# New Study: 45,000 die in U.S every year from lack of healthcare **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 18, 2009, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-study-45-000-die-in-u-s-every-year-from-lack-of-healthcare/510616 "2009-09-18T17:30:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-study-45-000-die-in-u-s-every-year-from-lack-of-healthcare/510616/41 "2009-09-19T04:02:44Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > I do wonder, though, how many of those 45,000 really died from a lack of insurance or would they have died anyway (even if a short while later) if they actually had insurance. Yeah, there’s that too. That’s the problem with saying simple fact A leads to simply fact B, since there is rarely anything that simple in the world. > [@Gary\_Kumquat](#): > > Theirs is the argument of people who have managed to scrape so very little out of life that they are terrified they might have to share. They concoct bizarre scenarios where having children should only be an option if you earn x per month. Frankly, it’s fucking terrifying. Means based eugenics…how the fuck does anyone argue that without apologising? Huh. Interesting view of what you think my life is…anyway. It doesn’t occur to you that we have been throwing money at “poor” people for decades and more children than ever are born in poverty? Wouldn’t you say that just handing things to people doesn’t work? As for eugenics (is that close enough to Hitler to invoke the law?), I didn’t say that no one can have children unless they earn x per month, not even close. Which of course you know, but what fun is it to not use exaggerations? What I do say is you can have all the children you want _as long as you don’t expect me to pay for them._ It’s as simple as that. Unfortunately, far too many people see no problem with having children they cannot afford, and far too many people see nothing wrong with expecting me to pay to raise them. So they can go on and have more kids they cannot afford. > [@](#): > > I honestly cannot, try as I may, put myself in their shoes. You basically have to be in a position where you’ve achieved enough to scrape a healthcare policy, but so very little that you’re then worried your own entitlement will be diluted through other people being covered. Seriously, how precarious does your own achievement have to be that you become so worried the state might want to look after those less well off than you. Good lord, how old are you? This has nothing to do with entitlement and everything to do with the fact that the government is taxing the middle class out of existence. And since we are getting close to retirement, I am really not interested in being forced to pay yet another tax so that other people don’t have to spend their money. As for entitlement, damn straight Skippy, we are entitled to hold on to our retirement funds and our house. People who cannot be bothered to plan ahead are not entitled to either. > [@](#): > > And that’s where I get confused. You’re finding the intersection point of people who’ve got just enough that they’re terrified their entitlement will be reduced if the state treats others for free, with people who are so narcissistic that they feel anything they have they earned without any luck. Surely that level of failure should be a tiny minority? You truly are making no sense. ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-study-45-000-die-in-u-s-every-year-from-lack-of-healthcare/510616/42 "2009-09-19T04:13:46Z")
> [@torie](#): > > And let’s assume that I were to find a decent insurance policy. What if one of my boys gets sick or injured? What’s to stop them from simply canceling my insurance on a technicality, or deciding that I’m up to my lifetime cap and cut me off? The contract you both agree to. ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-study-45-000-die-in-u-s-every-year-from-lack-of-healthcare/510616/43 "2009-09-19T04:14:37Z")
> [@torie](#): > > Can we please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please just ignore **Curlcoat**? She’s popping up in every single thread about poor people. If I see one more of her gross stereotypes or suggestions that us have-nots should just have abortions/don’t deserve our children, I am going to scream. Ohferchissakes, you know that isn’t true. I know this is the Pit and all, but you could at least stay somewhat close to the facts. > [@](#): > > Seriously, just put her on ignore. You aren’t going to change her mind, or fight ignorance. There’s no point to it but getting people worked up. Have you taken your own advice? I certainly hope so since I really have no interest in listening to how awful it is that I don’t change my mind simply because you tell me to. > [@Enderw24](#): > > Even then it doesn’t make much sense. I mean, I can parse it two different ways. She’s either referring to the “haves” as those with insurance and the “have nots” as those without insurance and saying that by forcing people to pay for insurance we’re creating a wider gap between the two, which is just completely illogical. It sure is. What I am referring to is the government’s attempt to tax the middle class to the point that all we have are poor people (the have nots) and rich people (the haves). Such as the case in Mexico for example. > [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Well see he got married at 18 because he was eager and ready to have sex, but didn’t want it to be pre-marital sex. No one ever taught them about birth control either, just abstinence, so he and his new bride had loving, married, unprotected sex and she got pregnant even though they couldn’t afford it but babies are the best thing ever and they’d all go to hell if she got an abortion so they had a baby instead of an appendectomy and he died. Where in there is a reason why I should pay to give them health insurance and/or raise their baby? If the fundies want to be completely unrealistic, let them pay for insurance and one parent child raising. Where are their parents in all of this? ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_Stream](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@Carol\_Stream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_Stream)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-study-45-000-die-in-u-s-every-year-from-lack-of-healthcare/510616/44 "2009-09-19T04:25:47Z")
> [@torie](#): > > I don’t expect to sit back and have someone else to take care of alllll my responsibilities. Just some of them, then? > [@](#): > > My boys and I are on Medicaid now. I’m starting school on October. Congratulations on starting school, but you’re doing things exactly backwards. Why didn’t you get an education and a better job before you had two kids? Why can’t the kids go on their fathers’ insurance? ---
**Author:** ![torie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@torie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/torie)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-study-45-000-die-in-u-s-every-year-from-lack-of-healthcare/510616/45 "2009-09-19T05:22:16Z")
> [@Carol\_Stream](#): > > Just some of them, then? You’ve successfully managed to miss the point of my entire post. > [@](#): > > Congratulations on starting school, but you’re doing things exactly backwards. Why didn’t you get an education and a better job before you had two kids? > > Why can’t the kids go on their fathers’ insurance? Maybe I am doing things backwards, but real life doesn’t follow a manual. You can get a good education and a good job and still have shit things happen and have to start all over. I did have a good job when I was pregnant with Leo. They cut us and gave our jobs to a call center in Vancouver WA when I was eight months along. My youngest was a surprise (failed birth control). After two traumatic miscarriages, I’m sure as shit not having an abortion to please Curlcoat. I may need help now, but that doesn’t render my children’s existence useless, and ‘throwing money’ at me is doing exactly what it’s supposed to. My husband’s job does not offer insurance, and he works 60 hours a week so we can make it. My husband goes uninsured. He’s going to school after I finish, so in a matter of three years or less, we will be in a position to pay for our own insurance. Our children will be raised well and we will do all we can to ensure they are hard workers and don’t make some of the mistakes we did. Again, I don’t fight for health care reform to get my insurance paid for and worry about nothing. I fight for it so that my children and I will be treated fairly, and I have no problem paying for that to the absolute best of my ability. ---
**Author:** ![Wiggie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/0ea827/32.png) [@Wiggie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wiggie)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-study-45-000-die-in-u-s-every-year-from-lack-of-healthcare/510616/46 "2009-09-19T05:58:42Z")
> [@curlcoat](#): > > People who truly have no money are covered by Medicaid. Not so fast there, partner. There are other requirements that must be fulfilled besides the means testing. For instance, in Texas, if you are between the ages of 21 and 65, you can only qualify for Medicaid if you also qualify for TANF OR you qualify for SSI. So, if you are able-bodied and have no dependents, you get NO MEDICAID even if you have ZERO income. > [@curlcoat](#): > > That leaves us with what? That’s right - people who have money but choose to use it to buy other things. Whoa, again. You’re leaving out another group entirely - those that have no access to a large group plan but have diseases that will prevent them getting individual coverage. Fortunately I live in a state that offers a subsidized risk pool for those people, but the premiums can still be VERY high as you get in the older age brackets - and can be out of reach for anyone not at least middle-class. We’re talking $500-$800 for a middle-aged person opting for the highest deductible available. I’m pretty sure we’re on the same side here, but please be careful with those “facts”. And, yeah, that guy did not die of appendicitis because he had no insurance. If these are the type of deaths that made up the 45,000, well that’s just “gross”. ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-study-45-000-die-in-u-s-every-year-from-lack-of-healthcare/510616/47 "2009-09-19T06:21:12Z")
