Because simply put, America is Corrupt

Since when are schools, fire departments, or police departments free? Besides, many hospitals are privately owned, for profit companies, looking to make a profit. You can't make a profit if you give away goods and services, which the hospital has to first pay for themselves. OH, and PS -- even for profit hospitals will save a dying person. Once saved, that person will have to find a way to pay for services rendered, as they should.

Nothing is free. If that is what you want move to Canada and enjoy their higher taxation. Me I'll continue to pay my private health insurance, but I will not pay for you to get a free ride.

Of course they arent free, our taxes pay for it. But what im saying is that why do we even have Public Schools, fire departments, etc, funded by the government but not hospitals?

Nothing is free exactly... It all gets paid for in the long run and by us too.

cause medicine is a money making business. They don't care if you die, as long as you can pay the bill. People assume that everyone can go to an ER and get treated..no they can't. I had insurance and I had kidney stones and they asked me to go to a clinic and wait to be seen because my insurance didn't consider it Necessary. People assume that if a person has medicare/medicaid all problems are solved..no they are not. I have both of those and some of the meds I needed, they won't cover so I had to switch to a different med that doesn't work as well. Illegal immigrants get millions in healthcare yearly but US citizens can't see a MD unless they have a 50.00 payment and they pay into the system. Sucks doesn't it. Tells you where the priorities are with politicians doesn't it. Medicine is all about making money.. that's it. I need a medical procedure done which will cost me $20,000 which medicare/medicaid does not pay. NO doctor will treat me without cash up front. money making business

Because socialism doesn't work when people are involved. Honestly, that's a staple of socialism: Free, state provided health care. Of course, taxes are socialist, so they aren't entirely free, but everyone contributes and everyone benefits. Unfortunately, when people are involved, and Mr. Green notices that Mr. Blue isn't doing as high quality work as he is but reaps the same rewards, Mr. Green gets less-than-gruntled. Now, if everyone would actually do an honest effort, it would work. But people don't, so it doesn't, so we pay for our health care.

Nothing is free. We all pay for schools, fire departments, police, etc. We are not paying for a war to "kill people". We are paying for a war to protect YOU and me from radical islamist terrorists that would slit your throat in the name of Allah if they had the chance. We are the most generous country on this planet, even in warfare. We go out of our way, often to a fault, in order to avoid civilian casualties in battle. This country pays *alot* for medicine to save people. Medicare and Medicaid, as well as the prescription drug benefit, pay out *billions* of dollars to care for those who cannot pay for themselves. If you show up in a hospital e.r. with an emergency and no insurance, you will receive treatment, and the taxpayer will pay for it.

I certainly agree with the money being thrown away for a war when we could get health care. Our taxes pay for schools, fire companies, police, etc. I don't want my taxes any higher, not to live in this crappy town. That said, we are in this war we don't want, and we just have to think of the troops that are there now. That's how I see it. They are giving their lives, so until they're all home that's how it has to be!

Medicine is big business and so is war.

Sorry to say this. But nothing Worldly is FREE.

These are not free, we pay dearly in taxes for all of this "assistance", although I understand where you are coming from. I often wonder why atheletes are paid millions to play a game when there are families who can't buy groceries to feed their children? Doesn't seem fair does it?

You know, this is wrong in so many ways. None of the items you listed as 'free' above are free. They are paid for by all those taxes that you and I and everybody else pay. Paid for dearly with our hard earned taxes, I might add. And we have Medicaid and Medicare programs, also. Again, conveniently paid for by our taxes. And don't forget social security, welfare programs, federal disaster relief programs, farmers subsistence programs, and more. Billions and billions of dollars go into these programs. We pay a premium price on medical care for a variety of reasons. First of all, it's a field which deals DIRECTLY with our human health. And for some reason, we seem to think that if a doctor screws something up he should be hammered. And rightly so. This is what makes the field so expensive. Even drug R&D aside, health care would STILL be expensive. Throw in some frivolous law suits on top of the justified law suits and now you have HUGE insurance requirements for people in the medical field, which end up being passed on to the patients. Government subsidized medical care doesn't change that. It just makes it easier for everybody in the medical field to get more money from all of us, because a large portion of he population would now feel like they aren't paying for it anyway, so who cares? It just amazes me that with so many things that we set up our government to provide for us, we STILL b*tch about something else that it DOESN'T provide us for 'free'. And as for this 'war' thing, I personally don't give a darn what anybody thinks: the fact remains that over 3,000 American civilians DIED in a cowardly attack on innocent civilians on American soil. And I'm NOT counting those in the Pentagon. They, at least, understood that their lives may be sacrificed for the American citizens they worked for. Those in the aircraft and the twin towers not only had no choice, they had no reasonable expectation of being in that kind of danger. 3,000 plus people whom I, and every other servicemember, SWORE to protect DIED. YOUR brothers and sisters in citizenship, as well as mine. I could accept that if it were MY brothers and sisters in arms. It's a possibility that we understand inherent with who we are. I do NOT accept it for the rest of my fellow citizens, not even if it were people I personally do not like. The only thing that truly prevented us from being in a no-sh*t Congressionally declared war was the simple fact that terrorists aren't a national organization. So they must be tracked down by other means; following financial trails back to people, companies, and nations who support their activities, covert operations and intelligence reports, and more. +5 because you brought up a point that many people often wonder about.

And that, Americans, is the question we should be asking our leaders.