Oh gee, the founding fathers supported Socialized Healthcare.... Including the requirement to buy healthcare, of course they didn't have the tax breaks we have today...
Spread the word, because I want my fucking insurance exchange now!!!!
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Anonymous2011-01-25 10:20
This doesn't address the concern, even brought up in the first article, that the amount of tax required to maintain a health care system of that nature (for us, from scratch) would be tremendous and that many of these systems in other countries are discovering that better health care is increasingly expensive as time and technology roll on.
Call me crazy, but this actually sounded like an intent to protect port and population from the spread of disease by dissuading the intended carriers from being negligent, and a method for continuance of trade despite its own haphazard (at this time most "foreign trade" would mean at least a month or two out at sea devoted to just crossing an ocean). The federal-run facilities were the bone for the seamen and shipping companies who would have the bulk of the burden and otherwise no reward for it, as well as to ensure that the purposes of the bill could be enacted (it even says, paraphrased, "in ports where no accommodations exist").
I like how the act itself is concise and yet is very clear that only the people who would willingly put themselves into a position to be affected by the law would be the ones to pay for it. Even if it has since expanded erroneously to include normal income tax for funding, I like how it had been worded so as not to included unrelated parties. Especially the "Provided, that the moneys collected in any one district, shall be expended within the same" part.
(Only the first page of the law is showing for me; the image for the second is blank.)