Sick, Uninsured Youths Borrow Meds, Go Broke, Inspire Socialism

We are tempted to schadenfreude, having heard young libertarians refer to health care as something only old fogeys need ("the old and sick have some culpability in their ill health. They didn't eat right or excercise"), but we finally cannot blame the youthful subjects of this Times article for finding themselves up sick creek without a paddle, because the twentysomethings who go without insurance "either because their age makes them feel invulnerable or because expensive policies are out of reach" sometimes wind up diseased and broke -- like the receptionist billed $17,398 for diverticulitis treatment at Beth Israel -- or self-treating with "amoxicillin... given to her by a friend." Some say they're trying to avoid illness by "eating rice, vegetables and fruits," and the odds are with them, except when they're not.

The Governor of our broke state is proposing a law to allow parents to claim "children" as health-care dependents up to age 29, which seems financially unsustainable, not to mention an invitation for people to begin their insurance-free sprees in their 30s. This would lean us toward comprehensive government health care if we were not endlessly told that would be socialism of the sort only endorsed by Obama or Hitler. Oh well, there's always the Facebook plan.