Free Breast Pumps And The Cost Of Health Care

[brewer12345]

Oops, sorry, edited my post after you clipped it.
Yep, prosthetic and dentures all address a medical deficit. We agree.

Why are medical insurance costs skyrocketing: Ladies and gentlemen, I give you exhibit A, the multi-hundred dollar taxpayer breastpump. Doesn't treat an illness, but it is very convenient. Every mother gets one. Today's answer to the thousand dollar Pentagon toilet seat.

William Proxmire, where are you when we need ya?

[-]Holy crap is that ignorant![/-]

These types of decisions are usually made on a cost-benefit analysis. Spending beaucoup $$$ on diabetes disease management is a dang home run, cost wise. Does it cost money to do? Yep. Are there sometimes abuses of the system. No doubt. But it is still a home run for whoever is fitting the bill. Same deal with COPD disease management, and I wold be quite shocked if it were not true for anything that increased the incidence of breastfeeding.

As an aside, are you completely ignorant of how hard society has made it to have kids? The best predictor of whether someone will go bankrupt is not job loss, medical issues, etc. It is whether or not they have kids. You want to avoid the Japanese demographic nightmare? Put in place incentives for people to have kids, or at least make it easier. France figured out how to do this, we have not.

 

[brewer12345]

a manual breast pump

What the hell is a manual breast pump? I started to envision a hand cranked apparatus and then forcible jumped my train of thought to a new set of rails because I do not go for that sort of thing.

 

[Brat]

Back in the day there were manual breast pumps that had a bulb that the mother squeezed. Not very effective from a time or production standpoint. Few women used them for long.

I don't have an issue if they want to put a reasonable cap on what can be spent or putting an income rider on medical equipment. What I really want is evidence that they are used.

 

[Brett_Cameron]

I remember spending big buck$ at the time for a breast pump when DS1 was born. No insurance coverage at all and it was a sacrifice money wise but well worth it.

 

[Alan]

Thanks folks, but while this thread is about health, it is at the wrong end of the scale to be associated with FIRE, and is definitely delving into politics....