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In reply to the discussion: Why are Americans so resistant to Universal Healthcare? [View all]Azathoth
(4,609 posts)Every rugged individualist asshole fancies himself a veritable Jack LaLane because he doesn't smoke (well, except for those few years in his teens, and his twenties, and one or two in his thirties) and hits the gym twice a week to watch TV pump iron (which does nothing for his cardiovascular health) and takes expensive vitamin supplements (which scientifically do nothing). The guy down the street is overweight because he's lazy and made poor life choices, but I'm overweight with heart disease because it's genetic and I have a slow metabolism. Yeah sure. This hypocrisy is cartoonish. Obesity, for instance, is so widespread that, statistically speaking, anyone who sneers at paying higher taxes to cover people suffering with it is either sneering at herself, or at her future self, or at a family member.
The simple truth is that younger people are healthier and older people are sicker. It works that way whether you're talking cats or antelopes or humans. Almost half of the top 5% of healthcare spenders are 65+. And the chronic conditions in that group tend to be things like hypertension and cancer and diabetes, not BASE jumping injuries and drug-using AIDS patients. The 30-year-old who doesn't want to pay for some 60-year-old's "lifestyle choices" will be screaming for that help when he turns 60.