Health care should not be free for Children or Adults

Blessed-Cheese-Maker (nice name by the way) I commend your interpretation of the situation as it is a valid position and demonstrates a comprehension of the facts. However, your conclusion still begs the question, should the government pay for people who make 60,000 a year to get health care for their children. One might read this debate and think that I don't care about children of irresponsible adults, or adults who cannot afford full health insurance. That is not the case. I am a healthy young adult and therefore cannot justify the expenditure of full health insurance. I am considered uninsured. However, I have discovered many other options for myself and especially if I were to have children. First, you can purchase what is called a High deductible health Plan (HDHP). This plan covers any major medical expenses (like if I needed a heart transplant). There is a $1000 deductable but thats better than a 400,000 dollar heart transplant. My monthly cost is about $85 Second, paired with the HDHP you can have what is called an MSA (Medical Savings account) which is a tax sheltered annuity that can be withdrawn from for a medical need without any tax penalty. This can cover your deductible and also any prescription drugs you may need. I contribute about 60 bucks a month (2 dollars a day) I don't make a lot of money but I save every month. I don't any debt and don't live somewhere I can't afford to live. I have made a way to live within my means off of the 1800 a month I have. It is difficult and there are a lot of things that I can't do, but if I get sick I can go to the doctor, if I have an emergency I have savings, not a credit card. That is the option many people in poorer areas pursue. Third, there are many need based grants that are available for people who cannot afford to take their kids to the doctor. This is yet another option for those who are in great need. Obviously, NGO's could not run a program like SCHIP because SCHIP is a gigantic monster of a program, that really does lack accountability. However, NGO's do address many people's medical needs already on the foreign front mostly, but also on the domestic front. I have worked with groups like Northwest Medical teams, reach out to the community and offer free dental care, or treatment of simple problems amongst the urban poor. (see website NWmedicalteams.org) These groups do an excellent job of offering great care to people who cannot afford it. Consider also a place like the Dream Center in Los Angeles and New York that offers a place for people to get medical care if they need it. (dream center.org) These organizations do function with many volunteers, however you are wrong in saying that is all that they have because I work for an NGO and I get paid. There are many doctors who work for at free or discounted Clinic for impoverished people. You insinuated that I wanted to punish children for their irresponsible parents. I don't even want the laziest person in the world to go without the treatment they need. I care however about the whole person. I would rather that they were educated about the options they have and then given ample opportunity to pursue them. I will give you an example from Africa. Missionary organizations poured millions of dollars of free stuff into Africa during the first hundred years of it's missionary history. In the last 15 years missionary history the people on the ground were realizing that much of what was being given was being taken advantage of. In fact, in Kenya and Zambia people were hiding their nice possessions when they knew the missionaries were coming to the village because then they could get nicer things. Leaders of these villages would literally tell people to put their ratty clothes on before the missionaries came. Now, is this the fault of the locals? No. It wasn't. Before missionaries came, as far as they knew, they had much. But the missionaries had enabled them, by their excessive giving, to continually stick their hand out. This breeded corruption in the village and ultimately did not accomplish the goal of providing fo rthe needs of impoverished Africans. In the US, it is the same. We need to consider what we are doing by offering so many social programs. Like I said, I am not interested in putting a band-aid on the problem of the poverty mindset. If I believed throwing billions of dollars at the health care crisis would solve the problem I would do it. But what that is doing instead is creating a generation of beggers and victims. WE need to deal with the root of the problem. Why in one of wealthiest nations in the world, can't people afford health care? Is it the man trying to keep poor Joe Shmoe down? No the problem is what you said, "You and I both know that if you reduced the taxes paid by S-Chip recipients, the resulting cash would not go towards health care for their children..." Your right I do know that. I know that because if I withhold benefits from someone and expect that they are accountable, as many NGO's do, the government will always come along to save the person. The only thing they care about is the person's pay stub, they don't care whether or not the person could be working more, or could find a job that would give them health insurance. This is much like the picture of a fat person yelling "I am starving to death." You obviously don't expect that people provide for their families or take some responsibility for their stuff and that is the problem. SCHIP (a program the democrats unsuccessfully tried to expand this last year) continues as so many social programs do to enable the poverty mindset and it's time for that stop. It is time for a new day of accountability for people to care for their families and for churches and humanitarian groups to care for people as they say they should. This is a BIG government vs small government issue. I see that you are a libertarian which makes me surprised that you are so apt to have the government spend your money on something that could be so much more effectively managed at the private sector. I don't want the govt to car for my family, thats my job. I don't want to govt to prevent me from taking care of my family with absurd taxes. I rest my case