The Vocabulary of the Anointed

People who do not choose to spend their money on health insurance, but on other things, are not denied "access" to health care by "society." On the contrary, they are often given medical treatment at other people's expense, whether under specific social programs or in various other ways, such as using hospital emergency rooms for things that are not emergencies at all, or which have become emergencies only because nothing was done until a medical problem grew too large to ignore. How often people have chosen to spend their money on things other than health insurance - especially when they are young and healthy - and how often they lack health insurance due to circumstances beyond their control is the crucial question that is sidestepped verbally by speaking of "access." Millions of individuals from families with incomes of $50,000 and up lack health insurance - clearly not because they lack "access" but because they have chosen to spend their money on other things. Choice, like behavior and performance, is often circumvented by the vocabulary of the anointed.

Thomas Sowell -- The Vision of the Anointed, Chapter 7, The Vocabulary of the Anointed