Why do the wealthy get better healthcare than other, hardworking people?

What if you are born super smart and get rich, but you don't like to work that hard and retire early. What if you were born smart enough to get a good job, but it doesn't pay great and you have to work until you are 65. Who deserves better healthcare? Is that fair?

Public Comments

1. The rich have better everything, that's just how it is
2. The wealthy get all the benefits in this world... In the next world they will learn.. ;-)
3. there is no fair ( more money more stuff including health care )
4. The wealthy get better healthcare because they can afford better healthcare. Money makes the world go 'round...
5. Didn't mommy tell you life would not be fair?
6. look the people who can afford it get it! got it?
7. almost NOTHING having anything to do with money is fair
8. Thats not necessarily true. The government is always willing to help people of less income to have a good healthcare plan.
9. No it's not fair. Money is power.
10. The wealthy probably get better healthcare because they can afford the better healthcare, but I think everyone deserves good healthcare. It isn't fair that most wealthy people get better healthcare.
11. It doesn't seem fair, but healthcare is a privilege in this country, not a right, and it costs alot of money. It's the middle class who gets the bum rap. The working poor may not have health insurance, but they still go to the hospital and get healthcare. The middle class pays in insurance premiums and higher healthcare costs to make up for it.
12. Fair? No. Logical? Yes. The wealthy can afford health care. People are always saying that the middle class gets it in the shorts, but then they elect a conservative (read that "rich- friendly") president. Go figure.
13. It's called capitalism. If you don't like it, try Venezuela, or better yet North Korea.
14. You don't have to be born smart to get rich,you need to find something you are good at,then find a way to make a buck out of it.A 90 I.Q should be sufficient.Did i mention that you have to get off the couch in most instances.?
15. thats capitalism for you.. obviously, the paycheck you get is not always what you deserve, if we talk about fair... but that's how the economic system works. Of course a celebrity, earns a hell of a lot more money that a pediatrician. (and I'm not even talking about the great actors and musicians.. let's look at Paris Hilton, that, besides the money she was born with, she keeps making more... money.. buy more money...) So, the person that can pay for better heathcare will get better healthcare..
16. That's the tradeoff we face in a more fully open market -- less equality with better chance for success. Socialism--even democratic socialism--is a difficult proposition in most industries as it does hinder growth and encourage complacency, even if people are treated "equally." Of course, even in those countries, the elite class (or those who somehow have become rich) get treated better (like flying to the U.S. for medical treatment, etc.) The question is HOW MUCH we help to "level the playing field." We offer public schools to those who cannot afford private schools to guaranty a base level of education (although many public schools are failing for a whole bunch of reasons). Do we offer a similar base level of healthcare to guaranty that children can lead healthy lives and that we don't waste time and money with uninsured in emergency rooms? What will that do to overall health care quality? These are the issues we're talking about.
17. They got the M O N E Y!!!!!
18. If someone held a gun at you, and demanded your money, would that be "fair". I think you'd agree that it's criminal, and unfair. Even if they were doing it to rob from you to pay for the health care of some hard-working, but poor person. But for some reason, many people think it's OK, if the "someone" demanding the money is the government. Why do you think that it's OK for some people to be "forced" to pay for the healthcare of others? Is that fair?
19. The answer is everyone deserves the best health care available, however the rich get the best of everything, because they can pay for it, or have their company pay. Not fair but it happens.
20. Because they can pay for it. That was a stupid question.
21. FAIR IS FAIR. IF I BREAK MY BACK THROUGH MY LIFE AND I AMASS A FORTUNE IN THE MEAN TIME, THEN I DESERVE WHAT I GET FOR MYSELF THAT INCLUDES THE BEST DOCTORS. NOT ONLY FOR ME BUT ALSO FOR MY FAMILY. IF YOU CHOOSE TO HAVE A MEDIOCRE LIFE AND YOU WANT TO BE LAZY ON SOME DAYS WORK ON OTHER THEN YOU GET WHAT YOU DESERVE. MEDIOCRE TREATMENT. THOSE THAT WORK HARD AND MAKE SOMETHING OF THEMSELVES DESERVE WHAT THEY CAN AFFORD. WHY SHOULD A PERSON SIT AROUND AND WATCH THE OTHER PERSON WORK HARD THEN EXPECT THE SAME IN LIFE. YOU GET WHAT YOU WORK FOR. IF YOU DON'T WANT TO WORK THEN YOU HAVE TO SETTLE FOR WHAT IS GIVEN. YOU CAN'T EXPECT TO BE TAKEN CARE OF BY THOSE THAT WORK THE HARDEST.
