Health or Wealth

I watched the cloture vote last night at 1:00am (officially Monday morning) in the Senate on the way to a Healthcare bill by Xmas.  My prediction was that it wouldn't happen but now it looks eminent (another forecasting error).

With a choice of Health or Wealth - what  do you pick?   "If you have your Health you have everything"  

One way to look at this question is to determine how much you would spend to improve your health (e.g. reduce pain, avoid death, etc.) without insurance.  We know that  with insurance 27% of Medicare's budget goes to people in their final years of life - but that's what happens in the end - your health fails and you spend money.  And let's estimate it takes $50K on average for health care at the end of your life (in 2006 the highest city cost was Manhattan at $35K - lowest Wichita Falls at $10K). 

This becomes the hidden question in the Heathcare Bill.  Can we spend money now to lower the end of life cost and/or the total lifetime healthcare cost of an individual? Should we mandate that you spend your money now to extend your life? (e.g make the Health vs Wealth decision for you).

I like Benjamin Franklin's quote on the subject - "Nothing is more fatal to health than an over care of it"

I wish he had been on the floor of the Senate last night.