Will Your Favorite Charities Suffer if Universal Health Care Becomes a Reality?
Americas are the most generous people on earth. We donate time and money to folks needing a helping hand and support charities working on their behalf. But some government programs are changing the way we give. For instance, “Cash for Clunkers” has reduced the number of vehicles received by organizations using cars as a means to generate money for worthwhile causes. Could establishment of a single-pay health care plan wipe out some of the country’s long-standing and beloved charities?
If we evolve into a single-source system, Christmas and Easter seals, the March of Dimes and various cancer related causes are potential casualties. Then there’s diabetes, sickle cell disease, and the fight against crippling afflictions funded by the Jerry Lewis Telethon. If everyone is on the same health care plan would these efforts be necessary? The government will fund research and treatment for all our medical needs. Right?
How about the hospitals funded and administered by special interest groups such as the Shriners Hospitals for Children, church hospitals of all religions, and other care providers that depend on private contributions such as Saint Jude’s, City of Hope and many more around the country. If we’re all under one plan, won’t we eventually have a nationwide hospital network overseen by the government’s health care czar and his/her team? That means no fund raising efforts will be required to run these institutions.
With limits being placed on charitable giving and taxes rising for the wealthiest among us, contributions will most likely be declining anyway. And for the rest of us, our disposal incomes will be shrinking for years to come as hidden taxes and inflation take their toll. For the increasing numbers of unemployed, working poor and folks on fixed incomes (like pre-boomers and older seniors), charity must begin at home.
If everyone has health insurance and medical care, individual problems will no longer be related through gut-wrenching stories that soften our hearts, and cause us to reach for our checkbooks to help the less fortunate. Instead, we will be multi-digit numbers in a health system administered under the watchful eye of the government through a universal plan that supposedly provides equal treatment for all.
Could this really happen in America? I pray not. It’s time to stop shouting at Town Hall meetings and complaining among friends and family. We pre-boomers need to say to our congressional representatives, “Stop the politics and come up with a bi-partisan plan that addresses those citizens who are uninsured, have pre-existing conditions, are out of work, need to transfer coverage to another state, or have special medical needs. Tackle these and report back to us with the results before attempting to dismantle a health care system that 85 percent of us are satisfied with. And next time, please listen rather than trying to sell us. Thank you.”
Good points but the sad truth is the government wants to destroy our current economic system. This is not about health care but power and control. The fix is simple. Free market principles. This works every time it is tried. Econ 101. By controlling the health care the government controls our lives. How? jobs, how much money we can make. Business and yes charities. This way the government is in charge of who gets help and who doesn’t. We lose our freedom. In the end this is what it is all about.
I am a Canadian and work in a hospital foundation as a development officer. We have had universal health care for many, many years and it is wonderful. When we are sick or in need of health care, we do not have to worry about cost and contrary to what is being reported do not have to wait for care.
There is no “big government” deciding who gets served or not, we are all equal and everyone gets care regardless of who they are.
The government pays for staff salaries and capital needs. We fundraise for equipment needs and assist with capital campaigns. Donors support us in amazing ways. All of the needs get met.
As for loss of freedom that is not the case here. We have more freedom to get the care that we need, when we need it. I have trouble understanding the opposition to such a wonderful program. We as Canadians are reluctant to move or travel in America as the health care costs are so high.
Charities will benefit not suffer a loss. I am hard pressed to understand what the opposition is.
I don’t know what all the concern is about … Canadian get sick too and we are well looked after. Our infant mortality rate is lower than that of the USA … our life expectancy is higher …. we don’t kill off our elderly … everyone is seen and looked after…. and our % of GNP is virtually half of what Americans pay.
Hospital Foundations raise money here for equipment and capital expansion … that will continue … that will probably continue in the USA too. No need to panic.
Don Potter seems more interested in the charities than in the people they are designed to help. Wouldn’t it be great if people knew their healthcare did not depend on the charitable whims of others? We need universal healthcare access for our citizens. Let citizens make their own choice from private or public options. The private healthcare industry has not demonstrated ability or willingness to keep costs down, especially in markets with limited choice.
I don’t know what you’re talking about Ms. Storch. “Wouldn’t it be great. . . .” that’s exactly right. “Wouldn’t it be great!”
But guess what, less than half the country is footing the bill for all these “wouldn’t it be great” ideas. 5% of the country foots almost the entire bill. Wouldn’t it be great if these people just came to your house and gave you money everyday? Wouldn’t it be great if money grew on trees? Wouldn’t it be great if nobody but the top 5% had to work so we could all sit around and eat free food with our food stamps, pay 1/2 price in low-income homes, get paid “unemployment” because we’re not working, get free cable because it’s un-American to reserve Cable TV just for the rich, and then get free health care for our obesity problem because we’ve just been sitting around watching Sally Jessie.
Wouldn’t it be great? And you know who’s going to win the next election? The guy who promises everybody all this stuff. Because, Ms. Storch, there are going to be people at the polling booth thinking “Wouldn’t it be great?”
Dan Morris´s last blog ..The January NAMS (Niche Affiliate Marketing System Workshop) – The Action Plan!
If cancer were eradicated, the American Cancer Society could go out of business. That’s the whole point! Mr. Morris, you might be sentimental about the “glory days of the American Cancer Society” but most people would be ecstatic to eradicate such a deadly disease. Most charities would consider the solution of society’s toughest problems to be their ultimate contribution! I’ve heard many arguments to preserve the terrible status quo for health care in this country, but this is the most misguided so far!