Washington Post's Kathleen Parker is a Moron

Kathleen Parker, do you even know what a living will is? No one is putting Grandma in front of a bureaucrat who will decide if she lives or dies.

A living will simply lets your loved ones know what your wishes are regarding your care for a time when you are no longer able to tell them yourself.

Do you want to be kept alive by a respirator? What if your mind is completely intact? Would you want to be kept alive on a respirator then?

How much pain medication do you want?

Do you want CPR even if that means most of your ribs will be broken in the process, as is often the case with elderly people?

Who do you want to make decisions about blood transfusions or other major health decisions?

All a living will does is relieve your loved ones of the burden of guessing what you would have wanted.

National Health Insurance as Competitive Advantage

American business would be greatly benefited by a national health insurance program. Starbucks spends more money on health insurance than on coffee. And that is the ground level each American company starts from in competing with foreign companies. Because all those other nations we are competing with don't saddle their businesses with the costs of health care.

Imagine that expense is taken away from the business itself. Wouldn't that be a relief to the bottom line? And the benefits socially to know that your child won't die from complications from an ear infection or that you can get your leg set if you break it.

That kind of peace of mind is a basic human right, not a privilege.

And let's leave until later how nationalization will bring down costs and standardize treatment.














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Fat, Carbohydrates and Booze

Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture, a paleo-Conservative magazine (essentially Klansmen with Bachelors degrees), has an article this week about the obese. After the usual statistics about obesity in America, the article goes on to attack health insurance as we know it.

Their big complaint is that health insurance subscribers are not given higher premiums based on lifestyle decisions. You know - fat, carbohydrates and booze.

Now that we are breathing on the possibility of universal health insurance, would it be so awful to charge more to the people who will cost the system more by virtue of their choices? No.

This article attacks the political correctness of not penalizing people for being fat, lazy alcoholics. I guess the readership of Chronicles is all fit and non-smoking in their moral superiority.

But - they have a point. The health-conscious among us should not pay higher premiums than others who eat like there's no tomorrow. It is actually basic common sense. The worst drivers pay higher insurance premiums than good drivers. Bad eaters should pay higher health insurance premiums than good eaters. It just makes sense.