SB 107-02: Hospitals Act (Rejected)

[WD]

Hospitals Act  

1. All hospitals, clinics, hospice facilities, and nursing homes within the boundaries and under the legal jurisdiction of the Republic of Atlasia shall become property of the Republic of Atlasia effective January 1, 2022.
    1a. The owners of said properties shall be fairly compensated under all relevant law concerning the purchase of said properties.
2. All persons currently employed in the facilities mentioned in Section 1 shall become employees of the Republic of Atlasia effective January 1, 2022.
    2a. Employees covered by this Act shall elect a works council tasked with the day to day operations of the firm in question.
3. $1,000,000,000,000 will be allocated toward the construction of new hospitals, clinics, hospice facilities, and nursing homes over a period of five years, effective January 1, 2022.
4. Upon the passage of this legislation, no privately owned hospital, clinic, hospice facility, or nursing home may be built or opened in the Republic of Atlasia or in any area subject to its jurisdiction.
5. The AtlasCare program shall end on January 1, 2022.
6. Effective January 1, 2022, private hospital companies, insurance agencies, hospice care companies, and nursing home companies shall be placed under public ownership.
    5a. The owners of said properties shall be fairly compensated for any losses incurred as a result of said purchase of facilities.

Sponsor: Ishan

The gentleman from Northern Ireland is recognized.

[WD]

24 hours to object to the amendment

[WD]

I might support this.

In truth, I had not considered all aspects of this debate when I made this remark. One constituent PM'd me with a paragraph detailing reasons to oppose this, and one particular point in particular has convinced me this bill is something I should oppose - I hadn't considered it until then, but abolishing all private hospitals would result in even those who can afford superior medial treatment (so they can get better care, avoid waiting for very long, etcetra) do not have an option to do it. Were an amendment added to address this issue, I would consider supporting this bill, but as it currently stands, I am leaning towards opposing it.

There is no evidence that private healthcare is superior to public healthcare. That is a falsehood. Overall, I agree with the sponsor that healthcare should not be an avenue for profit generation and I support this bill.

[WD]

The issue that I would be considered a far-left winger on is healthcare, and I believe that healthcare is a human right which shouldn't be used for the intent of making profit and shouldn't be considered an industry.

Here's an amendment to the Act.

Hospitals Act

1. All hospitals, clinics, hospice facilities, and nursing homes within the boundaries and under the legal jurisdiction of the Republic of Atlasia shall become property of the Republic of Atlasia effective January 1, 20223.
    1a. The owners of said properties shall be fairly compensated under all relevant law concerning the purchase of said properties.
2. All persons currently employed in the facilities mentioned in Section 1 shall become employees of the Republic of Atlasia effective January 1, 20223.
    2a. Employees covered by this Act shall elect a works council tasked with the day to day operations of the firm in question.
3. $1,000,000,000,000 will be allocated toward the construction of new hospitals, clinics, hospice facilities, and nursing homes over a period of five years, effective January 1, 20223.
4. Upon the passage of this legislation, no privately owned hospital, clinic, hospice facility, or nursing home may be built or opened in the Republic of Atlasia or in any area subject to its jurisdiction.
5. The AtlasCare program shall end on January 1, 20223.
6. Effective January 1, 20223, private hospital companies, insurance agencies, hospice care companies, and nursing home companies shall be placed under public ownership.
    5a. The owners of said properties shall be fairly compensated for any losses incurred as a result of said purchase of facilities.

Amendment is adopted.

[WD]

To be clear - I would support this bill if at least one of two things happened:

a.) a broad majority of respondents to the poll I made indicate they support this bill
b.) an amendment was added to this bill allowing for SOME private hospitals to exist and for the wealthy to seek medical treatment there if they can afford it and want to do so

My office may draw up an amendment regarding the latter in a few days, while the former is ongoing.

Why should the wealthy be the ones who get better healthcare while the masses gets normal healthcare? I support a healthcare system that makes sure that all Atlasian citizens have the same quality of healthcare regardless of their income, and I would be willing to expand the amount allocated towards building new healthcare facilities and I'll introduce an amendment that'll allocate money to renovate/modernize existing healthcare facilities to improve the quality of those facilities.

Then it appears this is where our views on this subject diverge. I believe everyone should have access to healthcare, but I don't necessarily believe everyone needs to have equal access, especially if that access is quite frankly inferior and drags down those who can afford better. I definitely support those who don't have access to healthcare to get healthcare, but I don't think there's any need to force the wealthy to that same level of healthcare if they can afford superior healthcare and want it (and are willing to pay for it). This bill would be unfair to those people under the veil of equality. Everyone should have access to healthcare, but that shouldn't mean that some people are forced into having worse healthcare than they'd otherwise have - seems inferior. I am considering adding an amendment to address this; alternatively, if you want to, you could do it. If the amendment passed (I'd support it), then I would likely back this bill, but without an amendment to protect the wealthy and allow them to retain superior healthcare, I doubt this bill will be getting my vote (on a related note, I am tracking the results from my poll - the people are split about evenly, and I will thus vote my conscience on this bill).

But why? I, for one, do not believe you are entitled to better healthcare just because you are financially well off. And you talk about “protecting” the wealthy; why do those who are the most well off need “protection”. This viewpoint of wanting to protect to interests of the wealthy above all else is quite classist, if you ask me. A just society prioritizes and gives to those who are vulnerable and in need.

[WD]

24 hours to object

[WD]

With an objection being raised, a vote on the amendment is open.

