opensoul.org - Life Comments

Comment on 'Is Healthcare a Privilege?' by nick

2009-08-28T14:38:38Z

I think you are missing his point a bit with the “right to healthcare” – i think he is making the point that food & shelter are both more basic needs than healthcare, but our government does not have massive systems to provide for these needs, therefore why provide healthcare if these more basic needs are not met?

Anyhow, I can agree to what Dave has said about mandatory catastrophic coverage, however I don’t think that any ‘frills’ of our current healthcare system should be provided on my tax dollars. Should we collectively be paying for things like cosmetic surgery, impotence medications, or even procedures to correct poor lifestyle choices that people make? I think not.

Chronic diseases caused by ‘lifestyle choices’ such as smoking and obesity (granted, not always a choice) are certainly contributing to the higher costs of healthcare that everyone is facing. Insured or uninsured – I don’t see how any solution can be efficient, or even effective, long term without more responsibility being placed on the people using it. We should not have an “all you can eat buffet!” attitude towards our healthcare.

And lastly I want to say that what I want is reform not revolution in our healthcare system. I dearly hope that the system that is working well for most Americans is not scrapped – if this happens the process can hardly be called reform – let’s all be honest.

Oh and do you really trust our government to be in total control of a system that massive? Look what a good job they are doing with Social Security…

Comment on 'Is Healthcare a Privilege?' by Dave Woodward

2009-08-28T13:10:34Z

I agree with your point completely. I also would like to point out that the current solution can barely be called “psuedo-market-based” because of the fact that health insurance is used to pay for most health services.

That is, you pay a monthly premium to an insurance company, and the insurance company pays the hospitals & doctors for you. You have no say in the price of services, and the consumer is not in a position to “vote with their wallet” so to speak.

You don’t expect your car insurance to pay for your gas, or your house insurance to pay for a new LCD TV, so why is it ok that we expect health insurance to pay for everything health related? On the other hand, I also agree that we as a country have a moral obligation to protect our unalienable rights as stated; so I don’t have any good solutions :).

Though I suspect that subsidized mandatory catastrophic insurance coverage for all would be a start.

Comment on 'Ignorance' by Matt Platte

2007-10-16T10:08:13Z

BBC News

Comment on 'Stream of consciousness' by Toby M

2007-07-15T00:01:23Z

This seems like the sort of thing Google Notebook is pretty good at. Add in the Firefox plugin and you can quickly add anything and organize it better. Tumblr is much better if you want to publish everything publicly though.

Comment on 'Derek Webb releases MP3 downloads before CD' by Brian

2007-04-18T14:16:37Z

I just got into Derek Webb a few months ago when I downloaded Mockingbird. Wonderful songwriting. Kingdom songwriting. We need more of it.

His new album is sitting in my iTunes (I preordered last week). I just need to carve out space and listen to it—it’s the kind of music that deserves full attention. He’s playing at our church next week, can’t wait.

If you’re into thoughtful folk/rock, check out Jacob Zachary. I produced his first album Fury and Spin . A couple weeks ago he was in town and I recorded a house concert he played. Hopefully we’ll get to work together soon on an acoustic record.