> [@torie](#): > > What I want is to not have the game stacked against me from the very beginning. > [@](#): > > And no, I will not justify the decision to have my boys to you. I won’t apologize for their existence. I won’t explain how we came to be here. I may need taxpayer help now, but that does not render their existences worthless. Nobody asks you to “apologize for their existence” nor that they are “worthless”. What we do ask is why it is you don’t want the game stacked against you, yet you have at least two children and apparently no worthwhile education. You have stacked the deck against yourself and now you want me to fund a UHC system for you. > [@](#): > > So there you go. I want a fair game, that’s all. I’m willing to buy into a public option, a co-op, whatever. As long as it’s a viable solution, guarantees my boys good care, is reasonably priced, and holding down costs, I’m willing to sacrifice any entertainment costs to buy into it. That’s really great that you are willing to sacrifice your _entertainment_ costs in order to buy subsidized health insurance for your children. Again, why is it that you are expecting people like me to pick up the slack? > [@](#): > > My kids deserve a better future than that, and that is why I fight for healthcare reform. Healthcare reform encompasses a lot of very different things. The only thing I am against is the government requiring that I pay for a universal healthcare system such as Canada and the UK have. I do support insurance law reform however. > [@](#): > > I hope that clears up some of your misconceptions. Not at all since you appear to be pretty typical. Somehow, it’s OK for you to have at least two children living at least partially on the taxpayer, yet it is not OK for me to say that I am sick of paying for those things? Why is it OK for you to choose to have at least two children when you cannot afford to raise them? Why do you expect me to agree that your childrens future must be more important than mine? > [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Its bearers simply can’t accept that there are, in this Greatest Nation on Earth Allelujah Allelujah, people _actually_ dying needlessly of curable ailments, children _actually_ starving because of poverty and neglect, fellow Americans _actually_ struggling to barely to eke out an existence within the world where they’ve unceremoniously dropped. It’s too painful, too unthinkable, assuaged only by the gentle balm of instinctual cognitive dissonance. Oh piffle. I am well aware there are people here that are _actually_ dying and all of that. What you don’t seem to get is that the taxpayer has been handing people things for generations and we have more people actually dying, yadda yadda, than ever before. How about we quit just handing people things? ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-study-45-000-die-in-u-s-every-year-from-lack-of-healthcare/510616/48 "2009-09-19T06:38:23Z")
> [@Wiggie](#): > > …We’re talking $500-$800 for a middle-aged person opting for the highest deductible available… $500 to $800 a year? That ain’t bad, what kind of losers can’t handle that? ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-study-45-000-die-in-u-s-every-year-from-lack-of-healthcare/510616/49 "2009-09-19T06:41:50Z")
> [@torie](#): > > Maybe I am doing things backwards, but real life doesn’t follow a manual. You can get a good education and a good job and still have shit things happen and have to start all over. _Responsible_ real life follows a plan - have you ever had one? Yes, shit happens even to those who plan ahead, but the majority of the people standing around taking taxpayer funded benefits are not those who had a responsible plan. > [@](#): > > I did have a good job when I was pregnant with Leo. They cut us and gave our jobs to a call center in Vancouver WA when I was eight months along. My youngest was a surprise (failed birth control). After two traumatic miscarriages, I’m sure as shit not having an abortion to please Curlcoat. No, what you did was selfishly think only of what you wanted - you wanted another kid, so you went ahead and had that surprise, and then you kept the baby instead of putting him out for adoption. That has nothing to do with your children and everything to do with what you wanted. > [@](#): > > My husband’s job does not offer insurance, and he works 60 hours a week so we can make it. My husband goes uninsured. He’s going to school after I finish, so in a matter of three years or less, we will be in a position to pay for our own insurance. So. Neither you nor your husband has an education but you went ahead and had two children and now complain because you don’t want the deck stacked against you?? > [@](#): > > I fight for it so that my children and I will be treated fairly, and I have no problem paying for that to the absolute best of my ability. FAIRLY??? Are you for real? You think it is fair that you had these two children you couldn’t afford and now want others to help pay to raise? Yaknow, I think this is the problem right here - everyone wants “fair” and no one wants to actually earn anything any more. > [@Wiggie](#): > > Not so fast there, partner. There are other requirements that must be fulfilled besides the means testing. For instance, in Texas, if you are between the ages of 21 and 65, you can only qualify for Medicaid if you also qualify for TANF OR you qualify for SSI. So, if you are able-bodied and have no dependents, you get NO MEDICAID even if you have ZERO income. It might actually be that way here too - I know many states couldn’t care less if you drop dead if you have no children. > [@](#): > > Whoa, again. You’re leaving out another group entirely - those that have no access to a large group plan but have diseases that will prevent them getting individual coverage. We don’t