Geez Paul, and YOU complain about my "vitriol"? What did I write, Paul? I wrote that our nation would be far healthier if everyone had health care, as in every other civilized nation and in many second and third-world nations.  Is that vitriol? If that's ideology, it's far more compassionate ideology than yours. And yes, people who think they "made it" 100% on their own are blind to reality. As anyone can plainly see by walking among the afflicted and deranged downtown, what goes around comes around. It affects us all. Your job depends on others, including the subsidized, to make your paycheck.

I'm on Medicare and Social Security because I paid into those programs all my working life, minus military service. I also have supplemental service which has gone up 100% in six years, and part D, which has gone up 150%. In addition, thanks to Bill Clinton, I pay 100$ a month out of SS into Medicare.

I don't need subsidy, I subsidize my own SS and Medicare. Others aren't so fortunate.