Yesterday I was chatting with another cruiser here in Grenada

Yesterday I was chatting with another cruiser here in Grenada. We got around to the topic of healthcare.

The person informed me that *before* Obamacare we had excellent public health care at public hospitals. My eyes bulged out of my head. Yes, he understood that meant only healthcare in the most acute sense, and yes he understood that he was paying for it as taxes. But now he objected to increased premiums on his health insurance as an employer.

He then went on to talk about the excellent care he and his wife had in Panama and how cheap it was.

I agreed enthusiastically, and said, well, yes that is the only true answer - we need national health care.

Then he sharply disagreed, as a republican he could not support any increase of government and was sure that the government would make it more expensive. He wanted to go back to *before* Obamacare where if you could afford insurance you got covered and if not you could go to a "public hospital". I asked him about medical bankruptcies leading the economic destruction to families? He said he had never heard of it.

He preferred that other nation's tax payers pay for national healthcare so that he could use their care, and have none at home so his taxes would not go up.

Originally posted on Facebook on October 30, 2016.