Interesting Read

I'm not really sure if I want Joe Klein to be right or wrong. What I do know is that it tends to suck when you have to go for extended, undetermined periods of time without health insurance, which I am currently doing along with 49,999,999 other people in this country. It may not be something I consciously worry about every day, but when the thought crosses my mind that if I were in a car accident, hit by a bus, or even just fell and broke an arm or a leg, I'd be stuck with a medical bill I would spend the next 5 years paying off. It's a sad state of affairs when people who know I don't have insurance see that I still keep my old insurance card in my pocket.

"I carry it around," I explain, "so that if I ever end up in the emergency room and they check to see if I have an insurance card, they'll find one and do whatever is necessary to save my life. I figure by the time they get around to running the numbers to check if I actually have insurance, I'll have already received the care I need."

Scummy thing to do? Yes, I suppose. But so is leaving 50 million living, breathing human beings with no way to reasonably pay for medicine and healthcare needed to survive. Seems to me that I'm just doing my part to put the screws to a system that does nothing but screw me.