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Originally Posted by 1967 R50/2
So, in summary, it sounds like people are peeved because the US healthcare system is somehow unfair, and that under a Universal Health Insurance system everyone would be equal. In theory I can see this being true.
However, the reality is, that when it comes to health, we ARE NOT equal.
I go to the gym 4 days a week, don't over eat, don't smoke and rarely drink. I have never done drugs. Meanwhile my fellow Americans are the most obese country on earth.
I think under these conditions, Universal Health Insurance could be extremely unfair to me, or to anyone who takes an active interest in their health. If anything it only gives companies incentive to drop coverage...after all you are already insured by the gov't.
So until, people stop smoking, drinking, and eating too many Doritos.... I just can't get behind any universal plan.
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You may be in for a very unpleasant suprize. Your lifestyle will not protect your from your genes. You could come down with lung cancer (even if you were never near a cigarette), lupus, cancer of all kinds, diabetes and on and on. Some people are blessed, like George Burns, smoking stogies at age 100, it wasn't his lifestyle that made him live that long. Then closer to home there is my gg grand mothers, g grandmothers, grandmother, mother. All have lived to mid 90's and they all ate bacon every day, pig knuckles, real butter, whole milk, drank like a fish, and so forth. They were overweight, but did not have diabetes. Same for most of my grand fathers. Going back over 900 years. Exception, a grandfather, son of a man that lived until 95 and a mother that also lived till 95, his grandmothers family had all died of cancer at age 50 or so. Same for all his children (my father and aunts). I am still here at 59 and so are my cousins in the same genetic path. One is a cancer surgeon at Fox Chase, Harvard medical degree. He knows that it is genetic and he is at the same risk as I am.
Lifestyle choices can make a difference, but they may not be as big as you are expecting.