text: I enjoy my health coverage, being covered by Medicare and a retirement plan. However, please don't exaggerate the results of having no health insurance. I grew up poor and in a community in which absolutely NO ONE had medical insurance, including our family of nine (six kids and one grandmother). For example, I grew up in the Mayor Wright Housing and almost all families poor but not on welfare, like ours, had no insurance. In our family we did not see a doctor for colds, flu, red eye, childhood diseases (e.g. measles). Of course we treated ourselves for cuts and bruises and sprains. When a kid, If I got an abrasion or cut, I went home splashed on merthiolate or mercurochrome and a band-aid and went out to play again. Maybe the communities in which I lived were just plain lucky, but not one family came close to facing acute financial hardship due to medical expenses. That was a rarity even in poor communities. Of course, back in those days medical care was not expensive as today....