Actual conversations with real Socialists give me some of my best material and make me a truly Green and Earth Friendly writer. I actually get to RECYCLE my social media discussions and turn them into articles. In this discussion, I have changed the name of my antagonist to “Caring and Compassionate Socialist” to place all such of his or her type into a Universal System, as is their preference.

Caring and Compassionate Socialist,

First, you don't need universal health care mandated by a punitive tax that can be upheld with FORCE by the Federal Government to correct legal incongruities like "pre-existing conditions, malpractice costs and transportability" (the 3 biggies). I'm sure, like me Caring and Compassionate Socialist, that you have lived in countries for a combined total of 10 years of your life in countries with mandated socialized medicine. I speak from experience. I lived in the UK for 3 years where my first daughter was born in a hospital that looked like a movie set from an early 1950's Dr. Kildaire movie and where a collection of towns could rely on exactly ONE on duty physician and one pharmacy to attend to all of its urgent care needs, which was horrible when your child was struck with a fever in the evening and the NHC waiting list for your "duty" physician was already full (actually happened while I sat POWERLESS and OPTIONLESS with a months old child with a 104 degree fever... oh, Caring and Compassionate Socialist, to only imagine how some kind-hearted Socialists I know would behave in that situation). In Germany, where I lived for two years and had 13 actual German employees (who paid on average 54% of their incomes in taxes; I KNOW because I SAW their pay statements). One such actual German employee who actually worked for me and was subject to the humane beauty of nationalized health care, slipped on ice one morning and landed on her shoulder, shattering it. Well, under Germany's "free" national health care system, she went on the "orthopedic surgery waiting list" with her arm in a ceiling-suspended sling (over her head!) FOR NINE DAYS! You would have had no fewer than several dozen fits had it been you or one of your family members in a similar situation, but hey! it was FREE, right? (with the exception of the roughly 50% of her income that went to pay for such things). Well, I visited her EVERY DAY and EVERY DAY for nine days, she lay there, in a bed with an iron-rod headboard, in pain, waiting for her turn FOR NINE DAYS to have "URGENT" surgery. A non-urgent case would have had her waiting for many months. While waiting in her circa-1950's hospital bed in a room with nothing but a dirty window (again, you'd have been FREAKING OUT!) she was very uncomfortable. I was looking for the button to raise the head of her bed and couldn't find it anywhere. Well, it was obviously an old bed (in one of Berlin's PREMIER "free" and compassionate hospitals), so I sojourned to the foot of the bed where a hand crank would usually be. Nope. I called the nurse and asked her in German to kindly "crank" up the head of poor Frau Heidrun's bed. You see, Caring and Compassionate Socialist, I speak actual German and I did so very well when I actually lived in actual Germany with its actual Germans who were subjected to its actual national healthcare program. Anyway, in this real-life setting that trumps any discussion we can have on our keyboards, Caring and Compassionate Socialist, the nurse, truly looking annoyed (as is custom in most places where one expects friendly service in entitlement friendly Berlin), said, "Moment, bitte," ("one moment, please") and left the room rolling her eyeballs up in her head. 10 or so minutes later she arrived with 3 pillows, at which point she sought my assistance lifting poor Frau Heidrun up (in excruciating pain) so that the nurse could prop her up with pillows. When Frau Heidrun eventually had her "urgent" surgery nine days into bones mending themselves in a most ugly way, the Doctors had to "resmash" her shoulder (exact description from the Dr. to me), then scrape it out. He said that if she had had private health insurance, she could have gotten surgery right away and the result would have been much better. In other words, through the enforcement of the kind and fair national health system (and it's like this in ALL countries with national health programs), German social engineers actually created a system that did what it actually sought to avoid; only the RICH (most of them good Socialists) can afford EXCELLENT healthcare, synonymous with what EVERYONE gets in the U.S. Everyone else gets the same mediocre (at best) healthcare that the tax-revenue-based system could provide. In Italy, where one of my sailor's husband's nearly got his leg chopped off in a motorcycle accident, he was prone in one of Rome's BEST hospitals having dressings on his leg changed daily and then having it cuffed in some oxygen boot to prevent it from rotting for over a month, while he waited to have "emergency" surgery, which eventually led to him losing his foot. Shall I go on, Caring and Compassionate Socialist? I can. For every one of your emotions-based and keyboard manifested sob stories about some pre-existing conditions cases (where the person actually DOES land in the Medicaid system with the same excellent care everyone else gets (a TRUE safety net!), I can give you several where the actual national health systems in which I have actually lived have left its actual patients whom I actually know maimed, crippled, or dead and their nations on the brink of financial ruin and their populations with flat or declining life expectancy rates. Someday Caring and Compassionate Socialist, you will run out of emotions from which to base your arguments (and your well is deep, granted) and you will have to rely on facts. And spare me the story of the college student or young adult who WILLFULLY ignores their responsibility to purchase health insurance and is left with a huge hospital bill for which they irresponsibly failed to prepare themselves. Same people want me to pay their student loans. I know I didn't get through to you. In fact, I strengthened your resolve to seek out like-minded people who believe themselves more caring than I. Eventually, you will run out of productive and willing people to pick up the tab, not for people who are truly destitute, but for those who want the best and are forced to accept universal mediocrity that decides to leave them crippled or let them die for the benefit of allowing you and your Socialist friends to congratulate each other and look upon each other with tear soaked eyes on how much more caring you are than people like me. Yes! They all get healthcare! Your arguments are shallow and silly and I highly encourage their postings upon my wall.