Is it the state's job to provide free healthcare and education? Should this only be for the most needy? Should everything be private?

I don't want to turn this into a rant about Taxes but the main reason we pay them is to run public services. And if the government didn't do it we'd have hospitals competing to cut prices and waiting times.... It could really make the whole thing much worse offf....

Everyone should have access to free health, dental and optometrist treatments. Like Fayreview said, thats what we pay for.

I'm of the opinion that healthcare and education should be basic human rights and not privileges reserved for rich people. I've been living in the UK for about a year and a half, and I'm still annoyed by the fact that universities here have tuition fees. Where I come from (Finland), educational establishments aren't allowed to have tuition fees, apart from very few (mostly religious) ones that don't get full government support. That basically means no private schools and not nearly as much class separation. The NHS works much better than our health care system though. I can actually get a GP appointment within a week of booking, sometimes the next day. Back in Finland, I'd get to wait 3-4 weeks, and that's if I was lucky.

Hell, I'm of the opinion that a high-speed internet should be a fundamental human right.

But then, I can lean to the socialist side of things at times...

In Scotland we don't have tuition fees, our laws are slightly different to the rest of the UK. At my GP's practice I can get a same or next day appointment every time, plus in Scotland we have free personal care for the elderly. You wouldn't believe the amount of English people who retire to Scotland due to our better public services

In answer to the original question, yes the state should provide free education and health care, that's what we pay our taxes for. I think alot of people wouldn't be able to afford private health care, I know I couldn't, and the private health insurance has so many get-out clauses it's not really worth paying for.

I wish our public universities were free. But no, it costs two arms and one leg, plus your firstborn if you want a 4 year degree. I'll be in debt several years to pay off a loan for a degree I didn't even get.

The states should provide free education and healthcare. But not only are universities not free, neither is healthcare. I'm fighting with the 'free' hospital over a WORKER'S COMPENSATION case. My employer already said it's worker's comp, their insurance company is taking it as worker's comp, I just can't seem to get the hospital to understand that it's worker's comp.

I'm actually in Scotland too, and I wasn't aware of the tuition situation here, I just assumed it was the same all over the UK. Shame on me for that.

I also agree that in the US healthcare and university should be free. Now only the welathier can afford these and they should be considered basic human rights in a society that brags about it's demoncracy. And for those who say the government would mess it up, forget it! I'm disabled and on Medicare and I have never had a problem with getting my services in a timely way. However, pharmaceuticals are killing me. I spend half my monthly income on medicines which are widely and commmonly used and should be made available to us for low cost or free. If we can spend billions on the occupation of Iraq which is only to make the oil companies rich, that money should be directed back to the help the people whio pay the taxes.

Yeah, it's just free to Scots though, we charge the English and overseas students :D. I was lucky that I went through uni when we still had decent grants, nowadays even without tuition fees to pay it's still very expensive, I started saving for my kids uni funds as soon as they were born!

edejean, you might wanna check out Wal-Mart's $4 program. There are a bunch of prescriptions on it that are only $4 for a monthly supply. That might help.

education and healthcare should be provided by the state (for lack of a better word), we pay taxes through the nose and yet if i or hubby gets ill we have to dose up on ny-quil and pray it's not anything serious. for healthy adults to get medicaid (non-senior/disabled public health care) is nigh on impossible. the income qualifications are ridiculous lets see a family of 3 making 30k a year is disqualifyed, yet that family can not afford private insurance and so the cycle continues. and even if we can scrape up the 65 bucks to see a GP when we are sick, prescription costs are out of the question and forget it if the Doc wants to run additional tests like blood work or CAT scans. thats money we just don't have.

more importantsly (to me) is the right to QUALITY healthcare that is free/affordable. the US is a mess in regard to taking care of it's people,leaving all the power and resources in the hands of the most wealthy and leaving the rest of us average workin joes a pile of sows ears and expecting us to produce silk purses.....

but i digress for that is a rant for another day.

I hear that, longdaysend. I'm in the same boat. My daughter qualifies for Medicaid through our LACHIP program, but I lost my Medicaid in April '05 after I had her in December '04. I'm going to call and ask about Medicaid again, but I don't think I'll qualify.