The thesis of resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute Michael Strain. It's Okay to deny life saving treatment to the poor, let them die. Strain compares death from lack of life saving health care to death from working in a petroleum refinery, highway fatalities, or shipyard worker accidents.....and he says in his WaPo Op-Ed "End Obamacare and People could Die, That's Okay" because it's just a normal thing to let people die, we do it all the time, it even has an acronym: “value of a statistical life” (VSL)

You might remember the AEI was a big supporter of Dick Cheney, George W. Bush and the Iraq War. Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fl) "applauds" their work in his new book, American Dreams.  The AEI seems to constantly be scheming of new ways and justifications to get people dead.

Michael Strain, Resident scholar, AEI:

From his WaPo article :

... socially optimal number of traffic fatalities is not zero. Some poor souls die.......Repealing Obamacare could — although wouldn’t necessarily — result in more people dying. But it clearly would not be immoral........Liberals and conservatives agree that in a world of finite resources, some people are going to die of potentially treatable illness and injury.

I don't think "liberals" or anyone with a brain bigger than a walnut would agree. Strain's thesis about the "statistical value of life" and shipyard workers, petroleum workers, traffic accidents and death due to denying "treatable illness and injury" is absurd and grotesque.

Shipyard workers know the risks of their job better than anyone at the AEI, as do dock workers. We all know the risks of car accidents, we can drive less or not at all, take a bus or work from home. In all three instances there is a choice made, where to work, when and what car to drive, what speed, or whether to drive at all. A child or adult needing "treatable life saving care" did not get into that condition due to a choice. 

If the nation cannot afford to pay for saving a poor child's life from a treatable cancer or accident, then rich people's kids shouldn't be saved from the same condition.

The "statistical value of life" doesn't depend on the size of your or your parent's bank account. If the rich not only have the money to "save themselves" but also spend thousands or millions buying off politicians or giving meal tickets for AEI shills like Michael Strain perhaps the nation needs to tax them more. The "value of their bank account" may need to be drastically reduced to even things out.

State policy on what lives are worth, who lives and who dies, has been tried before, it didn't end well. There are reasons other than your health that can be used to rationalize your demise. (Maybe the AEI is working on some more.)

Strain's logic, that not giving life saving medical care is like car accidents, is reminiscent of the 1950's Civil Defense propaganda film "Duck and Cover" which compared nuclear war with natural disasters.

"Duck and Cover" portrayed nuclear war as normal, inevitable, going to happen, and as beyond the ability to prevent as an earthquake. So just shut up and live with it.

Strain does the same with life saving health care.  It's beyond our financial ability to provide, we can't afford it for the poor, their lives aren't worth it, so let 'em die. It's AEI Okay......