kiri2tsubasa said:
Honestly, why should I pay for other peoples hospital visits? No really why should I? I have no desire or want to do that.
It's generally the same reason as for why the police, fire department and education system paid for via public dollars; we all benefit from a healthier population, and a population in which they can get health care when they need it. Even if we, personally, do not need this service on a (reasonably) predictable basis, we all benefit from having it available.
For example: You go to a public place with a large number of strangers around and where people are working. (a game store, a computer store, a movie, a concert, a sporting event, a place of worship, public transport, a bank, to a mall, etc.) If the people who are there are healthy, you are unlikely to become ill. If the people who are supposed to be there (mall security, investment advisers, bus drivers, bus riders, etc.) are able to get proper medical care when they are ill, they are less likely to be ill when you are there. This means that you are less likely to get ill and less likely to require medical attention for illness. This is a large reason why the seasonal flu shots are either free or practically free. (Many places will charge an administrative fee; Macomb county in Michigan has a $15 charge,for example. Other places it can cost over $30.) In Ontario we get it for free because it decreased the amount of flu patients coming into our medical system substantially (a reduction of 60% in cases of the flu, and a reduction of costs of treading the remaining patients by 50%), so having this sort of free health care benefits everyone. I would imagine that similar stats can be found across the world where the flu vaccine is available, and the wider the spread of the vaccine the greater the benefit to the society.
Another example: A bus driver becomes infirm and cannot work anymore, due to a medical condition which is treatable with surgery but is prohibitively expensive for the driver. This necessitates a new driver be hired and trained, which costs the bus company a large amount of resources to hire and train the new driver, to cover the shifts of the driver who is no longer working and to ensure that schedules are met during the training period of the new driver. This increases the cost to the rider, increases the amount of traffic on the roads (as the new driver is not as competent as the previous driver, the new driver will be slower, block more traffic during their route, etc.), increases the amount of fuel consumption which helps to drive up demand for fuel. This may look like a minor cost in a single area, but take that same general situation and apply it to other industries. Bank tellers, store cashiers, cameramen, network administrators, nurse receptionists, truck drivers, farm workers, police officers, teachers, construction workers, business executives, etc.
Every business is hurt by having people leave due to illness and infirmities. And every business passes that hurt along to their customers. You pay a bit more for food because shipping companies charge more to accommodate for the cost of training new drivers. You wait longer at the bank to account for a new teller learning the ropes. You spend more time in traffic because of new drivers on the road slowing traffic down as they learn their new routes. Less ad space is purchased by a company because a new Executive is taking over and there isn't a new campaign yet. Your street is full of potholes for an additional month because the new construction workers are on a learning curve and aren't able to work to the same efficiency as the previous ones. Your strawberries only last 3 days in the fridge instead of 6 because it takes more time to get them from the field to your table as new workers throughout the supply chain adjust to their new position. Etc.
We all benefit from having a healthy society. The benefits may be modest (having the luxury of buying a pound of strawberries for the week, instead of having to get a half pound on Monday and another half pound on Wednesday or Thursday) or difficult to properly attribute, but they are there.
