Want mandatory basic, minimal health care? Get sent to prison.

[BrklynLiberal]

Prisoners are REQUIRED to get this care...while citizens, who have not been arrested, have not committed any crime, ARE NOT.
Does this strike anyone else as perplexing, at best?

http://www.npr.org/2010/11/29/131679857/supreme-court-to-hear-california-prisons-case

<snip>

The Supreme Court has long held that prisoners are, in essence, wards of the state, and that since they are not free to find and consult a doctor, the state is required to provide basic, minimal medical care for those in state custody.

<snip>

I am NOT saying prisoners should not get this care. I am saying that EVERYONE should be entitled to this same right.

[stray cat]

1. medicare?

[BrklynLiberal]

5. only if you are over 65....for now.

[kctim]

2. We ARE free to find and consult a doctor

And I really don't wish to become a ward of the state for basic minimal medical care.

[eridani]

3. Only if you have money n/t

[kctim]

9. Money has nothing to do with one being free

[BrklynLiberal]

6. Define "WE"...not all of us ARE free to find and consult a doctor because it is NOT free.

[kctim]

8. Just because something is not free

does not mean YOU are not free to get it.

Being free is alot more important than getting for free.

[BrklynLiberal]

10. Being dead due to lack of medical care is alot more important than being free.

[kctim]

12. NOTHING is more important than freedom

[Crunchy Frog]

15. Better to be dead and free

than to be alive under the opression of "Obamacare"?

[kctim]

16. To narrow of a view

It's about having one's freedom of choice taken away. President Obama's HCR would not have been so rejected if it did not have the mandate.

[Crunchy Frog]

19. Universal health care can't work without a mandate.

You have to have enough healthy people in the system to offset the costs of the unhealthy. If you don't have that then it becomes prohibitively expensive unless you weed out the applicants with preexisting conditions. That's the system we have now. Are you saying that the current system is better because we have more freedom?

I would be in favor of an opt out provision for people who reject all medicine for religious reasons, like Christian Scientists. They should be required to carry ID on them though, so they don't inadvertantly get picked up by an ambulance.

How would you propose that a system of universal health coverage be implemented without infringing on anyone's freedom?

[kctim]

20. It can't be implemented without infringing on anyone's freedom

and THAT is why it is so difficult to get. Not because people are stupid, brainwashed, uncaring or selfish. Because of that, there are only two ways to implement it:

Opt-out option for all - People could choose private plan, govt plan or no plan and they have to accept their responsibility and live with their choice. They pay only for their choice and they benefit from only their choice.

Constitutional Amendment - The right way. You get the 2/3 vote required to make it a right of the people to have govt PROVIDE them with healthcare. Doing an end around like was done with social security is wrong and only leads to what we have today.

[Crunchy Frog]

4. Not very good medical care.

We recently had a young woman die in agony in her jail cell of an untreated ectopic pregnancy. No one would help her no matter how much she cried, begged, moaned, writhed in pain.

I think we need slightly better medical care than that.

[BrklynLiberal]

7. Horrific and disgusting. Similar things are happening to people who are not in jail, but

cannot afford medical care.

[Mimosa]

11. Dental care too! n/t

[kenny blankenship]

13. Or you can wait for prison to come to you

shouldn't be long now.

[Hannah Bell]

14. they also experiment on you if they like. i wouldn't go to prison to get health care.

[proud2BlibKansan]

17. And minimal care is what they get

Nothing to write home about.

[Bluerthanblue]

18. there was a time when i actually

entertained the thought of breaking the law to recieve care- medicaid required a lien on our home and as a single mom with poverty level income i couldn't justify leaving them with absolutely nothing and chose to opt out of medicaid.

If i'd been in jail i could have gotten treatment without the threat of my kids having had the farm sold out from under them.

I completely agree with you.

EVERYONE should have access to basic medical care. It's essential for "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"-

:hi:

[lightningandsnow]

21. Health care in prisons is inadequate at best.

And third-world at worst.

There was the case of a woman, a year or two ago, who died of severe heatstroke after being held in a holding cell in 100+ degree weather. Her "crime"? Being a sex worker.

This is a common talking point to scapegoat prisoners and support the prison system.

[pitohui]

22. emphasis on the word MINIMAL

i hear these claims again and again that prisoners get all this free health care but have you ever talked to actual prisoners? a lot of them don't get the care, they get told they're malingering and so forth

there have been cases in louisiana in the past where a woman prisoner could not get access to abortion, which has to be one of the least expensive services there is, i've also heard of cases where women were not screened or treated for breast cancer until it was too late

apparently some prisoners in california or oregon got some expensive health care one time, and now the myth has spread that all prisoners have access to all this care

if that's the case why do so many guys come out of jail with all those missing teeth?