I presume that would mean no public health monies for those who contract STDs (including AIDS) due to their own sexual behavior, no public monies for abortions except in cases of rape, no public monies for people who get hurt because they are addicted to exercise (they are out there). If you don't agree with all these things, then what right have you to say that public monies should be withheld from other groups who have health problems due to their own choices?
No one is perfect so all of us make bad choices. There's a limit to blame and personal responsibility. I recognize that. Also, I'm not insensitive to practical difficulties, or to special circumstances. It may turn out that what I'm advocating is impossible.
But it's a possibility which should be explored.
Put me down with him in the "wouldn't it be nice" category. Private health insurance is the solution to these particular problems. Ideally, it would be *the* solution and I wouldn't see a paycheck deduction for Medicare, etc.
Maybe it's hard-hearted for me to say so, but when it comes right down to it, if it costs somebody a lot for health insurance, or he loses the insurance because he fouled up, that's morally not as bad as me being forced at gunpoint every other Friday (i.e., payroll taxes of one kind or (actually "and") another) to hand over my money to him and people like him for no personal benefit whatsoever.