As of about mid-November this 2009, about 1 in 6 Americans has had H1N1 flu. "About 80 percent of those deaths were in people ages 20 through 59, and 45 percent were obese"; "American Indians and Alaska Natives have died from swine flu at a rate four times greater than other Americans... higher rates of diabetes, asthma and other conditions that make them more vulnerable". And a Pennsylvania cat died of H1N1.
I wonder if we will ever realize that getting basic health care to everyone would allow so many more to be productive and contributing to the economy instead of taking from it. Nobody take that as support of the jumblefrack Congress is currently playing with and planning to pass. THAT mess isn't going to get basic health care to very many from what I can tell although it certainly has the potential to restore the equivalent of debtor's prison by criminalizing the lack of health care insurance.
I believe in fundamental American rights but I look at the AVMA website and see some of the extraordinary care some of these pets with H1N1 received and on another blog I enjoy and see people debating how much to spend on pets with some going so far as to say one shouldn't even adopt a pet unless one is willing and able to provide extraordinary care for a pet, encouraging health insurance for pets because they may be injured or become ill and need hundreds or thousands of dollars of treatment and life long extraordinary care. I hear cries for extraordinary pet care at end of life. Then I see that humans are dying for want of a couple of hundred dollars a year in medical care and counseling. Some get extraordinary care to extend dying while others die for want of food and shelter. I see the chasm between the wealthy and poor widening. I remember when humans could get basic medical care for nearly the same prices as veterinary visits which is why so many could afford both human and pet health care.
I don't claim to have the answers but I wonder what we have writhen.