piedpiper_

What does this have to do with healthcare? Is it a right or a privilege? Your answer to that question makes it clear why we likely disagree.

Healthcare is a SERVICE that someone PROVIDES to you for MONEY. It has a tangible COST. It is not a RIGHT which is something that WE as a COLLECTIVE have determined WE individually possess (liberty, right to bare arms, freedom of press, right to assemble, etc)

That is the bedrock issue behind all the arguments on this topic and why (despite idealistically admirable), universal healthcare will likely never happen...

To make it clear, personally I am not opposed to doing everything we can as a society to bring the cost of healthcare down and make it available and affordable to as many people as possible. But to guarantee blanket coverage for ~325M people is not realistic.

California has the highest income tax rate in the nation which directly impacts entrepreneurs starting a business (if they are successful and create wealth). Why would any sane person want to shave off an extra 13 cents for every dollar they make when they're already losing 40 cents per dollar from the federal government? This is why many entrepreneurs are choosing states with low or no income tax and leaving CA and their hyper-liberal state gov behind.

[http://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/news/12281147/irs-income-t...]

> For example, government doesn't force me to obey the law; I do it voluntarily. They don't force me to pay my bills, not shoot my neighbor, and pay my taxes. I do all that voluntarily.

Yes you don't do those things because you will be sent to prison. Is it going to be Ok to send Bobby to prison because he didn't want to cover Suzi's medical bill?

> Yes. Ideally, that's what governments should do: require citizens to act in our collective and long-term best interests, not only their own.

That's starting to sound a lot like Marxism where the value of the individual is less so than that of the collective (Government / State).

I'm sorry but no thanks. Who determines what our best interest is? The only person on this planet that can determine my best interest is me. If I'm incapable of doing so for myself then that is too bad.

blendle is taking the wrong approach, but the idea of micropayments is the way of the future

I wouldn't, I'd build something better (disclaimer, working on it).