[74-911]

I guess I'm just confused by you "compassionate conservatives". Bush and his fellow compassionates pushed through Medicare Part D which subsidizes presecription drugs for ANYONE over the age of 65 (regardless of their income or wealth). This rather complicated program is projected to cost minimally 750 BILLION over the next ten years, many think it will be much more. And who benefits the most: the drug companies (you know, those people who make all those big contributions to the politicians). And the govt. can't even negotiate for lower prices with the drug companies, we pay full tilt. The estimate is the cost would be $300 Billion less if the prices could have been negotiated.

And let's take it a step further. Anyone 65 and over qualifies for Medicare. It makes no difference how much money you have. So based on the postings here, I assume most of you think we should do away with Medicare. Those people who need it just didn't understand personal responsibility and should have saved more money so they could afford that prostrate operation when they were 82.

The SCHIP was meant to insure the children of the more or less working poor. That is people on welfare don't even fit into this. As I understand it, a family of 4 making 64K would qualify. What defines the income of the working poor? Kind of depends on where you live but you have to set a cutoff somewhere.

I hope none of you ranting about this being socialized medicine are ever put in a position of not having medical insurance (and it can happen). As to someones comment about having a health spending account in case of not being covered for a period of time: You obviously have not been in a hospital or to an emergency room lately.