P&C: Do people have a right to health care? Describe where the government's obligation to provide a safety net ends and where a person's responsibility should begin.
DeMint: I think health care is a privilege. I wouldn't call it a right. ... I do think in our country and in any civil society there should be a safety net for basic health and food and shelter, but that doesn't mean that the whole system should be designed around the belief that people can't make their own decisions, can't be responsible for themselves. ...
What I think most Americans fail to understand is that insurance - of any kind - is A Pool Of Money. You pay in hoping you won't need it and knowing your money is going to help someone in need. When it becomes your turn to experience a problem, after a deductible, your expenses are paid. That means that I may carry homeowners insurance for decades and then have a theft....but if the theft is less than my deductible I have to absorb it.
ReplyDeleteOur health system is filled with people who don't want to pay anything into the pool to help others, but when their turn comes up they expect the best of care at a price they can "afford". I know people who make far more than we do who could afford health insurance and choose not to pay for it. They poor mouth to doctors and facilities and somehow manage to get their care discounted all the time.
I do believe health insurance should be mandated....everyone who works at all should pay into a policy of their own which is portable. If one starts out paying into the pool, then when one does get sick they should continue to be covered. If you don't work and have never worked, then obviously you have not contributed to the pool of money. If you have no homeowners insurance or automobile insurance and you have an issue, you are out of luck. You can't buy homeowners insurance when a hurricane is closer than a certain number of miles to our coast. That's the way insurance works. Children, of course, should be covered by their parents. In the past we used to ask ourselves, "Can I afford to get married? Can I afford to have children." Why has that changed?