If people paid for their own health care, they'd be less inclined to lead unhealthy lifestyles. Fatasses aren't going to bankrupt me.
Other than 1 regular doctor check up every 2 years, I haven't had to see a doctor for an illness since I was in my single digit years.
Exercise regularly, eat a healthy diet of whole grains, lean meats and fresh vegatables and fruit and I don't drink hardly at all nor have I ever smoked.
I drink like a fish, smoke two packs a day and mind my own beeswax.
I also walk a minimum of two miles a day, eat whatever falls down in front of me and except for broken bones, have been sick exactly three days in the last fifty years.
Fight the power, screw socialized medicine, take care of your family and friends.
Maybe I'm too much of an old Yankee, because I think minding one's own business is a virtue.
Genetics play a much larger role in your health than you're admitting. My best friend who I grew up with and I share similiar lifestyles, diets, etc, but he had a heart attack at 40. Coincidence of coincidences, his father died from a heart attack at the age of 46. He now has to eat much healthier and take medications to keep his cholesterol and triglycerides at levels that my body does naturally with a diet that's not near as healthy as his.
That's it in one sentence. And if you're truly poor you can do just fine on lentils and beans and skim milk instead of meat.
The problem is education not poverty. Cut out frying food in cheap oil, the white flour, the TV-marketed convenience foods, and the fast food "meals" and it's amazing how much real food you can afford for the same money. You don't need an expensive gym membership, either. If your job keeps you sedentary all day, a brisk twenty minute walk after dinner will go a long, long way.