"hifi-tek" wrote in message
m...
snip
The biggest problem with health insurance in general, is that the poorest
people, who can least afford it, are the very ones who need it the most.
Because of ignorance, lifestyle choices, attitude, etc. the poorest sector
of the population is the one you most see frequenting the ER departments
at hospitals. There is no solution to this dilemma except to have the
upper middle class and the rich help subsidize health care for the poor.
We will always have the poor with us, and there is some social
responsibility for the more affluent to help take care of the less
fortunate. This is not redistributon of wealth, it is simply, "help your
fellow man". "Deal with poverty in this country," sounds noble and good,
but here in America, we have been trying to deal with poverty for many
years. Johnson's war on poverty and its ilk has cost this country $500
billion over 45 years, and I have yet to see a noticeable decrease in the
numeric percentage of poor people vs. non poor. Having said that, even
the very wealthy sometimes do not benefit from our health care system. Tim
Russert is a good example. No amount of sophisticated health care was able
to help him. Sadly, I might add. He was a good guy, he'll be missed . . .
Just my .02 worth (adjusted for inflation)
Regards,
Tom

Tom,

Yes, it's vexing, isn't it? Canada has been trying to deal with "poverty
and its ilk" for many years now, especially as it concerns health care, but
as you point out, the poor are quite stupid and they continually make bad
choices. This makes it very difficult to help them, since they don't always
follow our "suggestions".

I'm sure if you have any actual ideas as to how we could improve our stats,
they would be eagerly accepted.

This "help your fellow man" thing is getting tiresome, I agree. It's driven
our taxes to the stratosphere!