To make a coverage decision doesn't one have to make a medical judgment?

I don't believe medical discoveries are doing much to advance human life. As fast as we create ways to extend it we are inventing ways to shorten it.

But I spent just two calendar years at Cornell University though it was covering more than three years of work and then went to medical school and did become interested in psychiatry and even helped form a kind of psychiatry club in medical school.

Another cause of change one less noticeable but fundamental is the modern growth of population closely connected with scientific and medical discoveries. It is interesting that the United Nations has set up a special Commission to study this question.

We also have a program in place for low income people. A family of four making $26 000 a year can receive medical coverage irrespective of citizenship or what documents.

No one wants to go back to a situation where if you have a pre-existing medical condition you you can be deprived of coverage. No one wants to go back to a situation where if you get seriously ill you can get thrown off your insurance. Seniors don't want to go back to paying more for their prescription drugs.

Today all patients accepted for treatment at St. Jude's are treated without regard for the family's ability to pay. Everything beyond what is covered by insurance is taken care of and for those without insurance all of the medical costs are absorbed by the hospital.

I first wanted to be a psychiatrist. I decided against that in medical school when I discovered that psychiatrists didn't in reality do what they did on TV.

But I contend that if we're providing total medical coverage for every man woman and child in Iraq shouldn't we at least be doing the same thing for every man woman and child in the United States?

Mammograms are really sort of a gift. You can either catch something early or count your lucky stars because nothing was discovered. Either way you're ahead of the game.