Is risky behavior to be rewarded
with the assurance that its financial consequences will be borne by society?
A motorcyclist named Jason riding without
a helmet crashes and fractures his skull. His injuries require a series of operations
by the finest brain surgeon in the land at a cost of half a million dollars. He
doesn't have medical insurance. Who pays?Louisa becomes morbidly obese by the age of 25, develops diabetes which requires the amputation of both legs, and dies of kidney failure at age 35 after many months on dialysis. Her medical care tops $400,000. She comes from a needy family and has been on Medicaid since she was a child. Who pays?
Tommy takes up smoking at age thirteen, hard drugs at eighteen. He goes into male prostitution to support his habit and becomes HIV positive. He passes it on to a dozen partners. He ends up with AIDS and requires lengthy hospitalization until he dies of cancer. He has no insurance. Who pays? And who pays for all the others he infected?
There are millions of stories like these. People like Jason, Louisa, and Tommy populate our emergency rooms, critical care units, and operating rooms in every hospital in the country. Hospitals don't question the risky behavior of their patients; it's not their job to preach sermons on individual responsibility. And they will get paid either through Medicaid, Medicare, or private insurance. No-pays and shortfalls will be passed on in the form of higher treatment costs. No matter how, society ends up footing the bill. And let's not even get started on higher malpractice insurance and unnecessary procedures to ward off tort lawyers who make a living trolling for victims.
The point is that it all starts with individuals who do not take responsibility for the consequences of their own choices. And it's a system that is perpetuated by the belief that there will always be someone else to pick up the tab.
Is it any wonder that we are becoming a nation of takers?
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