DougR, I'm now a genuine disabled American vet, certified as such by the VA. I have Blue Cross PPO coverage through my job for both me and my wife; as such I pay either $10 or $20 for prescription medicine co-pays and $20 for an office visit co-pay. I can afford this.

I could NOT afford the meds I take were I retired or unemployed. My AO-related diabetes would cost me a lot of money, especially since the VA has (so far) turned down my claim in this area -- not 'Nam, so it's not presumptive, but the DMZ in Korea, where the burden of proof is on the applicant even if you served there during the period that the DoD admits they were spraying AO.

Nor is the service-related hearing loss yet granted -- even though I have a audiology test done in Basic Training that shows no loss, and one did at separation from active duty that shows a medium to severe loss.

My allowed disability is...tinnitus, about which little or nothing can be done.

The City is considering changing the health coverage in the 2009 fiscal year. If they do, it will cost me more. And not just me, a department head -- it will cost the single mothers more, it will cost the sewer workers more, the cops, the firefighters, the bus drivers. My raise will 1.9% next year -- the medical costs to the city went up 19.97%.

And I'm talking about the people who HAVE health care coverage. My nephew turns 19 in November, and unless he's in school he won't have health coverage.... And he's not alone, not by a very, very long shot.

Something has to be done and done soon. Consider this: when a hospital treats someone who doesn't or can't pay, you and I do. We pay in higher medical costs either directly or indirectly by higher premiums (which we might pay directly or through a lower cost of living increase).

WHAT that something is I don't know. Perhaps a sort of "minimum health care safety net" where someone admitted to the hospital would be put into a ward, no television, no phone, just basic health care. Perhaps some sort of national wellness program of mandatory inoculations and nationally-funded smoking cessation programs. Perhaps this program would require you to make minimum payments and if you smoke you pay more.

I don't know the answers, but I can see the problems. And something HAS to be done.