Brad DeLong>I would be dead at 5 of pneumonia without antibiotics, so my take on this issue is rather... extreme
And as one born three months premature, 2 pounds 15 ounces, delivered at Fitzsimmons hospital at Lowry Air Force Base outside Denver and stuffed in an incubator for two months to fatten me up a bit, I'm grateful for high-tech medicine such as it was back in '61. Imagine the cost to my folks if If the bill hadn't been paid by the USG.
That's the plus side.
On the negative balance sheet, my Dad was exposed to asbestos at Lowry (plus on USN and USAF bases, battleships/carriers and an auto body shop he worked at briefly as a teenager) http://www.google.com/search?q=asbestos+Multinational+Monitor+ and other toxics at Lowry. It's a EPA Super-Fund site now. http://www.westword.com/issues/2001-04-12/feature.html/1/index.html (By Eileen Welsome who received a Pulitzer for reportage that led to her book, "The Plutonium Files." 3 part series.) He has cancer, in remission, has to lug around a damn oxygen tank.In a big lawsuit, other side has 40 lawyers representing such behemoths as General Electric and W.R.Grace. http://www.motherjones.com/web_exclusives/features/news/grace.html Michael Pugliese