I don’t think we disagree.  We cannot continue to ignore budget deficits.  We also cannot ignore sick people who need care.  The key is to find a solution that provides people with care yet is financially sound.
 
There are a lot of people who are chronically ill who cannot buy health insurance because no one wants to cover them.  Then there are people like me- with a pre-existing condition- who are extremely healthy.  I only went to the doctor once this year- yet I cannot buy coverage on the open market because of a prior back surgery. 
 
Luckily we finally got a group plan at work and I am now covered.  However, I didn’t get to have kids until I was 29 because I couldn’t buy health insurance because of my pre-existing condition.  There is something extremely wrong about a system that dictates when people are allowed to have children.  And remember- it wasn’t because I didn’t have the money to buy insurance.  I have plenty of money yet no one would cover me.
 
It is a complicated issue but I think that it would be helpful if everyone started off with the fundamental understanding that we are all going to pay for each other’s healthcare whether we want to or not.  People who do not have insurance use the expensive emergency room or run up bills that they can never pay off.  All of those costs get passed on to everyone else and it is beyond our control. 
 
This year my family paid $10,000 for our group health insurance policy.  We were all very healthy and my kids went to the doctor a few times and I went once.  Anthem took in 10K and paid out $325.  Over $9500 in profit off of us yet they raised our rates 11% for next year.  They do this because they have to cover other people’s healthcare costs and rising rates.
 
This is why I am an advocate of Universal Healthcare.  We are all paying for each other already.

@DC @ Young Adult Money  @Holly at ClubThrifty Hehe David, I know how politics gets people upset, I wish it didn’t. I’d say my opinion on issues that divide this country down the line are quite radical. I try not to speak my political opinions because every time I open my yap someone gets upset.

@Holly at ClubThrifty I’m not an advocate of restricting health care access to privileged only. I wholeheartedly agree that everyone should have insurance coverage, but I also realize that health care is broken in our country. PF bloggers are great at advocating budgets, yet our government doesn’t seem to care to follow it’s own. Healthcare for all is a great concept and I fully support it, but we’re just not there yet (politically, economically) and we can’t simply ignore budget deficits and the national debt. At the very basic core of things we should at least have a national campaign to get people healthy. This however, seems like an undertaking equivalent of getting people off fossil fuels.

@AverageJoeMoney Thanks appreciate the feedback!