20100106

Obama's Stash

Dear  Sirs:

    "During my last night's shift in the ER, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient with an expensive shiny gold tooth,  multiple elaborate expensive tattoos, a very expensive brand  of tennis shoes and a new cellular telephone equipped  with her favorite R&B tune for a ringtone.. Glancing  over the chart, one could not help noticing her payer status: Medicaid.. She smokes more  than one costly pack of cigarettes every day  and, somehow, still has money to buy beer. 

    And  our Congress expects  me to pay for this woman's health  care? Our  nation's health  care crisis is  not a shortage of  quality hospitals, doctors or  nurses.  _It is a crisis of  culture_ ~ a culture in  which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on  vices while refusing to take  care of one's self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance..  A culture that  thinks _"I can do whatever  I want to because someone else will always take care of  me"._  Life is really not that hard. Most of us reap  what we  sow.  Don't you agree? -- STARNER JONES,  MD, Jackson ,  MS  * *