Yet if it were a $20,000 car with some phat rims, she would do whatever it took to pay it off.

Bad things happen to people. It’s your responsibility to plan and save for these things. It’s not my responsibility to pay for your misfortune. Think about it, how am I supposed to pay for my problems if I have to pay for your’s?

First, if you actually had a friend with sickle-cell, you would know that there are special programs for its victims. If you want to have an actual clue, you might start your research here.

Next, regarding your imaginary rehab patient, you might want to polish your story a little. It contains so many internal contradictions that it’s hard to read it without laughing.

Finally, you might want to ask yourself this question: If my position on health care has any substance, why do I need to create cock-and-bull stories to support it?

Only in a for-profit system can a health provider err on the side of providing less care instead of more care than necessary. Has the author ever been denied health insurance because of a pre-existing condition, say sickle-cell anemia, high blood pressure, etc? Has Ms. Pipes ever had to purchase her own health insurance in the states here and been denied because of a pre-existing condition?

God forbid Ms. Pipes even think of bringing her mother here to die. I saw my insuranceless brother have to choose between getting root canals and crowns to take care of his rotting teeth for thousands of dollars or having them yanked for a couple hundred. Which do you think he chose? Do you think he would have had to make that choice in Canada?

I saw my 73-year old father literally get kicked out of a physical therapy unit where he was staying for stroke rehabilitation because his insurance company, not-so-coincidentally bearing the same name as the hospital he was in determined he’d had enough rehab (a few weeks), despite the fact he was improving in every aspect. They erred on the side of getting him less care. He shortly thereafter had another stroke, this time a deadly hemmorhagic one and persisted in nursing home care with less and less therapy until he was on his last legs. That’s when he finally qualified for hospice care.

My friend, who has sickle-cell anemia and no health insurance had a crisis. For one day in the hospital and one emergency room visit, she is now the proud owner of a 20,000 hospital bill that she has no way of paying off.

You wanna talk about a “dehumanizing system of triage” and “actuarial calculation”? That’s precisely the bane of the insurance companies’ existence in this country, and until they and their billion-dollar CEOs are out of the picture, this country will be home to a ghoulish medical care system that favors profit over patient.