# Health care horror story #13848732 **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 26, 2009, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612 "2009-12-26T08:01:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 319
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612/319 "2010-01-06T06:47:10Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > I’m not the one calling everyone taking government government money a leech, but still taking a government check every month. I have never said that - this is just another example of your trying to paint me as something I’m not. > [@](#): > > You ARE that person - I call them like I see them. And if other people believe it, it’s not because of what I say it’s because they see it, too. No, all they do is repeat things you have said, which are not true. Such as my saying that “everyone taking government money is a leech”. You know damn well I never said anything of the sort - if nothing else, that would include people like mailmen. > [@](#): > > And you assume everyone but yourself is a leech. You’re disabled, right? _You’re getting life-long, continued support_ now. HOW are you any different now than the people you so openly despise? Well, for one thing that “despise” business is all in your head. I guess it is because you are unable to feel anything but that for those that you don’t agree with. For another, the people that I am tired of supporting are those who have made very little, if any, contribution to society. They haven’t worked much, if at all; they tend to be involved in some sort of illegal activity; they feel entitled to support and see nothing wrong with spending their lives doing whatever they want without working for it. The people who drop out of high school and go to work in McDonalds or a gas station, have a couple of kids and then whine because they can’t afford a house and/or insurance. Of course, I’ve said these things over and over, but you just ignore it and make up what you’d rather see. Such as you purposefully misunderstanding the terms life-long and support. I am not getting life-long payments from the government, since I didn’t get any until I was 52. Neither am I supported by the government - I doubt anyone could live on Social Security by itself, and I am only getting half that. > [@](#): > > I don’t “begrudge” you your payments - it’s your _attitude_ I find revolting. My “attitude” is that it is rapidly becoming difficult to understand why anyone works hard to earn a decent living, when people like you seem to think nothing of just taking that hard earned money away and handing it to someone else. And not expecting those other people to even justify their need. > [@Meyer6](#): > > you just said it was selfish for people to use their insurance to cover such things. No, I didn’t. > [@](#): > > Like it or not, child-bearing is what we _do_. It’s what we were designed for. It’s basically the whole point of any species on Earth. Wow. That’s sad. All I can say is if the only reason we are here is to reproduce, what are we doing with all the things we have that have nothing to do with having children? > [@](#): > > You’re right that overpopulation of the planet is a problem, but for people to have no children at all is not the solution (particularly in North America). I didn’t say anything about no children. > [@](#): > > In fact, the birth rate in the USA and Canada has hovered at around 2.1 children per couple for years, a rate which is consistent with population maintainance and not growth. Immaterial in a population that is already too big. And in some areas, such as [California](http://recenter.tamu.edu/data/pops/pops06.htm), population continues to grow, with more than half a million babies born each year for the last 17 years. [Washington](http://recenter.tamu.edu/data/pops/pops53.htm) is also growing, tho at a slower rate. Another thing - 2.1 children per couple is no long a population maintenance figure. People live too long these days, so by the time the average couple dies, they have created 2 kids, 4 grandkids and probably 16 great grand kids. Plus, it should be considered as per woman, not per couple, since divorce and remarriage with a new set of kids is so common. > [@](#): > > How long have you had health insurance (or should I say how long has your husband supported you on his health insurance)? Actually, until I quit working in 2007, we were always covered under my insurance. Which I had had for 25+ years. > [@](#): > > If I recall correctly, you are in your 50s, so I’m going to guess 20 years? 30? Do you really think not a single child that was born during that time (and thus covered by your insurance company) is now paying the taxes that keep your checks coming? We were talking about babies born now, not 30 years ago. However, I also said that I would be willing to give up my SSDI if people would quit having so many children. > [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > So don’t do it. No one is forcing you to buy insurance that makes you feel cheated. It is your choice, and now you are blaming others for choosing poorly. Snort. As I said, there simply aren’t any group policies that don’t cover pregnancy and childbirth, and group policies are far cheaper than private ones. If I am to do the responsible thing and buy health insurance, my best choice is to buy it thru the employers group. However, it would be nice if I didn’t have to pay so much to cover all of these elective injury/illnesses. > [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Look, dude, this is where you lose. Describing any group as “the child bearing lobby” is automatically going to result in people dismissing any rational point you might make. > > I don’t want kids either, but like they say, the children are our future. The fact that _you_ don’t want any is irrelevant; the continuation of the species is slightly more important. Uh, not a dude. And, I never said anything about not continuing the species - we are very far from any worry about that. We could go a generation in the US with no babies at all and it would be a drop in the bucket WRT the human population. But for some reason, most everyone has to have those babies, and they have to be _their_ babies, not adopted ones. So on one hand we have all these kids no one wants and on the other we have people spending thousands of dollars on infertility treatments on the chance they might have a baby with their DNA. > [@](#): > > I guess in some dimly imagined future Americans could stop breeding completely, and we’d maintain our population solely through immigration. Would you prefer that? I doubt it, somehow. I don’t have any problem with legal immigration - I’m surrounded by it. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/health-care-horror-story-13848732/522612)._