Sometimes our opinions should be kept to ourselves, especially when we do so in person. I found out first hand that some people, probably more than I realize, feel that people should be entitled to health insurance regardless of how they live their lives. I'm not so sure that I agree. And I base my opinion on the fact that our health care costs are killing our small businesses, and they are placing a huge burden on the larger companies, and that the vast majority of those costs are related to life style diseases. That is, diseases that are directly related to how people live their lives. Smoking and its related diseases are the number one killer in the United States. Obesity and its related illnesses are a close second. The two greatest killers are costing this country hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Annually! That's like every year!
So, the person I was sharing my opinion with told me that I was living in a small, compassionless world. Compassionless? Enabling people to continue smoking and eating themselves to death by throwing money at the results of their lifestyles vs. requiring them to take responsibility for themselves, to me, is compassionless. Ah, but he wasn't that mad yet. I guess he thought he had me by insulting me personally. I was okay with that, because that usually means he had no more ammunition for the topic itself. So far, what we had was a difference of opinions.
But...when I likened health insurance to, say, auto insurance or homeowners insurance, and said, "So, do you think that people who continue to have wrecks or drive drunk should keep their auto insurance? Or should homeowners who smoke and cause multiple fires in their home or otherwise cause damage to their homes also keep their policies?" Thinking I'm on a role, I just had to continue, especially after seeing the stunned look on his face. "Wow, so would you be willing to have your auto or home insurance skyrocket, so that these people who take advantage of their policies can continue to keep them?"
Well, I guess that's when I crossed the line. He turned red in the face, and then stood up and said, "I will not sit here and listen to this garbage!" The he left. And so did my friend.
I did feel bad for being so adamant about my position. Even if he was just as adamant about his position, it was not important enough for me to be right, to embarrass him and my friend. Not one to use excuses, but I feel compelled to offer two. One: never drink wine right after a root canal. Yes, silly me. I had just left the dentist's office and went directly to a wine bar to meet a friend. Two: Realize that not everyone is an ideal weight coach and a Smoking and Neural Association (SNAP) Facilitator who researches topics related to cost of lifestyle diseases on a daily basis.
Some people, like this man I argued with, truly care, but they just get overwhelmed by the issues, and throwing money at problems really seems like the easiest thing to do. But! It is the wrong thing to do. We need to make changes to prevent and reverse the problems, not just try to fix the symptoms of those problems.
And that's all I have to say about that for now. I will keep my opinions to my blog. I still feel bad, but I haven't changed my position. As for my friend? I haven't seen her since. No, it wasn't worth arguing the point at all.
