[VMarcHart]

I thought the healthcare debate would take center court at PO.com. I must be browsing the wrong threads.

Die-off or not, I'm for an aggressive reduction in population, but planned and humane, that is.

http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/september ... finds_.php

45K people dying annually because they don't have access to maintenance healthcare is just plain inhumane. I read once there are 280M pets in the US, from finches to "pet" horses. If we spend $10/pet/year, it's $2.8B, a whole lotta insurance premiums.

I know some believe rich countries will suffer a light die-off, but, (i) we ceased being rich years ago, and (ii) the sums of these small effects will add up to a tsunami die-off. The US has another thing coming.

[seldom_seen]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('VMarcHart', '4')5K people dying annually because they don't have access to maintenance healthcare is just plain inhumane.

[heroineworshipper]

& that's with the medicare tax increases, social security tax increases, prescription drug entitlement, medical, & medicaid. You really think the next tax is going to do the job?

[smallpoxgirl]

You have to take studies like that with a HUGE grain of salt. Observational studies like that FREQUENTLY are not measuring the thing you think they're measuring. In randomized drug trials there is a phenomenon that patients that are compliant with taking their medication, even if they're on the placebo arm, have much better outcomes than the people that don't consistently take their pills. Turns out that people who take their pills on time religiously exhibit other behaviors in their life that make them more healthy. I would suspect there is a large component of that in this study. If a substantial number of people are having to pay for their own health coverage, obviously the people most concerned about their health will end up in that group and they will do much better than the people who aren't concerned about their health. I'm not saying there aren't people who have adverse health outcomes for reasons of coverage, but trying to put a number on it, you might as well get out a Ouija board.