DNA of relative indicts man, cuckolding ignored

[Neil Johnson]

On Monday 07 July 2003 07:53 pm, Stormwalker wrote:

>
>    Medical insurance is about maintenence of our lives. You do not
>    need to participate, but I'll bet if you get hurt, you'll head
>    to the nearest emergency room. The pool I speak of is simply that
>    I may need the services now and you may need some later. We all have
>    shared types of services and very specific service. I will most likely
>    never need medical services for AIDS, but I have used them for broken
>    bones. I will never need them for gyno or for giving birth services,
>    but I may need them for prostrate problems. We all use them when we are
>    born.
>

Bzzzzt. Tim is correct. Companies that provide medical insurance are betting 
that you will require $X dollars of medical treatment and then charge you $Y 
dollars hoping that $Y > $X (including the interest earned by investing $Y).

The problem is that as you get older, the probability of you needing $$$ of 
medical treatment goes up and even higher if you engage in unhealthy 
practices (smoking,  overeating, etc.).

The gubmint's solution to this is what you are talking about... "Medicare". 
The fundamental assumption is that their are more healthy people than sick 
ones so that the premiums payed by the healthy people can be used to pay for 
medical care for the sick.

Unfortunately, there are two things wrong with this assumption. 1) Amazing 
advances in medical technology that allow people who are sick to live longer, 
but are very expensive, which leads to 2) more older (and less healthy) 
people than young (and more healthy) people.

If we are going to continue with the idea of Medicare then society has a whole 
must begin to make tough decisions on how to ration healthcare (ever heard of 
triage ?).  Which makes more sense: Spend $X dollars on some 80 year old's 
heart/lung transplant so he can live another 10 years, or spend that money on 
make sure an unwed mother's baby is born healthy?  (Note: either choice has 
it's  own sets of costs and rewards).
-- 
Neil Johnson
http://www.njohnsn.com
PGP key available on request.