22. LIFE ISNT FAIR....THE CLOSEST THING YR TALKING ABOUT WAS THE SOVIET UNION....EVERYONE WAS EQUALLY MISERABLE.....THE WEALTHY WILL ALWAYS HAVE MORE OF EVERYTHING....THATS HOW IT WORKS....THATS WHY FOLKS WHO WORK THEIR WHOLE LIVES HAVE MORE THEN THOSE WHO DONT WORK. IF EVERYONE WHO WORKED OR DIDNT WORK HAD EQUAL ACCESS TO ALL THE SAME GOODIES, WHO WOULD WORK??? AND WHO WOULD PAY FOR ALL OF IT??? IT TOOK THE SOVIETS 80 YEARS TO FIGURE THAT ONE OUT...........NOBODY.
23. In America, it is extremely fair. You can get whatever level of health care that you can pay for. The amount of money you can pay for it, shows the value of the person that earned that money, to society. So the people that earn enough to buy expensive healthcare (and their families) are more valuable to society and thus purchase better healthcare. Doesn't get more fair than that. Someone above said "Everyone deserves the best healthcare available". That is entirely wrong. Healthcare is an expensive luxury and needs to be earned. It's not something you deserve merely by being born. Anything different is socialism or communism and we all know how that worked out.
24. well, first this question implies that healthcare is a right, not a privilege. In this country health care is more of a privilege than a right. The question is, are both adequate? If both individuals get adequate healthcare than why does this matter?
25. You don't get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate. Doing what you're told doesn't get you anywhere, doing what you have to get what you must, does. Not that your life has to become a "John Q" situation, but perhaps "The pursuit of Happyness" would be a better example. More money will alot you better healthcare. Look into side incomes and hobbies which create revenue, to increase your net worth. With more money, your health should be well taken care of. Write a book, or Join some form of investor or financial group. Ebay possibly, or if you were to Look into stocks and the like would all be good options for increased revenue. Become an upper middle class citizen rather than your average middle class victim, which seem to be common these days. The only difference between them is a bit of sophistication in their financial decisions.
26. Life isn't fair. Get used to it. What if you worked your ass off to get rich and some bitter a-hole thought it wasn't fair and stuck it to you? What if people who would be the most skilled doctors decided to get into a different field because of caps placed on earnings in the health field by embittered a-holes who felt it was their Constitutional right to get the same product, for less money, as those with more money.
27. It's not what you can do, it's what you can buy. Why do you think major corporate officers are paid over ten times their subordinates pay for a job an iota as stressful as theirs? Pecking order, just like lions; the "king of beasts" sits on his rear, while his lowers hunt food for him to eat.
28. whether they have better healthcare doesnt matter for the rich because they can always pay for healthcare if they are not insured
29. What does "fair" have to do with who is wealthy, and what does it have to do with our healthcare system? I think you can infer what my answer is to your question from my questions.
