Davids home now: Can there be a right to Medical Care
When I was in medical school, there was no insurance. People got care. Doctors charged and received payment with a direct doctor-patient relationship that was mutually sustainable and satisfactory, medically and financially. Poor people received care through the dedication and compassion of the doctor and community.

I was taught, “Save the widow the farm.” That is, when Farmer Joe comes in with a lung cancer, one might encourage him to undergo extensive, expensive surgery that would require that the farm be mortgaged. However, the results were dismal. After Joe’s death, the widow frequently was unable to pay the mortgage and lost the farm.

Instead, one could explain the situation with compassion and frankness and Farmer Joe and his wife, using the same frugality and value system by which they had otherwise lived, would accept the reality of the situation, a reality that bespoke a meager chance of benefit that was not appropriately affordable. Joe’s plight would be alleviated by all palliative means medicine had to offer. This rational, realistic decision was the norm. Indulgence in futile care to the point of threatening the whole system was not a problem.

This is a great blog post from a retired doctor on what’s gone wrong in health care in the last 50 years or so.

And as I woke up this morning I found it ironic that there are so many people who are just fine with a bunch of white, rich lawyers deciding (and limiting the choices therein) on how a woman can bring a new life into the world, but who would argue with you tooth and nail that she should be allowed to murder that child legally.

FWIW, I’m not at all disappointed that there is open discussion of these issues on my blog. One of the reasons I started the recent series on the Bill of Rights is to openly deal with the state of liberty (or lack thereof) in our nation, and the more opposing discussion I can get, the better.

“…among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Ah but they didn’t really believe all that, did they?