>How would you have responded if you had been one of the people surveyed? Do you think the system needs reform?
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>Yes - I think that the health care system needs reform. When Tightline was paying for out health insurance (Andy took a job as gull time permanent staff with a local company in April and they now provide excellent health care benefits for us including vision and dental), we were paying $1000 a month for our health insurance. I just do not think that the government should be in the health insurance business. IMHO, if you want something to cost more and be managed much less efficiently, give it to the government.
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>For one thing, I believe that we could considerably lower the cost of prescription drugs by giving the drug companies a longer term on their patents. R&D is expensive and if we gave them more time to recover their return on investment before allowing the makers of generic drugs to profit on that R&D, the drugs would be cheaper. Andy actually has domain expertise here - before he got into software development, he was a salesman for Smith Kline Beecham.
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It seems counter-intuitive to me that the cost of prescription drugs would drop if it were harder to get generics. The low cost of generics is the only thing making them affordable at all in some cases. Let's say I consider the pharmas among the great gougers of our times. But I have been mistaken before ;-)

>PS -- Sorry, haven't taken that first drink so can't have another. Five days isn't much but it's a start.
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>It would be a great start if you did not keep making the same mistake over and over again. You always have a choice before you take that first drink. Why don't you start using your head and make the right choice for a change? Call you sponsor instead. Only a fool keeps making the same mistake over and over again.
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>I know that we have our differences, but I really do not want to see you drink yourself to death, and from where I sit, it looks that that is where you are headed. If you think that I am being harsh, please know that I am not going to enable you by saying "atta boy!" for your 5 days. Tell me when it has been 5 months or 5 years and then I will say "Atta Boy, Mike!". Believe it or not, I am saying this for your own good.

I believe you. And I wasn't looking for an attaboy, just objecting to your suggestion that I am still in a drunken stupor.

Yes, of course I know I am supposed to make a call BEFORE drinking, and that is something I have taken a stronger vow to do. I really do want to stop. I wouldn't be spending so much time going to meetings if I didn't. They aren't mandatory. (For some people they are, i.e. court ordered after a DUI).

This will probably sound like a copout to you but it really isn't a matter of being foolish or smart. There are plenty of smart alcoholics, in fact it may even skew that way. I don't think people who don't have the problem understand how hard it is to quit. Still, some succeed in doing so. One of the best things about going to meetings for me is being around them. I know it can be done and I have NOT given up.

Don't worry about sounding harsh. I need to hear that. Just try to ease up with the cheap shots, OK?