I hear a variation of this argument all the time:
“If health care is free, what’s to stop people drinking and smoking and eating bad food just so the government can pay for all their excesses later?”
So many fallacies on this one.
First, the person asking should realize that there is no cure for lung cancer, or heart attacks. They can be treated if detected early, but that’s a big if, and life is not fun afterwards.
Second, we already have huge rates of alcoholism, smoking, and crappy eating among broke-ass poor in this country, who have no insurance. Maybe it can get worse, but not by much.
Third, this argument assumes that getting really sick is simply no big deal. Hell, we’ll roll with heart disease, because government’ll fix us right back up! Liver and lung transplants? No problemo, ever?
NOBODY wants to get sick. Even if it’s paid for. Being sick sucks, by definition.
We just don’t want people to let us die if the pockets are empty.
