# Terrorist, victims and health care **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 30, 2013, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrorist-victims-and-health-care/657083 "2013-04-30T09:30:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrorist-victims-and-health-care/657083/1 "2013-04-30T09:30:40Z")
Don’t we live in a great country. Terrorists get unlimited health care, while his victims are at the mercy of charitable donations. Oh, I should say _ **accused** _ terrorist and _ **actual** _ victims. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Kumquat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gary\_Kumquat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Kumquat)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrorist-victims-and-health-care/657083/2 "2013-04-30T10:00:43Z")
Help me to get behind this OP. Is your complaint that: 1. America doesn’t have universal healthcare, or 2. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is receiving healthcare while he is under arrest? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrorist-victims-and-health-care/657083/3 "2013-04-30T10:13:55Z")
What don’t you understand? My complaint is that an accused terrorist gets free healthcare, but his victims are at the mercy of charitable donations. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrorist-victims-and-health-care/657083/4 "2013-04-30T10:15:21Z")
So, #1, then? ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Kumquat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gary\_Kumquat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Kumquat)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrorist-victims-and-health-care/657083/5 "2013-04-30T10:27:49Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > So, #1, then? Think so. Hopefully he’ll clarify. ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrorist-victims-and-health-care/657083/6 "2013-04-30T10:37:03Z")
What’s not to understand!?!?!? It’s a _pill_ . . . that gives _worms_ . . . to _ex-girlfriends_. You just don’t get it here!!! ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrorist-victims-and-health-care/657083/7 "2013-04-30T11:25:22Z")
We give healthcare to people in custody because they can’t go get it for themselves. We don’t give healthcare to other people because…well, there are dozens of existing threads about that. Clearly the answer is to arrest the victims. Problem solved! ---
**Author:** ![Condescending\_Robot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a183cd/32.png) [@Condescending\_Robot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Condescending_Robot)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrorist-victims-and-health-care/657083/8 "2013-04-30T11:37:14Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Don’t we live in a great country. Terrorists get unlimited health care, while his victims are at the mercy of charitable donations. > > Oh, I should say _ **accused** _ terrorist and _ **actual** _ victims. The total amount of tax-derived government money spent on Medicaid, a program which does nothing but pay for health care for those who cannot afford it, will approach $600 billion this year. If you consider that so insignificant as to continue propagating the “we don’t provide health care to the poor” talking point, I will be happy to accept a check for $600 billion from you to prove how meaningless an amount it is. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrorist-victims-and-health-care/657083/9 "2013-04-30T12:00:10Z")
So let’s say I get my legs blown off and end up with a $2 million medical bill… I’ll just apply for Medicaid and they’ll take care of it, then? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrorist-victims-and-health-care/657083/10 "2013-04-30T12:07:10Z")
> [@Condescending\_Robot](#): > > The total amount of tax-derived government money spent on Medicaid, a program which does nothing but pay for health care for those who cannot afford it, will approach $600 billion this year. If you consider that so insignificant as to continue propagating the “we don’t provide health care to the poor” talking point, I will be happy to accept a check for $600 billion from you to prove how meaningless an amount it is. And yet, Medicaid does not cover tens of million of poor people in this country. The working poor do not have access to it, only the completely indigent. Very often, kids will be covered but not their parents because, I guess, adults don’t get sick or injured. :rolleyes: On top of that even if you have insurance a major illness or accident can still bankrupt you with just the co-pays. It’s _obscene_ that this country doesn’t care enough about its citizens to do what every other civilized nation in the world does - make sure they get the medical care they need. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Kumquat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gary\_Kumquat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Kumquat)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrorist-victims-and-health-care/657083/11 "2013-04-30T12:37:15Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > It’s _obscene_ that this country doesn’t care enough about its citizens to do what every other civilized nation in the world does - make sure they get the medical care they need. Nah, that’s not obscene. It’s just contemptible. What’s obscene is that, according to Condescending’s figures above, you actually spend enough on Medicaid that, scaling up by population, Britain’s NHS would cost to provide full healthcare to every person in the country. Now that’s some truly dark shit, right there. You’re paying enough already to provide proper healthcare, it’s just that a large percentage of the US population are opposed to it on principle. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrorist-victims-and-health-care/657083/12 "2013-04-30T13:03:38Z")
