Yes, Amos, I can.
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My shoulder surgery, according to the EOBs we've received so far, cost in excess of US $27,800. Of that, we will have to pay less than $400 and the insurance picked up the rest.

If I had not had the surgery I would have eventually ended up with a left arm I couldn't raise above shoulder high. In addition to making surrendering difficult, I would have found it hard to hold a job, especially one that required manual labor -- digging a ditch, for example, or roofing a house. I won't even mention hugging a child or other loved one.

I could have elected to have the VA do the surgery, in SLC at the VA Hospital. That's only because I'm a "disabled" veteran. Someone who served and got out without a "disability" couldn't get that.

In addition to the surgery there is the tries made for 10 months to fix the problem with less radical methods. Right now, probably $30,000 has been expended on my left shoulder and physical therapy is ongoing.

Let's just let the poor, the uninsured, the uninsurable, die. What the hell do they ever contribute? Take someone who has to live in powered chair, so crippled up he has to even use a special thing to speak: do you think he's going to make some sort of contribution to astrophysics or something? Or that a guy in a wheelchair could be President of the US or some lunger could end up on Mt. Rushmore? They'd cost us too much -- let 'em die.