Hospitals Act

1. All hospitals, clinics, hospice facilities, and nursing homes within the boundaries and under the legal jurisdiction of the Republic of Atlasia shall become property of the Republic of Atlasia effective January 1, 2023, with the exception of 20% of hospitals/clinics/hospice facilities/nursing homes, which are of the highest quality, as determined by governmental authorities and senators.
    1a. The owners of said properties shall be fairly compensated under all relevant law concerning the purchase of said properties.
2. All persons currently employed in the facilities mentioned in Section 1 shall become employees of the Republic of Atlasia effective January 1, 2023 (with the exception of those employed by the aforementioned 20%).
2a. Employees covered by this Act shall elect a works council tasked with the day to day operations of the firm in question.
3. $1,000,000,000,000 will be allocated toward the construction of new hospitals, clinics, hospice facilities, and nursing homes over a period of five years, effective January 1, 2023.
4. Upon the passage of this legislation, no privately owned hospital, clinic, hospice facility, or nursing home may be built or opened in the Republic of Atlasia or in any area subject to its jurisdiction, unless they have been approved through due process by appropriate governmental authorities and are authorized to proceed. The 20% already existing shall be allowed to remain and function independently.
5. The AtlasCare program shall end on January 1, 2023.
6. Effective January 1, 2023, private hospital companies, insurance agencies, hospice care companies, and nursing home companies shall be placed under public ownership, with exception to the aforementioned 20% of facilities.
    65a. The owners of said properties shall be fairly compensated for any losses incurred as a result of said purchase of facilities.
7. Hereafter, healthcare, health services, etcetra, in the 80% of hospitals and medical facilities owned by the government, shall be the responsibility of the government. The other 20% that are independent of the government will provide care at a cost at their discretion entirely. Anyone who chooses to seek medical treatment from one of these facilities shall be entitled to do so at terms set between them and the facility. The government shall not intervene whatsoever in this, nor set any regulations or restrictions on it, and their ability to intervene shall be restrained to the 80% of hospitals and medical facilities they own.

Senators, please vote Aye, Nay, or Abstain.

[WD]

Nay

[WD]

What about this bill is “literal communism”? What do you think communism is?

[WD]

What about this bill is “literal communism”? What do you think communism is?

Since you don't seem to know the meaning of communism, this Wikipedia page should help, particularly this quote (the bolded should be particularly helpful):

[Communism is] a socioeconomic order structured upon the ideas of common ownership of the means of production [in this case, the healthcare industry] and the absence of social classes [everyone would be forced into the same healthcare regardless of their social class], money, and the state.

If this isn't helpful in your understanding the definition of communism, try Google.

This bill works towards none of that. And I know what communism is, thank you very much.

[WD]

What about this bill is “literal communism”? What do you think communism is?

Since you don't seem to know the meaning of communism, this Wikipedia page should help, particularly this quote (the bolded should be particularly helpful):

[Communism is] a socioeconomic order structured upon the ideas of common ownership of the means of production [in this case, the healthcare industry] and the absence of social classes [everyone would be forced into the same healthcare regardless of their social class], money, and the state.

If this isn't helpful in your understanding the definition of communism, try Google.

This bill works towards none of that. And I know what communism is, thank you very much.

Actually, it does, since it intends to allow public (i.e., common) ownership of the entire healthcare industry (not exactly a means of production, but in essence the same point). It will destroy an entire industry and make it 'publicly owned' and will in fact blunten (though not actually remove) social class by forcing everyone regardless of whether they can afford better healthcare or not into the same healthcare.

Social class will exist regardless of the ownership status of the healthcare industry.

[WD]

Vote on the amendment:

Aye (3): CentristRepublican, S019, Ishan

Nay (8 : Western Democrat, Discovolante, Kuumo, West Midlander, OBD, Dabbing Santa, Old School Republican, DeadPrez

Abstain (1): Muad’dib

Not voting (6): North Carolina Yankee, Joseph Cao, MB, Tack, Pericles, Spark

Amendment is rejected, debate resumes.

[WD]

I object.

Frankly, all you are doing is either delaying things further (basically fillibustering) or you are actually opposing something that will allow for a public option of sorts.

Why was the vote closed early, anyway? We hadn't reached a majority threshold against.

No particular reason. I’ll take care to keep votes open longer going forward.

[WD]

Opening a final vote in 24 hours.

[WD]

Hospitals Act

1. All hospitals, clinics, hospice facilities, and nursing homes within the boundaries and under the legal jurisdiction of the Republic of Atlasia shall become property of the Republic of Atlasia effective January 1, 2023.
    1a. The owners of said properties shall be fairly compensated under all relevant law concerning the purchase of said properties.
2. All persons currently employed in the facilities mentioned in Section 1 shall become employees of the Republic of Atlasia effective January 1, 2023.
    2a. Employees covered by this Act shall elect a works council tasked with the day to day operations of the firm in question.
3. $1,000,000,000,000 will be allocated toward the construction of new hospitals, clinics, hospice facilities, and nursing homes over a period of five years, effective January 1, 2023.
4. Upon the passage of this legislation, no privately owned hospital, clinic, hospice facility, or nursing home may be built or opened in the Republic of Atlasia or in any area subject to its jurisdiction.
5. The AtlasCare program shall end on January 1, 2023.
6. Effective January 1, 2023, private hospital companies, insurance agencies, hospice care companies, and nursing home companies shall be placed under public ownership.
    5a. The owners of said properties shall be fairly compensated for any losses incurred as a result of said purchase of facilities.

A final vote is now open. Senators, please vote Aye, Nay, or Abstain.

[WD]

Aye

[WD]

Aye (7): Ishan, Tack, Discolovante, MB, Western Democrat, OBD, Kuumo

Nay (10): Old School Republican, Dabbing Santa, Spark, West Midlander, Pericles, CentristRepublican, S019, DeadPrez, Joseph Cao, North Carolina Yankee

Not voting (1): Muad’dib

This bill is rejected