Your tax dollars is going to help this man

[Galaki]

source

Kenneth is a 55-year-old father of nine who isn't in very good health. He's already undergone one heart attack, has a pace-maker, and underwent triple bypass surgery last month. Unfortunately, the good people of New York are picking up the tab. That's because he's an inmate...

Back in 1996, Pike was convicted of raping and sodomizing a 12-year-old relative. Though he's eligible for parole in 2013, his official release date isn't until 2035. Which means the state of New York has to cover his health bills.

New York doesn't have much of a choice. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that states have to reasonably cover inmates' health care. So Pike's been flown from a prison in Coxsackie to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, where he waits with 49 other patients for a donor heart.

The final tab -- which includes surgery and 7 months in the hospital -- is expected to reach $800,000.

The problem, of course, is that inmates receive much better care than people who never commit crimes and have to pay for insurance on their own or, just as likely, go without coverage altogether.

So what do you think, dearest reader? Pike is expected to die without the surgery. And seeing as how we're supposed to be a humane country, isn't it the right thing to do to save his life?

Then again, the Supreme Court has only ruled that inmates should have generally the same access to medicine as the public. Since about 20 percent of the public doesn't even have insurance, shouldn't the law essentially mean that we should allow 1 in 5 inmates to die, just like we do for law-abiding citizens?