See photo  See my take on  Oregon case also a cartoon idea

If we don't do things to control medical expense, especially as the gap between rich and poor grows, the wealthy will be the only ones able to afford health care.  The rest of us might get stuck with an insurance policy that holds down costs by limiting our choice of doctors to an "approved provider" list with only one doctor on it. That one doctor would be Dr. Kevorkian.

* Actually Dr. Kevorkian, of Michigan, was not really the dreaded death doctor that would come out of an insurance company's plan to curb costs by not treating patients.  Kevorkian, the so called suicide doctor, supported assisted suicide.  It would only be applied after careful screening.  He would want to make sure the patient really wanted to die and was suffering from terminal illness.  While assisted suicide is controversial, it is still preferable to having economics determine life and death. 

Think about this when people say that Medicare may be going bankrupt.

Since 8th grade, I have been hearing about an impending NAZI state in USA. 

Freedom of speech curtailed, gay and other non mainstream people rounded up. 

It has not happened.

Freedom of speech is still strong.  Gay people are better off than when I was in 8th grade. 

No NAZI state, but poor people, who have high medical costs, may end up being eliminated.  This is especially true if current trends and Republican spending priorities remain.  In some ways, a NAZI state with a different twist than was predicted.

I do support right to die when the patient and family wish this, but not as a result of budget cuts.

Thought provoking photos by region, by subject, contact.

December 1990
From my letters to the editor

Millions of Americans are losing access to health care as our insurance system only works for higher income people. The so called "right to life" movement should be appalled at this situation, but they say little about it. Instead they fought to prolong the suffering of Nancy Cruzan, the woman in Mount Vernon, Missouri, who was a human vegetable for years while her right to die was battled in the courts.  She should have been allowed to die in peace. 

A movement would be more useful if it focused attention on the fact that some poor people are being turned away from health care. Many jobs offer no medical benefits. 

Most right to life groups will not discuss this issue.  Reforming our health insurance system is a sensitive issue.  Such reforms could lead to more taxes on high income Americans.

Anything that could raise taxes is a political no-no.  It is easier to quibble about where to draw the starting line and the ending line for life.  A big deal is made about drawing life's starting line at conception. Whether human rights begin at birth or conception is a mere technicality. It is a case of quibbling over the letter of the law while missing the spirit of the law.  The spirit of the law says human life is valuable, but this spirit is being violated as long as we do not provide universal access to health care.