Health care should not be free for Children or Adults

Perhaps you read too much into my suggestion that the Gov't should not be providing health care to any child whose parents are capable of getting a job. What was meant by that comment was that unless a child's parents are disabled and incapable of earning an income then I believe the child should not qualify for S-chip. I can speak to this issue very clearly because I personally do not have health insurance, I am not well off, my income is actually below poverty level, However, I am still taxed at 26% and any health care I get I pay out of my own pocket. If I was to have children, it is my responsibility to take care of them, not the government. Some have said thats not a lot compared to other countries. But if I wanted to be taxed at 45% I would have lived in france or Norway, not the land of the free and the home of the brave. "As a result there are millions of American parents who are not educated but that work 3-4 part time jobs for low wages, who are not covered by company health care plans." Living in Los Angeles and working with the Urban poor I can tell you that this is the situation for many people is true. But you have not answered the question as to why this means they should be offered free health care. I encourage you to drive through the projects in Watts or Compton and you will see many of the people who would take advantage of the free health care. But you will not find people who are impoverished, this I can tell you from experience. You will see nice cars parked in the driveway, satellite TV in the home, and people who are really capable of working a job and earning good money and some do, but they really don't want to work. They really don't want to parent their kids. I spent four years working in inner city impoverished Los Angeles and in the Los Angeles county jail and I can tell you this issue is not as simple as give them free health care and they will be okay. You are addressing years of a poverty mindset and even if they were capable of working a job, they most likely would not. Did you know that in the projects the average work week for a male is 26 hours and a little above 30 for a female. Blame is the name of the game my friend. Go to the poor and watch so many collect the welfare check or take their kid to the emergency room and not pay for it. If you want to talk about what drives up health insurance premiums look at the loss of profit each emergency takes every month from non-paying patients. "Defense is a holy grail for conservatives, but perhaps it is time that we seek ways to avoid paying exorbitant fees for military contracts and require spending oversight for defense" I don't understand the relevance of defense spending to health care but I suppose it is great straw man for why we shouldn't cut the ridiculous expenditures of Schip. While you have made a good point about defense spending you totally dodged the issue of health care. I suppose if we were debating defense spending or whether or not conservative or liberals were better then this would be a great point. Defense spending is not what causes the issue of a poverty mindset nor is it a reason to spend more money in other areas. On top of it, these "children of the poor" are in some cases families who make a combined household income over 60,000 dollars according to the most recent SCHIP legislation. Maybe we ought to free up people to pay for health care by cutting their taxes. There is the school of thought that says the government can spend your money better than you can but I just don't see that as the case when it comes to matters of health care. "In health care facilities where medicaid and welfare cases are the norm, you consistently find a lower standard of customer service and increased wait times." This statement in of itself demonstrates an utter detachment from reality. 25% of the country pays the majority of the taxes. Essentially, people who are getting Medicaid are getting health care other people have paid for. You get what you pay for. When you force people to provide service at a very low price you get very low quality. In regards to the VA hospitals, my grandfather is a veteran whom I have taken to the doctor many times at the VA hospital and he has always been treated very well. I don't know if you ever actually been to a VA hospital, but my experiences at them in Oregon and California and now Colorado has been very good. "I would much prefer that my Government facilitate that expenditure then faith based organizations, based purely on the consistently failure of those organizations to provide true, tangible benefit to those truly in need." Notice that I did not only say faith based organizations but I also included non-religious humanitarian groups. The reason for my saying this has nothig to do with my personal convictions but more to do with the fact that if any organization or company spent money like the federal government they would be bankrupt and their CEO arrested. Show me a company that works with a 400 billion plus deficit. People need care no doubt, and there are those who are authentically in need. The government lacks accountability in their expenditures while NGO's (non government organizations)HAVE TO MEET THEIR BOTTOM LINE EVERY MONTH! If you really want to argue that the federal gov't does a better job then NGO's consider the hurricane Katrina episode. While FEMA twiddled their thumbs churches and NGO's poured out their wallets by the millions on a shoestring budget. The same could be true of health care if we turned to these responsible organizations to take care of people. By the way give me an example of NGO's providing sub standard services to people because my experience has been that Organizations that do not produce results in their humanitarian work don't last. Finally, NGO's provide a way for people to get on their feet but they require things of them like getting a job, working consistently, not doing drugs. Organizations like Goodwill, or the salvation army provide jobs with health insurance but require that you work. People need to not look to their government to provide for their families but ought to support the good of their country and have honor, dignity, and self respect. I have seen many homeless people through the NGO I work with leave the streets, work hard, get the things they need and succeed. Why should a family who are not citizens of the united states or make 45,000 a year receive health care for free? It is absolutely absurd. Consider finally, that even though there already is a program available for kids called SCHIP many eligible children are not enrolled simply because their parents did not complete the paperwork. The lazy man will not even lift his hand to feed himself and I won't force feed him. your round