| donathos said: This is the same sort of rationale people use when discussing things like the consequences for smoking, or overeating, or living an unhealthy/dangerous lifestyle generally: if I take precautions and live wisely and you do not -- and you suffer the (obvious, easily predictable) effects -- why should I be made to pay for it? Why am I paying for your lousy choices? But that's the idea, isn't it? |
Insurance companies get away with penalizing you for your lifestyle. Car, house, life insurance all take your lifestyle into account to determine your premium. The idea is very much there, all around us, and widely accepted.
Why is healthcare different?
I assume healthcare insurance (to cover medication, not free here, and other treatments not covered by OHIP, big one being dental care) also takes your lifestyle choices into account.
You are free to do whatever you want, but the expectation to get a free bailout when you get yourself in trouble that you could have easily prevented yourself is a wrong one imo.
Living a dangerous lifestyle irresponsibly will get you footed with a rescue bill in case you mess up, if not arrested.
Smoking is an addiction, stupid to start smoking but shit happens. You can still lead a problem free life while smoking, but if you need frequent healthcare while ignoring the advice of doctors to change your lifestyle, then sure, pay for it yourself at some point.
Overeating can be an addiction as well, and also doesn't need to be a problem. Same as smoking, if it leads to needing frequent healthcare while ignoring advice to change your lifestyle, start paying out of your own pocket at some point.
Refusing a vaccine for no good reason is not an addiction.
Anyway, it's not just why am I paying for other people's lousy choices, it's why did my wife's friend nearly have to die and currently face a long recovery with one less lung because people couldn't be bothered to wear masks and adhere to lock downs, overwhelming the healthcare system. And my wife is still not getting proper care for her heart problems because the hospitals are still too busy fixing up unvaccinated covid patients.
Perhaps the threat of getting footed with the bill will persuade more people to get the vaccine. But maybe just let it run wild this winter, no more lock downs, triage protocol at hospitals, get everyone left immunity the natural way and be done with it. Not fair on the people working in healthcare though, they've been through enough. But this current 'status quo' active cases balanced against hospital capacity, is just giving the virus the perfect breeding ground for new variants to emerge.
"The strains of the Delta variant that we've seen are spreading much faster and causing more severe illness in younger people, and that remains the same," Henry said. "And our best defence continues to be being vaccinated."
The provincial health officer noted that COVID-19, like any virus, will continue mutating the more opportunities it has to spread to new hosts.
"There are now about 120 different sublineages of the Delta strain of the virus around the world," Henry said.
"Development of these new lineages, which are unique to geographic areas, are really expected over time when we have ongoing transmission in our communities."
