Health Care vs. Education
Posted on Jul 19, 2009 - 10:01pm by Marshall J. Gruskin in Economy, General, Health, Lifestyle, News, Trucking
As far as I know education is NOT guaranteed under U.S. Constitution. Neither is health care. I’m not going to throw out a lot of numbers about how much our government spends on education, but it’s somewhere in the neighborhood of a TRILLION dollars. That of course, comes out of the money we pay in taxes, primarily property taxes. In Florida, where I live, approximately $12,000 dollars per child per year is spent on education and the construction and maintenance of schools. It has been reported that it costs taxpayers about $100,000 to provide the children of illegal aliens, who don’t pay taxes, with a K-12 education.
I was, only briefly, a student of the public school education system, having attended K-10 in a New York City private school. My parents thought it unsafe to send me to public school. They were right and spent a lot of money on a quality education for me, while also having to pay taxes to educate every other child. Only much later when we relocated to a suburb of NJ did I attend a public school. My experiences there were terrible. My son also attended public school and was a honor roll student in high school. That was until a terrific program that had him in smaller classes with one on one instruction got cut. At that point the education “system” failed him as it did me. He would have been better off it he had stayed with me in the truck and been “home” schooled.
I don’t have any more kids to be educated. I really don’t give a damn about the “socialized” education system that we’re forced to pay for in this country. Like my parents, I now have to pay to educate other people’s children, including those who reside in my country illegally. I’m tired of it. Primarily because my government, who can’t seem to figure out how to provide health care to millions of people who need it, doesn’t give me any options. If I don’t pay for education, since I have nobody to educate, then let me contribute to providing everyone with health care. I should have that option. I should also have the option of something like this – checking a box on my 1040 that allows me to give $5, $10 or $25 more to provide BETTER care for the elderly through Medicare/Medicaid.
This discussion, by the way, was had by myself and four other OTR truckers at the T/A off I-90 in Harborcreek PA. We missed Everitt Mickey, Linda Sunkle Pierucki, Porter Corn and Terry Smelser. Although I’m a company driver, the other guys/gals in the group were owner operators. And we’re all concerned about, not education, but how the heck we’re going to receive medical care the rest of our lives. We’re all closely watching what’s happening in Washington. As I said in an earlier post, this “issue” has been “negotiated” since Truman (tried and failed) to made it a priority back in the 40′s and 50′s. That’s over 40 years of hot-air from our government without a workable solution. How pathetic. And a lot of people have died because of it.
Photo credits: ecology.scizone.info, http://www.fitnessbetterhealth.com/images/health-care.jpg, sfs-group.co.uk,
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Considering the mess government intervention has made in the education system, I cant trust them not to screw up health care just as badly, if not worse. If you think maybe I dont trust them, you’re right-I dont! Give govt control of health care and everybody over 60 is half-way to the Soylent Green factory. . .they’re pretty open about it, if you actually listen to them. When my 83-yr-old mother had a minor stroke, it was only when she’d gone to the hospital that we found out she was on 14 different prescriptions-this is a woman in about as perfect health as you can expect at 83! Luckily, we found out that she was smart enough not to take all that crap and that’s likely the reason she’s still in good health: the pills stayed in the bottle, not in her! My sister, the hypochondriac, nearly had heart failure and wanted her declared incompetent so somebody could force-feed her all those useless and dangerous pills Medicare paid for. Thats why Medicare doesnt work. . too many useless medications for stuff discovered through some magic test to treat something you actually dont have a problem with. And, some nut like my sister will be making health decisions for us. If ya want to pay for somebody’s health care, just pay for a necessary doctor visit for some indigent person-leave the govt out of it!
I agree with Linda.
As a matter of fact anyone advocating MORE Federal involvment in health care would be well advised to check into how well the government does with the three health care systems it now has.
As far as I know the government runs the above mentioned health care for Old Folks.
Medicare I think it’s called. Or is it Medicaide? Something like that.
The government also runs the VA health care. Remember that fuss about Walter Reed some time ago.
Few people realize that theres a third system, unless you happen to be an American Indian. The Indians have a saying on the poorer reservations. “don’t get sick after June or youre going to die.”.
Wonder why they say that?
From my experience the problem with our health care system is too MUCH government involvment. The FDA for example. Drugs and medical devices that should be dirt cheap are astronomically priced because of them. Worse, millions and millions of products aren’t even allowed to go to market. It takes millions of dollars to bring a new product to market. Mostly because of the FDA. That being the case a product that “helps” a little bit can’t be marketed. It’s GOT to be a “blockbuster” or there’s no chance of return on investment.
I remember when health care was an ‘out of pocket’ expense. That was just before Medicare took off.
Two more problems. The AMA. Why does it take a Md to practice medicine? The military does scrapes by with medics.
Secondly. The Trail Lawyers association. Dr.’s have it worse than truckers when it comes to lawsuites.
Sure, the health care system can be reformed. But NOT by increasing government involvment.
Lastly, check out how well the other nations that DO have nationalized health care are doing. When one of their VIP’s gets really sick…where do they go?
And FINALLY…if this is going to be so good why is congress exempting itself from mandatory enrollment?
I’m a therapist dealing with mental health…anger management, couples therapy, stress…stuff like that. I take both medicaid and medicare. I must say that it is often quite a trick to just get paid! I also see clients lose their coverage for no particular reason. I am all about free health care! I wish I got mine for free. However, if free health care means your provider (me!) will not be paid…or who knows if he will be paid, I do not want to take part in that.
I wish I knew the answer to it all. However, I have to say that it breaks my heart when I cannot take on a new client because of an inability to pay. I always refer them on to the local community health center, but who knows if they will really go and be taken care of well.