30. Okay, here's where it gets scary. I'm reading a lot of answers here and maybe one or two of you are aware of the fact that the middle class is dying out. There will only be the rich and the poor. People, you've better wake up and start to become entrepreneurs to survive. There is no excuse for you to not become business owners and or qualify for a loan by educating yourselves on how to do this. Why? We live in a country where there is free enterprize so this freedom to choose means you do not have to work for someone elses dreams while they by their BMW's and you allow yourself to scratch and claw your way to merely surviving. It's not a matter of entitlement for health care, it's a matter of you taking charge of your own financial future to prevent having to fall back on "free sickness" care. Working hard does not make you rich, it's KNOWLEDGE on how to create assets that make you rich. If working hard made you rich then everybody would be rich. The wealthy know it's leverage not salary with a cap on it. Better health care? Do you mean can afford a PPO as compared to an HMO? Or Medicare? All use the same treatment of choice. Drugs, Chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. That's it. You can have all the money in the world and if you get cancer, your still gunna die! So, the trends are not health care but prevention so that you can enjoy the rest of your life. I want the reader to know that all the information I'm sharing with you has not been exaggerated, has been documented, and can be found on government web sites and the CDC web sites, the WHO (World Health Organization) web site, the FDA and the Journal of the American Medical Association also concurs with this exact information. So, don't take my word for it as I am merely dictating off of what the experts show us and economists are predicting due to the trends with health care. The wealthy know that health care just pays for free sickness. Health insurance is going up because western medicine ranks number 37 in the treatment of disease. Properly prescribed drugs are now the fourth leading cause of death which is costing us more than diabetes and cardiovascular disease combined. It's also forcing early retirement for doctors because of the high insurance costs following so many law suits. Not to mention that large corporations are forced to lay off their workers due to high insurance costs, not lack of ability to pay people. By the year 2010, it will cost an average of about 10,000 dollars a year just to pay for health insurance for each individual house hold member. You will have to mortgage your home to pay for health care. (Free sickness treatment). There will also be a credit rating system for the chronically ill because it's too expensive to maintain. For example, someone with a history of diabetes cannot qualify for a car or home loan because their health credit rating will reveal that they will not live long enough to pay it off! If you truly want to know what is going on with health care and that it does affect all classes of society... Get the book called "The Cost of Being Sick" by economist Nickolas Web. - read folks, read. Educated minds make educated decisions. It's not a question of "who deserves better health care" as better health care is obsolete and there is no turning back. It's about shifting from the sickness mentality to the wellness mentality to survive now. Think prevention. The government can no longer support it. The trends are privatization and the U.S. government is going to do what Canada is doing. Socialized medicine. The real issue is the rich set the trends for the rest of the country as their spending habits have always been 10 years ahead of the rest of country. Economists know this. Listen to this economist explain health care here: http://www.byoaudio.com/play/WtNWNrBQ He was economic adviser to the White House during four Presidential terms. Currently people are now into prevention, supplementation, chiropractors, exercising etc... They spend their money on prevention so that they do not get chronically ill because the cost of being sick is way to expensive. The idea is to not fall off of the cliff and then get medical treatment which is too costly, because it takes you away from work, which can cost up to 300 dollars a day for the average person to be sick. Prevention is the key and your money is better spent on prevention so that you do not end up in the "treatment" paradigm which is causing insurance costs to sky rocket in the first place. See this online presentation here called "The Cost of Being Sick" http://www.GlycoStory.com/p.asp?c=246106342526
31. Is it fair that some people are born with an IQ of 90 and some with 130? Is it fair that some people are born with the talent for music or sports and most are not? Is it fair that some people are 6'2" and some are 4'11"? Is it fair that some people are good and kind and die at 15 and some are evil and die at 90? Here's a clue for you: life is not fair. Never has been, never will be. It is NOT the government's job to try to make life fair. It is not your job to try to make life fair. It is only your job to do the best you can, with what you've got. And stealing from others, just because they have more than you is a crime. We put people like that in jail.
32. You don't have to be wealthy to get good health care, a decent job and common sense works very well. A person that was born smart and has a low-paying job isn't considered too smart.
33. People who bust their you-know-whats for a living deserve better healthcare. If you sit on your bum all day, you don't deserve healthcare at all, but for some reason, the liberals in this country think that you do. What's more fair? I graduated high school with honors, and got an academic scholarship into college. I went to college for eight years (four at a University, and four in medical school... I'm not including my residency and fellowship). Needless to say, I busted my butt for over ten years, and paid my dues, while some of my peers were partying, doing drugs, and not working at all. For those of us who have paid our dues to get where we are, your question makes no sense. It seems to me that the only people who are really complaining about this issue are the people who don't make enough money for luxurious healthcare, or for those who are liberals in the middle-class who think that EVERYONE should have luxurious healthcare. If you don't like where you are, change it. I wasn't born in a privileged family. We had nothing when I was a kid. I had to depend on God, grades, and working part time jobs to get to where I am today. It's fair if you have worked as hard as I, and so many other Americans, have to acquire what we have now. I'm not going to bust my butt, and then be forced to hand over what I earn to people who are too lazy to work, or so unmotivated that they don't care to better themselves. By law, though, I DO have to render healthcare to anyone who enters the ER. Whether I get paid or not is a different story.