[SpamCop-Social] Re: Privacy et al

[Miss Betsy]

"Antoine J. Mechelynck" <antoine.mechelynck> wrote in message
news:b1sqae$3tr$1
> "Miss Betsy" <nobody> a écrit dans le message de news:
> b1s7t6$n8k$1
> [...]
> > A friend of
> > mine (who does have insurance) and who is a devout Christian of the
> > fundamentalist kind said that if we *really* trusted in God, we wouldn't
> > need insurance.  Being a little bit more practical, I wonder if medical
> > savings accounts might work better.
> [...]
> > Miss Betsy
>
> When Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning rod, churches wouldn't put
one
> on their steeples because "they had faith in God". Then lightning started
> striking *only* on the churches because the other buildings were lower
> and/or had ligtning rods.
>

Well, I know that trusting in God will not keep you from illness, but St.
Francis de Sales said that "if God doesn't protect you from harm, He gives
you the strength to bear it."  Relying on insurance to pay all your bills is
contributing to individual irresponsibility  and entitlement.  In my town,
many people have extremely good health insurance plans from the big union
employer.  People can get a new set of frames every year or two whether they
need them or not.  I don't have vision insurance so it is a real decision
whether to get new frames so I don't look dowdy.  I have to do without
something else.  Because my husband was in the military, we have medical
insurance that is very similar to Medicare.  We have to pay part of the cost
so we have supplemental insurance.  Most years we never use it because we
are healthy.  Theorectically I could put that money spent on premiums aside
and would have enough when and if I needed it except that the price of many
medical procedures are so expensive that possibly I would have to go in debt
or not be able to afford it - like Hans Brinker's father and then we are
back to insurance as a practical way to allow everyone access to medical
procedures.  I heard a discussion on NPR this morning that kidney
transplants (that are not covered by insurance) might be more cost effective
in the long run than dialysis (that is covered).   I have read stories of
people who refuse dialysis because of the quality of life, preferring to
die, yet people every day opt for expensive and painful chemotherapy when
the odds are that it will not work.

Is mortality a blessing?  Or is it something to overcome, like smallpox?
Like it or not we are faced with more and more "godlike" decisions
everyday.

Miss Betsy