Boater wrote:
Tom Francis - SWSports wrote:
On Thu, 13 Nov 2008 08:38:41 -0500, Boater
wrote:

One more time: most retirees on fixed incomes cannot afford to lay
out $2300 for necessary surgery. You're a rich retiree. Your
perspective is not relevant to retirees who are trying to decide
whether to buy food or medicine because they cannot afford both.

It's called personal responsibility - something that is sorely lacking
in post-modern society.

However, let's take your posit and extend it a little bit. Why should
the working union man who retires have to rely on the public dole for
health care? Why can't he rely on his Union to help him - he was a
Union man his entire life, made a good living, maybe lived to his
economic ability without saving for future rainy days - he lived the
good life with the Union, why not rely on the Union to help him
continue that life?


What if he didn't have a pension through the union?

What if the pension he had through his union was very small?

What if the employer with whom his union negotiated a pension
completely or partially welched on the pension and he's only getting
part of what was agreed to, and only because of the pension guarantee
agency? That happens frequently.

Or are you saying retired union members without pensions should be able
to have their health care paid through the general fund of the union?

Or maybe he did save enough, but he's been nearly wiped out by recent
medical bills in his family.

Most middle income retirees are not that "Fixed" well enough to be able
to handle the costs of serious surgery or an extended hospital stay.

In many cases, being flatlined by medical expenses when you are retired
has very little to do with "personal responsibility."



What if the union leaders blew all of his "pension" on coke in the 80's?