have to have a UHC in order to deal with that, tho I’m not sure how big a group that is. For one thing, group insurance offered thru employers are more or less no longer allowed to deny based on pre-exist. > [@](#): > > I’m pretty sure we’re on the same side here, but please be careful with those “facts”. They weren’t facts, they were generalizations. One of the big issues with this is that there are so few actual facts available. Such as this “45,000 die in the US every year due to lack of healthcare” - what does that mean? All of them were denied coverage? All were completely unable to afford coverage? All of them would not have died if they had insurance? Every time some bleeding heart comes up with some study that “proves” that tens of thousands of people are dying in the street because they can’t get insurance, all we see is that they didn’t have insurance. No mention of _why_. > [@](#): > > And, yeah, that guy did not die of appendicitis because he had no insurance. If these are the type of deaths that made up the 45,000, well that’s just “gross”. They probably are, at least a goodly number. ---
**Author:** ![starwarsfreek42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e56c9b/32.png) [@starwarsfreek42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/starwarsfreek42)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-study-45-000-die-in-u-s-every-year-from-lack-of-healthcare/510616/50 "2009-09-19T07:06:41Z")
> [@curlcoat](#): > > People who truly have no money are covered by Medicaid. Wrong. I have been unemployed for a couple of months, and have been receiving $147 in unemployment compensation a week. No other income. My utilities have been cut off once or twice, my phone has been cut off multiple times, and I’ve lived on beans and ramen for the entire time. I am not eligible for Medicaid. I know this, because after a recent ER visit, for which I was charged $1700+, I was instructed to apply for it and did and was rejected. The woman told me flat out that I did not qualify and that I wouldn’t even after the unemployment runs out, unless I got pregnant. Read that carefully now: \*\*I could have zero income, and still not qualify for Medicaid. \*\* Now that I’ve got a job, I’ll be paying that $1700 a little at a time for probably the next year. ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-study-45-000-die-in-u-s-every-year-from-lack-of-healthcare/510616/51 "2009-09-19T07:49:55Z")
> [@Beadalin](#): > > Can we not turn this into yet another **curlcoat** show? We already had an umpteen-page trainwreck with exactly this conversation. Talking sense to crazy: It never helps, and yet it never stops. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-study-45-000-die-in-u-s-every-year-from-lack-of-healthcare/510616/52 "2009-09-19T12:07:29Z")
> [@CannyDan](#): > > Do you really believe that people without insurance – all people? most people? even some smaller but significant percentage of people? – who are without insurance are simply “irresponsible” spendthrifts, throwing their money away on foolish trifles? > > Maroon. Cretin. > > \*sigh… \* A good number of people are, banking on their good health and luck to see them through while they attend to other things. Lest you think I’m talking out my ass, I used to be one of them. ---
**Author:** ![abbeytxs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@abbeytxs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abbeytxs)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-study-45-000-die-in-u-s-every-year-from-lack-of-healthcare/510616/53 "2009-09-19T14:34:40Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > As for the appendicitis guy, that’s a tough one to swallow. My Dad and my brother and a few friends all had it, and the symptoms are quite pronounced and painful. How do you ignore that? You might be surprised what you can do if the outcome of your actions would financially ruin your family. One of the things that really annoys me about the “go to the ER they have to treat you anyway” crowd is this notion that you go to the ER, tell them you don’t have insurance, they treat you, pat you on the head and send you home. Doesn’t work that way. They will treat you, however, they also will send you the bill. Like any bill, if you don’t pay it, your credit is ruined and the debt doesn’t go away. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-study-45-000-die-in-u-s-every-year-from-lack-of-healthcare/510616/54 "2009-09-19T16:16:18Z")
I’ve read posts (not here) by stalwart conservatives who said, ‘Just give them a fake name and address!’ Yep. These typically ‘law-n-order’ types are advising people to commit fraud and theft – to say nothing about complications that may occur from previous medical conditions, which the ER doctors won’t be able to look up under your false name. (Not that they necessarily can if you give them your real name.) ---
