General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Why are Americans so resistant to Universal Healthcare? [View all]Calculating
(2,955 posts)As a healthy 20-30 year old, is it right that somebody should need to pay higher taxes to provide free healthcare to a morbidly obese cigarette smoker with diabetes who is costing 20-30x what their yearly healthcare costs? How about all of the old people who might use up $100k or more in medical expenses just to prolong their life a few more years? The costliest patients account for the VAST majority of medical expenses in this country. People get especially touchy because many of these expenses are the result of poor lifestyle choices. Obesity, alcoholism, cigarette smoking, people who break a limb skiing or doing other extreme sports, drug users, people with AIDS, etc. The healthy productive people tend to get positively livid at the thought of paying higher taxes to subsidize the medical expenses of unhealthy lifestyles.