In article , HeyBub wrote:
Don Klipstein wrote:
In , HeyBub wrote in
part:

The following active duty military personnel do not have insurance:

Army - 543,000
Marines - 158,000
Navy - 335,000
Air Force - 330,000
Total: 1,366,000

We're up to about 25 million already without even considering those
who decline to enroll in an available insurance program.

Is that not 1,366,000 covered by the gubmint, no more inunsured than
those on Medicare and Medicaid?


Another difference is that between health "insurance" and health "care." The
military provides "care" but not "insurance" (likewise for cancer patients
on death row).

The absense of universal health "insurance" may or may not be a problem; the
absence of "care" would be. So far, no one has been able to quantify the
absence of "care."

What happens to a soldier who just enlisted or who just re-enlisted
or just accepted a promotion in a military carreer, and then came down
with pancreatic cancer or malignant melanoma or a heart problem?

Meanwhile, soldiers getting hit with bullets on the field or at their
bases or at military quarters do not get hospital bills for bullet wounds
that they survive. Those quartered at military facilities or deployed
on the field or abord Navy ships get cared for if they get injured in
vehicle crashes (with exception for off-base recreation) - without even
needing to pay for car insurance or travel insurance.

And if Joe Sixpack or James or Joan 40-Ouncer gets maligant melanoma,
pancreatic cancer or heart trouble or a brain tumor, while making suppose
$10 per hour, who is supposed to pay for this? In all prosperous
democracies other than USA, low-paid working folk do not have a special
right to stick the taxpayers with the tab, and the gubmint does not spend
higher percentage of GDP on healthcare than USA does (even excluding
employer constributions to health insurance premiums of most gubmint
employees).

(I use lots of sunblock, keep my body fairly lean, don't smoke, am
hawkish to get my dermatologist to examine and if necessary remove
suspicious skin lesions, and I have diet and exercise to such an extent
that my LDL "Bad Cholesterol" is only 66% of my HDL "Good Cholesterol".
What are my rewards? To live longer covered [not fully] by Medicare and
hope that I am not bankrupted first?)

- Don Klipstein )