[jjfine]

I thought that was an interesting point as well. I'm having trouble coming up w/ full argument but one point is that there's huge differences btwn food and healthcare.

When you only have $20 to spend on food for the week, you don't need to go to the government for help. You can cook and eat rice and beans all week. That's what I did in college.

The difference w/ healthcare is there's no rice and beans of cancer treatment or ER visits. People aren't regularly given a decision between death and going to a fancy restaurant.

[deelowe]

It's pretty easy to institute the life changes needed for you to go from not having enough food to survive on a daily basis to having enough to survive.

You can't go from not having enough to treat cancer to having enough to treat cancer easily or ever in many cases. This is like saying FEMA should be a for profit institution. Getting cancer is no different than having a tornado level your home. No amount of picking yourself up by the bootstraps will get you back on track. This is why we have a social safety net. Healthcare is no different.

[SmellTheGlove]

See my reply to the same comment. And I think the rice and beans of medical treatment is to pour some 'tussin on it.