Indeed. The cancer at the heart of the american dream can be summarised by the cry of the rugged individualist: "Why should I pay for your health care?"
Wrong. Many Americans, including myself, think of personal responsibility first. Actions may have consequences, period.
I exercise regularly, eat healthy, keep the amount of sugar/glucose I consume to a minimum, keep alcohol and drug use in check and I don't smoke. Those are MY life choices. Nobody forced me to do any of the above. I choose to live this way because I want to remain healthy and hopefully life a long, healthy life.
So why do I ask the question of "Why should I pay for your health care"?
If an individual smokes regularly, eats McDonalds weekly or more, does not exercise or even attempt too, does not get adequate sleep, is morbidly obese for a large portion of their life (due to their decisions above), and regularly partakes in a large amount of alcohol and drug use, it is almost CERTAIN that their cost of health care, especially later in life, will be magnitudes higher. Those are decisions THEY made. Not me, not the government, themselves.
So no, I will not pay for your healthcare when you make the decision to live a life like that. Take responsibility on yourself. Want to ignore your body? Fine, but don't make me pay for it.
Unfortunately, a larger percent of our population is obese, which is one of the largest causes of other complications that end up costing our healthcare system a considerable amount. If we could focus that money into solving health issues that are not the cause of an individuals' actions, we would have cancer solved by now. But no, we spend it on the guy who is 55 and weighs 450 lbs because he ate fast food every fucking day for the last 25 years. No. Just No.
Sorry this is just such a bad, bad, bad example. It completely ignores so many facts:
1) Your example ignores accidents that happen: people get sick even when they've got healthy lifestyles, people are hurt in accidents, etc. Sometimes you have a baby prematurely born that has to stay in the NICU for months, already running up a $1 mil bill before they've even come home. Childhood cancers.
2) A lot of what gets people unhealthy is also things that they aren't aware of. We've only in the past 5-10 years had more awareness of just how much sugar is in EVERYTHING. Same goes for chemicals, pesticides. These are all choices that consumers haven't actively made, but were made for them by money'd interests.
3) Would you say the same about your parents? About your loved ones? About your children that ate too much candy, or drove too fast in their teenage years? Probably not.
My opinion is that American society (of which I'm a part of) has gone too far in the direction of individuality and "I've got mine, screw you" – and we're all suffering for it. We no longer think as a collective, but instead just look at everything through the lens of ourselves. Healthy people included. You just don't know it yet.
My argument is made against things you CAN control and DO know about. Sorry, I should have included that disclaimer.
So taking that into account now, is it still a bad example? Should I pay for somebody's lung cancer treatment after they have smoked a pack or more a day for the last 30 years? We have been well aware of the risks with smoking and we can almost for certain say the lung cancer has a high correlation to the 30 year smoking history. So yes, that person knowingly made that decision, why do I have to pay for it?
I'm sorry, but there has to be consequences for peoples decisions. We can't all grow up eating fast food, smoking, drinking, watching Netflix and getting fat knowing that our long term healthcare costs per individual that chooses that lifestyle will be astronomical. Society can't afford that.
Also, we are learning more and more about just how much being obese affects the rest of your health. Along with more correlations in the causes of cancer. Yes, there are many things we do not know, and I do not fault anyone for that. But a large percent of health issues and the costs associated with those in America are VERY well known and VERY much preventable. Period.
I would never want the government to step in and say, no you can't eat that twinkie because your BMI is over a certain level. I will always advocate for an individuals right to make a decision for themselves. However, if they know the risks and consequences associated with those decisions and still choose to make them, why in hell would that burden fall on the rest of the society?
I think you need to go read, or re-read, Adam Smith's book, The Wealth of Nations, or the principles of enlighten self interest. You have the wrong mindset that taking personal responsibility for your own actions is a "I've got mine - screw you" thing. Suffering? The freedom for individuals to make their own decisions and why we are a prosperous nation in the first place. It's why people came here. What do you propose as far as going in the right direction of individuality? Limiting consequences of known actions? Forced government redistribution? Maybe I just live in a very nice state (Texas), but down here, we do take care of our neighbor. We do help one another when in need. I would even say we do so more today than ever before. However when you knowingly do something on your own accord that is risky, you will pay for the consequences, not your neighbor. Maybe we should just take the approach of, hey, I know you smoked for 30 years knowing it will kill you eventually and will cost a ton in medical bills... and we told you that every single time you took a cigarette out of the pack, but we'll cover that cost for you! Hey, we know you were fully aware that when you robbed that store that the risks of getting caught were high and the consequence is going to jail, but you know what? We'll pay that for you too and you're free to go. You can't remove consequence from the decision making process, it's human nature.
I assure you, if you measured the amount of hours people in America spend talking about healthcare, health insurance, and employer insurance policies in the workplace, you'd really see how anxious we are as a society because we simply have no great guarantee of something as basic as healthcare. It's like walking on thin ice.
As a society, we decided we are (generally) ok to pay for a road even if someone speeds or drives drunk on it, or we are fine to pay for good public education even if many kids drop out of school, because on the whole, these things are a net benefit to society when more of the population can take advantage of it.
Why isn't healthcare one of those things? I used to date a woman who grew up in Canada, and she talked about how strong dental care was there, where all the kids were taught the right habits for dental care automatically. IT didn't matter what money you had, you all had access to not only good dental care, but also information about what makes your teeth go bad, etc.
Similarly, in the US maybe we would actually have less obesity with a combination of preventative care and more education about some of these things. I'm not saying we'd eradicate it of course. But we'd most definitely have less.
I can't imagine someone would be even more irresponsible with their health if medical care was free. Only because the opposite isn't true (people aren't less reckless just because medical care is so expensive)
