[whitedog57]

I agree. The problem really lies with 71 1/2 and over. They want heart transplants and want us to pay for it.

As I have said before, we just allocate a percentage of GDP to Medicare and be done with it. But Obama wants to cut healthcare to people over 65 and give it to illegal immigrants.

F*ck Obama!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

[utahagen]

Wacky cheapness afflicts the under 65 set, too. I know women who will not get mammograms unless insurance covers them. I've told some friends if their insurance companies won't cover mammograms until, say, age 40, they should just pay for the mammograms themselves. (Yes, there are places that don't accept insurance that will give and analyze mammograms for paying patients.) But most peoples’ reaction is, “I'm not going to pay for a mammogram!” That's just great, isn't it? People who pay a couple of hundreds of dollars a month on cable and internet balk at paying for a test that could save their lives.

[pharmamom]

To be sure, end of life care and the costs associated with it is an ethical issue we need to address. What we don’t need, though, is for the government to address it for us. And end of life care is a different question than allocating resources to seniors for routine care...we do not want to be in the position of having the government deciding at what point a life loses value.

From what I read, the bulk of our healthcare $ are spent on a minority of the populace with chronic disease (80/20). That 20% is probably mostly of an older age, but not necessarily. Do we want the government denying care to a 40-year-old with chronic disease because they have used up “their share?”

The government needs to free up the market for something that is truly “insurance;” people need to pony up for their routine maintenance care; and conversations about end-of-life care and extraordinary measures need to take place privately, among family members, not with the government bean-counters.

[tina07]

I second the last two words of your post and say them almost daily!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!