Why do so many people not have insurance in NOLA. I refer only to this city as it has received the lions share of press while perhaps Mississippi had perhaps more dollar damage than NOLA and certainly a more wide-spread area.
I actually got a lump in the pit of my stomach when GWB announced 200 Billion. Why? The Feds should take care of the public infrastructure,
highways, bridges and water/sewage even though the latter are either the responsibility of the city or are privately owned. If a tornado rips thru a part of Illinois south of Chicago, do we get free money from DC. No! And where were the Feds when thousands and thousands of us lost 90% of our savings when Global Crossing and others went belly up? Again, no bucks!

And in a prelude to your statements regarding "they are poor, they can't afford it", I listened to an interview of a NOLA citizen who said the Feds should take care of him, "I can't afford insurance!"
Then he went on to complain about the Saints not playing in town and that his 'Season Tickets' will be worthless.
Go find out the price of season tickets for most NFL teams.
Antecdotal, I know, but lets wait.

We have created a gigantic 'entitlement community' and we continue to allow it to grow. I never had season tickets to the Bears for several reasons and now realize another reason I didn't- I was foolish and paid for homeowners insurance, maybe sending 4 children thru college and giving heavily to charitable organizations also kept me from having tickets. It sure doesn't pay to be a responsible citizen according to what we see happening. I agree my efforts allowed me to have a lot but if I had not grown up being accustomed to it, then I could be a happy camper depending on the Government to take of things.

One last thing, I can't help but think that the ongoing attacks on the Feds, GWB et.al., is due to what we have seen uncovered, particulary in NOLA. A massive amount of people dependent on the government for much or all of their sustenance.This has grown into a monster thanks to the "Great Society" of LBJ and with the ongoing blessing of a longstanding Democratic regime in both city and state government in Louisiana.