The difference is this, which I already addressed and you carefully ignored.
Housing is planned up, agreed upon and is available from a wide range of sources for a wide range of prices. There is public housing, there has been for over a century, bit late to fly that flag.
No one has to has a $500,000 house to live to see tomorrow, or to maintain a basic quality of life. People need $500,000 leukemia treatments to see the next day or week sometimes. Theres the HUGE flaw in your argument. Housing is indeed important, problem is that we don't have 50 million homeless people in the US, we have 50 million uninsured people in the US. The problem isn't that when someone is without a house, and steps into one without paying, you and I don't pay for it. The problem is that when an uninsured person steps into a hospital for a preventable condition, you and I do pay for it. The problem isn't that my employer bares the burden of providing my housing, the problem is that my employer bares the burden and cost of my health coverage.
I don't see how your argument holds any water at all. Housing and health care ARE two different things. A house is a belonging, therefore it can be substituted, fabricated, and/or replaced, a family members health and life, along with your own, cannot be. Socialized medicine huh? Yeah, every public/private multi-payer universal health care system is some real Ray Bradbury shit isn't it?
This is the fatal flaw with people scared of "obamacare" (Did you have to pay Fox news or the RNC to use that line?). They are holding the country back as a whole. I hear a bunch of prodding arguments about "Well, it used to be that health care was...", or "You used to be able to see the doctor for...", "Why can't it just go back to the way it was?". Heres the short answer: Things have radically changed since the days of our memories. First of all, health technology world wide is beyond what any of us can comprehend, that brings huge costs, and huge benefits. Secondly, the only people making money back then were doctors, and medicine companies, and they weren't raking it in like they are now. Third of all, people live longer now, and need to be taken care of after employment has ended. Fourth of all, we spend more than any other country on Earth, 16% of our GDP on health care, and get crap results in return, and manage to forget to cover a population larger than all of South Africa within our own nation. Fifth of all it is nationally assumed that health coverage must be provided by your employer, Do I need to continue cuz I can make a day of this...Things are very different now. It is called progress, nations do it all the time when they learn that people enjoy doing better as time goes on. No one gets happy with taking steps back.
I don't find those "opposing view" concerns serious, I find peoples life and health serious, much more serious than small political views and money woes. I find the concerns of my oppositions view founded in fear, and falsehood (note no one has addressed anything factual I have posted, which throws me into the realm of the subjective, in which ANYTHING could be a strawman based on perspective). And although you say it is not true, I find those concerns cold, heartless, and Unamerican. Saying you are sympathetic, and not heartless is easy. Donating to St. Judes doesn't mean you are free from that label however. Actually caring enough to change the way the country works, regardless of how scared you are serious about compassion and solving a problem. (yes, you all are responding to fear in the argument). All I have seen your side do I avoid addressing the problem altogether. Completely. Tort reform, yes, we got it, over and over, thats a small part of it, even though it is a lot of money. But shit, theres a reason you all are avoiding the big picture, cuz its only solution is one you don't agree with, and you would rather live with the problem, cuz as the chips stand, you are a benefactor.
Heres what you don't understand at all. It is going to happen, universal health care is inevitable. The health care reform bill is judicially fine, and can only be repealed by an up or down vote in congress with a willing president. You are all in a state of anger and panic due to those facts because you can do nothing about it. Delaying the inevitable is terrible for our nation and hurting every aspect of our society. Your straw man called "freedom" never really existed the way you speak of it anyway. What's good for the gander is good for the goose as well.
Are they? I only am going to address this one part of your very lengthy post because the rest is just, well, not worth it. *Sigh*
Who decides these things? How long will it be until housing becomes a 'basic human right'? Look, in a perfect world everybody would have the best, unlimited healthcare and a McMansion to live in. This ain't a perfect world my friend. You have deflected, set up more strawmen than I care to count, and whined everytime you've been backed into a corner. Stop thinking of this as an "adversarial" process. We are all on the same team here! We all want the same things! Stop trying to make libertarians and conservatives out to be heartless, selfish, psychopaths! We are not! Of course there will be a few fringe elements in every group. We've come almost full circle in our logic here and we could certainly keep going around and around forever. That solves nothing. The point that was trying to be made by NoDrama is pretty clear to me. Just a couple of decades ago, socialized medicine wasn't talked about very seriously in this country. Perhaps it was because it was more affordable, I don't really know. Perhaps it was because it went against every fiber of our collective being. We get back into the slippery slope argument. If healthcare becomes a "basic human right", then what next? Is the government going to see to it that everybody has the same food? That's more of a human right than medical care IMO. Housing, I think is more of a "basic human right" than medical care. You may go your whole life without ever getting a major illness or injury, but you damn sure need a roof over your head! There are many reasons why WE are opposed to socialized medicine. They have been laid out numerous times and I have a feeling you know exactly what those arguments are. You may not agree with them but they are serious concerns and like it or not, Obamacare may have some very serious problems. Most of it hasn't even taken effect and we are already feeling the shockwave rippling through the landscape.
