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Thu Apr 5 23:46:05 BST 2007

Dr. Mattox,

While I agree with you almost 100%--don't you believe that insurance costs are also out of control--to the point that a lot of people just cannot afford them. Your "fix" is just the tip of the iceberg--we also need insurance reform as well as tort reform--it is all intertwined. 

-----Original Message-----
From: trauma-list-bounces at trauma.org [mailto:trauma-list-bounces at trauma.org] On Behalf Of KMATTOX at aol.com
Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2007 3:01 PM
To: trauma-list at trauma.org
Subject: Re: [ccm-l] Employment and benefits manipulations

In a message dated 4/5/2007 3:48:23 P.M. Central Daylight Time, thoran at sarah.br writes:

Of the  30 -40 million US uninsured how many are the fast driving drug addicts, or  lazy, obese cigarette smokers whom you abhor and how many of them are 
ordinary  folks, the people who are apparently easy for you to dismiss , the   
working poor, in jobs that need filling but just don´t get paid very well , certainly not enough to part with 1,200 a month...  maybe the  receptionist or the cleaner or the guy in the parking garage, people who just  do NOT appear on your radar because they do NOT read a novel a week, do NOT  know the right people, do NOT belong to the right organizations, did NOT go to  the best schools. Never mind Dr. Crippens friend but what about the disabled,  the folks in the other car, the unemployed, the unemployable, good cannon  fodder but No FREE LUNCH. Never mind that the free lunches are served up in  corporate board rooms every where, provided by the moms and pops investing in  the great enterprises that won't provide health  insurance.

In every society, and especially at the local level, provisions are made  for 
the kind of persons you cite above.   Many local good examples  exist.   
These same individuals do not have state sponsored lawyer  aid, housing aid, 
church aid, food aid, family counseling, cell phones,  etc.   Why must or should 
health care be any different.    MANY MANY of the persons you cite above CHOOSE 
to not have health dollars  available in order to pay for cell phones, send money back to family in another  country, have a late model car, drink alcohol every day, go to cock fights, and  have somewhat expensive watches and designer 
glasses.   I see them  every day, and then they expect FREE medical care.   
WRONG.  One  cannot have it both ways.    If they go to church, the priest  
EXPECTS them to put something in the collection plate and even pay for some of their absolution by giving to the church (up to and greater than 10% of their  
income).   If they need to go to court, they must pay for an  attorney.    

I have NO problem for fairness with a prorated calculation of a discounted bill based on disability, inability to work (real, and not just a matter of a created social welfare state to pay someone NOT to work), and a feeling of responsibility for ones own services, whatever they might be.  It is not  the state or the employers responsibility to assure that everyone is provided  all creature comforts from the cradle to the grave.  That is a family and  an individual responsibility.  The governmental responsibility is to  protect, NOT 
PROVIDE.    

We in every society MUST also address the HUGE profits from insurance companies, HMOs, and hospitals whose overhead and payments to upper level  
management and stockholders are obscene.    The persons who have  been unfairly 
burdened with the financing of individual health care has become  the employer, and 
that is the most unfair of all  systems.     

Kenneth L. Mattox, MD
Houston

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[ccm-l] Employment and benefits manipulations