Another obscene thing is that many healthcare policies exclude acts of war or terror - meaning they’ll cover you if get a leg chopped off in a car accident but if you were at the Boston Marathon finish line when you lost a limb you’re shit out of luck, you aren’t covered for that _at all_. What good is insurance that isn’t there when you need it? I will note some policies would cover that, but how ridiculous! A person harmed in a terror attack is in just as much need as someone harmed in a traffic accident. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrorist-victims-and-health-care/657083/13 "2013-04-30T13:09:55Z")
Even people nominally covered by Medicaid or Medicare may have trouble actually getting care, because fewer physicians accept new, or any, such patients every year. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrorist-victims-and-health-care/657083/14 "2013-04-30T13:17:53Z")
Fight my extreme ignorance on this. Isn’t this exactly the kind of problem that ObamaCare was supposed to fix? ---
**Author:** ![mske](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ccd318/32.png) [@mske](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mske)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrorist-victims-and-health-care/657083/15 "2013-04-30T13:21:20Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > What don’t you understand? My complaint is that an accused terrorist gets free healthcare, but his victims are at the mercy of charitable donations. Not only that - he’s likely to get free housing for the rest of his life. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrorist-victims-and-health-care/657083/16 "2013-04-30T13:47:05Z")
> [@bienville](#): > > What’s not to understand!?!?!? It’s a _pill_ . . . that gives _worms_ . . . to _ex-girlfriends_. You just don’t get it here!!! Well, great. Thanks for stopping by. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrorist-victims-and-health-care/657083/17 "2013-04-30T14:10:08Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Another obscene thing is that many healthcare policies exclude acts of war or terror - meaning they’ll cover you if get a leg chopped off in a car accident but if you were at the Boston Marathon finish line when you lost a limb you’re shit out of luck, you aren’t covered for that _at all_. What good is insurance that isn’t there when you need it? I will note some policies would cover that, but how ridiculous! A person harmed in a terror attack is in just as much need as someone harmed in a traffic accident. Sounds like you shouldn’t buy that kind of insurance if you don’t like it, and pay more for the kind that gives you the additional coverage you are looking for. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrorist-victims-and-health-care/657083/18 "2013-04-30T14:13:19Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Sounds like you shouldn’t buy that kind of insurance if you don’t like it, and pay more for the kind that gives you the additional coverage you are looking for. Is this a joke? Just “pay more”? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrorist-victims-and-health-care/657083/19 "2013-04-30T14:17:36Z")
No, he is clearly serious. It’s just another example of the deep ignorance the average person has about these issues. “Just pay more” isn’t always an option. At a certain point you have to pay for your housing and food as well as your insurance. The average policy does not cover those circumstances, and those that do are MUCH more expensive, not just a little expensive. Good luck even finding one if you’re unfortunate enough to be shopping in the individual market. On top of that - MOST people in the US, in fact, _have no choice_. Their EMPLOYER choose their health insurance, they do not. You get what your employer gives you, that’s it. How ludicrous that people actually think this is a “choice” for the vast majority of Americans. ---
**Author:** ![Condescending\_Robot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a183cd/32.png) [@Condescending\_Robot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Condescending_Robot)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrorist-victims-and-health-care/657083/20 "2013-04-30T14:35:53Z")
I don’t know if you’ve ever had a job or not, but when I worked for a corporation I could choose from three different levels of insurance that each had a different balance between premiums and deductibles, or I could opt out and purchase (or not purchase) insurance on my own. I am now self-employed and purchase insurance directly for myself. Obamacare will make “not purchasing” illegal, but it leaves the several remaining choices on the table, as well as increasing funding for health care for those who cannot afford insurance. I take no particular position on the wisdom of our current levels and strategies of funding, but I do object to people not being fact-based in their positions, and the idea that we are leaving people to die in the street out of the stinginess of others is simply not accurate. Subtracting the figure for health research and development, which benefits everyone, the amount of federal money spent across all programs devoted solely to paying for the health care of the poor is well over a trillion dollars, and that DOESN’T include most of the budget for Medicaid which is largely funded at the state level. Taken in aggregate, we spend two tax dollars on indigent health care for every dollar spent on defense; it would still be the largest govenrment expenditure even if you cut it to half of its existing level. > **[US Health Care Budget: US Federal Budget FY10 Estimated Spending Breakdown -...](https://www.usgovernmentspending.com/health_care_budget_2010_1.html)** > > Breakdown of estimated spending by function for 2009 to 2014 and pie chart for 2014 from federal budget. Data from OMB Historical Tables. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terrorist-victims-and-health-care/657083.md?page=2)