Subsidizing Stupidity

Avert your eyes; I am about to rant.

Universal health care is one of those ideas that makes its supporters feel wonderfully egalitarian. Nice warm fuzzies all around. To be sure, it is perilous to be without health care in this country, and for those with genuine medical need, receiving competent medical care should not come only at the price of bankruptcy.

But health care is a responsibility, not a right. People who insist on treating it as a right instead of a responsibility are part of the reason why we have a broken health care system. I know some of these people, and the following rant is directed at one of them in particular.

I know you think otherwise, but guess what? You are not entitled to my tax dollars to pay for your emergency room visit if you...

1) think energy drinks, coffee, and doubleshot espressos are an adequate substitute for food, and

2) have previously had heart palpitations while on a diet heavy in the aforementioned liquids, and

3) are currently having heart palpitations while on a diet heavy in the aforementioned liquids.


You are entitled to...

1) modify your diet to exclude the offending beverages. (Ideally you would have done this the last time you had this problem. Or the time before that.)

2) lay down until your heart stops racing. (Breathe deeply while you're at it.)

3) pay for your own emergency room visit and extensive testing. (The end result? You have a sensitivity to caffeine. Shocking.)

You wouldn't presume to come to me and ask me for money for that emergency room visit. (Actually, knowing you, I take that back.) Yet somehow because my money was separated from me via the mysterious process called 'taxes', funnelled around by this thing called 'government' into something called 'state-sponsored health insurance for the uninsured', you feel entitled to run to the doctor at the drop of a hat.

Thankfully, I have private health insurance at the moment, though there were several years when I went without insurance altogether. As a participant in private health care, I realize that the number of doctor visits I clock in a year is reflected in the premiums that everyone who participates in my plan pays. Unfair though it may be, we all pay for the poor health choices of those with whom we share insurance. Sadly, this seems not to elicit a spirit of cooperation that would collectively lower our premiums, but rather a 'I'm gettin' mine' attitude. And now I have to watch this attitude suck up tax dollars.

I have watched you and yours run to urgent care centers simply because they are there and you could. My tax dollars paid for it. In most cases it was not medically necessary that the condition be treated immediately, rather than waiting for a regular doctor's appointment. If you had had to pay for the visit, you would have 1) known the difference in cost between an urgent care visit and a regular office visit, and 2) exercised some basic common sense before seeking medical treatment. But because insurance is paying for it (and possibly compounded by the fact that you are not paying for the insurance), all considerations of cost go out the window.

Our health care system is broken in part because we are not responsible medical consumers. We live much less healthy lives compared to the people in other countries where universal health care is provided, despite adequate education on health and nutrition. Sickness is something we flaunt to one another, perhaps because it gives permission for sympathy to be extended to us. An office visit with a doctor is no longer the option of last resort for many common ailments, but rather a 'necessary' validation of common sense. Of all the reasons I hear for the high cost of health care, the one thing I never hear discussed is excessive and unnecessary use of the system. Perhaps this isn't a large factor in the price of health care, but it's a damn annoying one to have to witness.

Health care is a responsibility that starts with the individual, not the doctor. As such, it is irresponsible to expect others to absorb the cost of your poor health choices. Here's an idea - If 9 out of 10 doctors would agree that your predicament/visit was 1) unnecessary, and/or 2) the result of blatant stupidity on your part, you shouldn't expect health insurance - private or public - to pay for it.