**Author:** ![CannyDan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cannydan/32/548_2.png) [@CannyDan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CannyDan)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-study-45-000-die-in-u-s-every-year-from-lack-of-healthcare/510616/55 "2009-09-19T16:28:40Z")
> [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](#): > > A good number of people are, banking on their good health and luck to see them through while they attend to other things. > > Lest you think I’m talking out my ass, I used to be one of them. **Airman Doors** , I am happy to believe you-- I used to be “one” as well. But I, and presumably you, rolled the dice and came up lucky. I might just as easily have stepped off a curb and been hit by a truck. Sure, an ER would have cared for my immediate injuries, but in a ward, possibly (depending on location) receiving less than optimum care and resulting in a less than optimum outcome. Or I might have become infected with some exotic disease or infested with some nasty parasite as a consequence of my close contact with wildlife. Symptoms might have taken years of nagging discomfort before developing into full blown disease, and I would not have had early diagnostics, nor acute care, nor possibly life long after care. ERs just don’t do those things. Had any of these or a million other eventualities come to pass, I almost certainly would not be comfortably typing these words. I might be homeless, or institutionalized, or dead. So might you. Lack of insurance already costs society a heavy price. We pay this price via costs hidden in every product and every service we buy. Some percentage of the uninsured turn out lucky, like Airman Doors and I. Some other percentage do not. Any actuary could attach real numbers, and we could perhaps then argue substantively about them. Some people, not given to mouth foaming and artificial hysteria, are doing so already. It appears right now that the societal cost of the present system, in money and monetary equivalents, is greater than the cost of providing universal care would be. The best form of universal care to gain the greatest societal benefit at the lowest cost is still amenable to genuine debate. But for \*\*curlcoat \*\*to characterize your choice and mine as reasonable and intelligent because we got away with it, and characterize someone else’s similar choice as irresponsible because they did not is disgusting. ---
**Author:** ![MissIntent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/97f17d/32.png) [@MissIntent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissIntent)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-study-45-000-die-in-u-s-every-year-from-lack-of-healthcare/510616/56 "2009-09-19T17:44:33Z")
> [@Carol\_Stream](#): > > Congratulations on starting school, but you’re doing things exactly backwards. Why didn’t you get an education and a better job before you had two kids? But wait, I’m doing just that! I’m going to school full time and working part time. I want to finish my education before I have kids. Except I make about $12k a year, because I only work part time (One of my classes recommends 20 hours a week in study time. I’m taking more than just that class). And I spend about $1100 a year on health insurance and prescriptions, if I don’t get sick, injured, anything. As long as I’m completely healthy, I pay nearly 10% of my income out in medical expenses. God forbid I get sick, because my insurance frankly isn’t that good. And this insurance is through school, so if I got REALLY sick and had to drop out, I’d lose it. Yup, good system. Hope I win this roll of a dice. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-study-45-000-die-in-u-s-every-year-from-lack-of-healthcare/510616/57 "2009-09-19T18:05:03Z")
CURLCOAT makes it very clear. He/she does not care about your health care or lack of it. It does not matter if you live or die. What matters is whether it costs CURLCOAT money. That is what is important. ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-study-45-000-die-in-u-s-every-year-from-lack-of-healthcare/510616/58 "2009-09-19T18:29:59Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > CURLCOAT makes it very clear. He/she does not care about your health care or lack of it. It does not matter if you live or die. What matters is whether it costs CURLCOAT money. That is what is important. What percentage of your present disposable income would you be willing to give to make sure everyone was insured? ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-study-45-000-die-in-u-s-every-year-from-lack-of-healthcare/510616/59 "2009-09-19T18:35:21Z")
> [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](#): > > What percentage of your present disposable income would you be willing to give to make sure everyone was insured? Personally? Whatever it would take. Of course, not being a conservative, I don’t assume this would equal 50% of my disposable income, so maybe I’m naive. ---
**Author:** ![CannyDan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cannydan/32/548_2.png) [@CannyDan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CannyDan)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-study-45-000-die-in-u-s-every-year-from-lack-of-healthcare/510616/60 "2009-09-19T18:37:37Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > CURLCOAT makes it very clear. He/she does not care about your health care or lack of it. It does not matter if you live or die. What matters is whether it costs CURLCOAT money. That is what is important. Oh, well, since you put it that way then, I withdraw my objection. Sorry if I mistook what is \*\*\*really \*\*\*important. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-study-45-000-die-in-u-s-every-year-from-lack-of-healthcare/510616.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-study-45-000-die-in-u-s-every-year-from-lack-of-healthcare/510616.md?page=4)