Fact (NO CITATION, neener neener neener): In the US, a given number of people die because they are unable to afford the healthcare that would keep them alive. How large or small the number is a matter for debate, and unless you consider that number to be insignificant, is largely irrelevant to the question I’m asking.
How outrageous, or not outrageous, do you find the fact that some people are dying for lack of health care? Support your answer, please–not with CITATIONS from Wikipedia, but with your own views.
My own view is that given that the technology and facilities exist to keep many people from dying for medical reasons, it is abhorrent that such people are often denied access to it. To me, it’s no different than if you had to pay for fire protection, and if you couldn’t afford it, everyone would just stand around passively watching while your house burned down. (The fire trucks would come when you called, but in the meantime, the dispatcher would check to see if your protection payments were current, and if not, the trucks would just turn around. And feel free to port this analogy into any one of a number of possible arguments in favor of UHC, in that the real benefit of putting out the fire could be seen as the houses next door not burning down as a result.)
Now, the degree to which you do or do not feel this is wrong is pretty much tied to the way you feel about what kind of health care system we should have. If you feel that those who don’t work hard enough to earn the money to pay for health care should die as punishment (or, more accurately I suppose, live with an increased risk of death), well then, you favor the existing system. If you have *some * compassion for the disadvantaged and/or acknowledge that there are at least some individuals who are unable (as opposed to unwilling) to pay for medical care, then you favor the existing system combined with some kind of entitlement programs. If you say that because modern health care exists, in terms of it being a national asset and an asset of humanity, all should have access to it for that reason alone, then you favor UHC.