The US is a rich country. We can afford to take care of the sick. What we can't afford is to continue to pay what we are being charged for that care. The US pays upwards of twice as much on healthcare as any like economy, but our healthcare outcomes are worse. The solution is not to cut benefits. The solution is to raise standards and cut costs.
There is a moral imperative to provide healthcare to our children, sick and elderly. Cutting benefits should not be an option.
The U.S. spent about $7,000 per capita in 2008 on health care. Peer countries, like Japan and the U.K., spend about half that amount and achieve equally good results, as measured, for example, by life expectancy at birth.
taken from:
http://www.forbes.com/...
The point I'm trying to make is that we don't have a benefits problem. We don't. We don't need to cut people's benefits because providing health care is supposedly bankrupting the country. We are spending too much on the health care we are receiving. Making our health care systems solvent and reducing our federal deficit does not require cutting benefits. It requires cutting costs. It's a simple argument. I'd like to hear it more.