is pressing buttons on her Netflix??  When does insurance cease being a stopgap and start shifting the moral, personal, and ethical burdens of taking care of yourself onto the rest of society?  Why is it my personal responsibility to pay for everyone's else insurance and poor lifestyle choices?     

I truly do believe in the underlying premise of healthcare insurance, where a group of healthy people pay into a pool to cover the one unhealthy person, so the cost is not exorbitantly high on the one person.  But I also believe that insurance is a benefit that is above and beyond normal living, and a voluntary paid benefit to protect what is arguably the most important component of your life: your health.  But I want to emphasize that insurance is not a God-given right, nor a constitutional right, nor any other right or privilege afforded to a US citizen.    

At the end of the day, my concern over 'healthcare for all' is the economic expense of all, which will end up rolling onto taxpaying citizens like myself. If you genuinely believe in healthcare for all, there is nothing - and I want to emphasize that point - stopping you from buying insurance for others.  Please, open up your wallets.  Buy insurance for others.  Cover all of the doctor visits for every US citizen.  That would be your choice and I would applaud your generosity for doing so.  But until you do that yourself, then I don't think it's fair to force me to open my wallet.